Tag Archives: taylor 414ce-NR

LIVE 097 • Kaiminani Slack Key (Alt Take)

Slack Keyear trumpet labs, edwina, kailua kona, Keahole Point, Ki Ho'alu, Kona International Airport, Kona Palisades, Mamalahoa, open g tuning, OTEC beach, peaceful guitar music, Pine Trees beach, Queen Kaahumanu, relaxing guitar, relaxing music, Taro Patch, taylor 414ce-NR, taylor classical guitar, taylor nylon, tranquil song, Wawaloli

Here is an alternate take of my original slack key song, “Kaiminani Slack Key.” The song is named for Kaiminani Drive in Kalaoa, North Kona, on the Big Island of Hawaii. Kaiminani Drive is a main mauka-makai road that connects the Queen Kaahumanu and Mamalahoa highways (lower and upper roads, respectively). It also runs through the Kona Palisades neighborhood where I lived for a number of years as a child. Back then, the neighborhood was less developed, and my friends and I would build tree houses and play in the vacant lots. We could also watch the planes come and go at Kona International Airport at Keahole Point (KOA), and had easy access to then-uncrowded OTEC (Wawaloli) and Pine Trees (Kohanaiki) beaches. Hope you enjoy.

Recorded with a Taylor 414ce-NR (Rosewood/Spruce grand auditorium nylon string) and an Ear Trumpet Labs “Edwina” microphone.

LIVE 093 • Hilo Rag (Dennis Kamakahi)

Live, Slack Keyblue sky guitar, dennis kamakahi, ear trumpet labs, edwina, Hawaii, Ki Ho'alu, mauna loa tuning, nick borho, peaceful guitar, relaxing guitar, Slack Key, sons of hawaii, taylor 414ce-NR, taylor classical guitar, taylor nylon

Hilo Rag is a super fun tune to play from Dennis Kamakahi’s oeuvre. Better known for lyrical songs like Koke’e, Hilo Rag makes me wish I heard more of Dennis’s instrumental work. I was fortunate enough to meet Dennis and son David years ago and see them play, both on stage and in smaller back porch style jam sessions. I remember Dennis dressing sharp in his kind of urban paniolo style, complete with boots and cowboy hat. Like I say, this is such a fun song to play I can never just play it once when I’m running through songs (and will be posting an alternate take on my other channel soon). Hope you enjoy.

Recorded with a Taylor 414ce-NR (Rosewood/Spruce grand auditorium nylon string) and an Ear Trumpet Labs “Edwina” microphone.

LIVE 090 • Moonglow (Alternate Take)

Fingerstyle, Liveacoustic guitar, ear trumpet labs, edwina, open tunings, peaceful guitar music, relaxing guitar, relaxing music, taylor 414ce-NR, taylor classical guitar, taylor nylon, tranquil song

Here is an alternate take of Moonglow, a song I wrote years ago while sitting outside under a full moon. I’ve played it on and off for years, most always on steel string guitar. More recently I tried it on nylon and found it worked quite well – perhaps even better. Hope you enjoy.

Recorded with a Taylor 414ce-NR (Rosewood/Spruce grand auditorium nylon string) and an Ear Trumpet Labs “Edwina” microphone.

LIVE 084 • Kaiminani Slack Key

Slack Keyacoustic guitar, big island, blue sky guitar, blueskyguitar, ear trumpet labs, edwina, fingerstyle guitar, Hawaii, kailua kona, kaiminani drive, kalaoa, Keahole Point, Ki Ho'alu, Kohanaiki, Kona International Airport, Kona Palisades, Mamalahoa, open g tuning, open tunings, OTEC beach, peaceful guitar music, Pine Trees beach, Queen Kaahumanu, relaxing guitar, relaxing music, Slack Key, Taro Patch, taylor 414ce-NR, taylor classical guitar, taylor nylon, tranquil song, Wawaloli

Here is an original slack key song I named for Kaiminani Drive in Kalaoa, North Kona, on the Big Island of Hawaii. Kaiminani Drive is a main mauka-makai road that connects the Queen Kaahumanu and Mamalahoa highways (lower and upper roads, respectively). It also runs through the Kona Palisades neighborhood where I lived for a number of years as a child. Back then, the neighborhood was less developed, and my friends and I would build tree houses and play in the vacant lots. We could also watch the planes come and go at Kona International Airport at Keahole Point (KOA), and had easy access to then-uncrowded OTEC (Wawaloli) and Pine Trees (Kohanaiki) beaches. Hope you enjoy.

Recorded with a Taylor 414ce-NR (Rosewood/Spruce grand auditorium nylon string) and an Ear Trumpet Labs “Edwina” microphone.

LIVE 050 • Moonglow

Fingerstyle, Liveapogee one, classical guitar, ear trumpet labs, edwina, john hardy preamp, love, peace, peaceful guitar music, taylor 414ce-NR, taylor classical guitar taylor grand auditorium, taylor nylon guitar

Moonglow is a dreamy fingerstyle song I wrote years ago while sitting outside under a full moon. I’ve played it on and off for years, most always on steel string guitar. Recently I tried it on nylon and found it worked quite well – perhaps even better. Hope you enjoy.

Recorded with a Taylor 414ce-NR (Rosewood/Spruce grand auditorium nylon string) and an Ear Trumpet Labs “Edwina” microphone.

GEAR 511 • Taylor Nylon Series Guitars

Acoustic, Gearclassical guitar, grand concert, taylor 414ce-NR, taylor classical guitar taylor grand auditorium, taylor nylon guitar

This video gives an overview of Taylor’s nylon stringed guitars, along with some sound samples of my 414ce-NR (sorry, forgot to mention the “R” in the video, which designates the rosewood back/sides). Taylor’s nylon string guitars are not true classical guitars, but rather cross-over nylon models good for a variety of uses. A Taylor nylon guitar would be a good fit if you like the playability of steel string Taylor guitars but want the sound of nylon.
Similar to their steel string models, Taylor nylon guitars are very playable, they work well with alternate and open tunings, and they have a good pick up system (most feature the excellent ES-N pickup) which makes them adaptable for live performance. While you can play some classical pieces on these, they are probably used more for jazz, Latin, Bossa nova, folk, slack key, and anything else you might want try with a nylon flavor.
Playability, versatility, and stage readiness make these guitars great for players looking for a nylon crossover guitar, as well as steel string players looking to add a nylon sound to their palette.

Recorded with a Taylor 414ce-NR (Rosewood/Spruce grand auditorium nylon string) and an Ear Trumpet Labs “Edwina” microphone.

LIVE 044 • Makalawena – Slack Key Guitar

Acoustic, Live, Slack Keyacoustic guitar, altered tunings, anchialine ponds, apogee one, big island, classical guitar, ear trumpet labs, edwina, Fingerstyle, Hawaii, Hawaiian coot, kailua kona, Keahole Point, Kekaha Kai State Park, Ki Ho'alu, Kona International Airport, love, Mahaiʻula Bay, makalawena, mauna loa tuning, open tunings, peaceful guitar music, relaxing guitar, Slack Key, taylor 414ce-NR, taylor nylon guitar, tranquil song

I named this seemingly easygoing yet still restive song after a charmingly beautiful and relatively isolated beach on the Kona Coast. Makalawena is part of that long stretch of white sandy beaches you see right before landing at Kona International Airport at nearby Keahole Point. The beach is generally accessible via a short hike from the neighboring Mahaiʻula Bay section of Kekaha Kai State Park. I remember camping out at Makalawena as a kid, exploring the rare anchialine ponds with their delicate red shrimp, and swimming in the waters of the bay. Today still, the neighboring marsh is a protected nesting ground, home to rare birds such as the Hawaiian coot. The song’s bridge seems to capture the strange sense of converging energies that I feel in special places such as these. Hope you enjoy.

Recorded with a Taylor 414ce-NR (Rosewood/Spruce grand auditorium nylon string) and an Ear Trumpet Labs “Edwina” microphone.

LIVE 041 • Magic Sands – Slack Key Guitar

Fingerstyle, Live, Slack Keyacoustic guitar, big island beach, ear trumpet labs, edwina, fingerstyle guitar, Hawaii, kailua kona, Ki Ho'alu, Magic Sands, open g tuning, peaceful guitar music, relaxing guitar, relaxing music, rosewood taylor nylon, Slack Key, Taro Patch, Taylor 400 series, taylor 414ce-NR, taylor classical guitar, taylor grand auditorium, Taylor guitars, taylor nylon guitar, tranquil song

Here is a slack key style tune I wrote a while back while hanging out around Magic Sands beach in Kailua Kona, Hawaii. I originally wrote it on an old nylon string guitar. While I have a recording of this song played on steel string already posted, I wanted to go back and do a recording with my nylon string Taylor as well. There aren’t many songs I like to play on both steel and nylon, but this is one of them for some reason. Hope you enjoy.

Recorded with a Taylor 414ce-NR (Rosewood/Spruce grand auditorium nylon string) and an Ear Trumpet Labs “Edwina” microphone.

LIVE 027 • Banyan

Acoustic, Fingerstyle, Live, Open Tunings, Slack Keyacoustic guitar, altered tuning, banyan, banyans surf spot, classical guitar, fingerstyle guitar, kailua kona, Ki Ho'alu, kona, mauna loa tuning, open tunings, relaxing music, Slack Key, taylor 414ce-NR, taylor classical guitar, taylor nylon guitar, tranquil song

Banyan (a/k/a “Banyans,” or “Banyan Tree Slack Key”) is a slack key style song I wrote about 10 or 12 years ago on nylon string guitar. I used to play my gut string ‘beach’ guitar around beaches and surf spots in Kona like Magic Sands, Banyans, and Old Airport. For one, the nylon strings aren’t as affected by the salt air, and for two, it was less expensive than my other guitar at the time, a Taylor 310ce that I didn’t want to take to the beach. So I guess this song is partially named after the surf spot, but also after some banyan trees near Magic Sands – some of which have since been cut down – or even those mystical banyan trees in general. Shortly after writing this song, I sold that nylon – an Ibanez, sort of crossover model – though I continued to rotate this and a few other related songs in and out of my set. Until recently though, it had really been a while since I played this song. Once more, owning a nylon string guitar again inspired me to go back and revisit some older material. Hope you enjoy.

Recorded with a Taylor 414ce-NR (Rosewood/Spruce nylon string) and a Neumann TLM 102 microphone.)

All rights reserved to this song, however students may perform the song in public.

You may also like:

LIVE 026 • Keiki Slack Key on Nylon String Guitar

Acoustic, Fingerstyle, Live, Open Tunings, Slack Keyacoustic guitar, altered tuning, classical guitar, fingerstyle guitar, keiki slack key, Ki Ho'alu, open G, open tunings, Ray Kane, relaxing music, Slack Key, Taro Patch, taylor 414ce-NR, taylor classical guitar, taylor nylon guitar, tranquil song

Today’s song is a cover of the Ray Kane classic “Keiki Slack Key” (not to be confused with the Sonny Chillingworth song of the same name). To me, Ray Kane is probably the best example of an ‘old style’ slack key player, and his tracks are always nahenahe. I never got to take a lesson from Ray, though I did get to speak to him and his wife Elodia on the phone once, not long before he passed – a cherished memory. Keiki Slack Key is one of the first slack key songs I transcribed, and has stayed on my setlists ever since. This arrangement was inspired by my recent purchase of a nylon string guitar; I really think this song works well on nylon for a number of reasons. Hope you enjoy.

Recorded with a Taylor 414ce-NR (Rosewood/Spruce nylon string) and a Neumann TLM 102 microphone.

You may also like:

Pua Lililehua – Slack Key Guitar