E Mama E — Arrangement by David J. Stewart

that you are welcome to share and use as you wish. The backing track is a wonderful arrangement that I made with Band-In-A-Box version 2010.5. I added some birds and waves to give it that special touch. Enjoy!

Although the C6th is by far the best and most popular tuning for Hawaiian music, there are some beautiful songs in other less popular tunings that are certainly worthy of learning. There's no sound like the E9th tuning, and E Mama E is as Hawaiian as it gets. The song starts in the key of C, then modulates to key of G and then finishes in A.

You can hear the following musical piece taken from my video here (or watch entire video)...

E___________12~_________7~8___8_____*8____________________________

B____12~13__________8_________8____*8_____________________________

G#______________9_____________8___*8______________________________

F#________________________________________________________________

E_________________________________________________________________

D____*Palm Harmonics______________________________________________

You can play these musical pieces without doing a reverse bar slant, but it feels

awkward to me and not natural. It's your choice. Slanting the bar is also good showmanship

in front of an audience. You'll learn quickly that technique is everything while playing

steel guitar, especially Hawaiian music. I don't claim to have "that sound," but I'm

always working on it. Making videos and audio recordings helps me to hear what I'm playing

and see what works and what doesn't, what sounds good and what doesn't.

In today's modern world, there are a dozen ways to record. I prefer a USB computer

interface and the program MixCraft, which allows me to change pitch and song key if I

want. I only use the basic $75 program, but if you also want to be able to add effects

(like reverb) after you record, then you need the pro Version of MixCraft. There are also some YouTube videos explaining how to use MixCraft, but it's fairly easy.

I simply record from the "REC OUT" of my Roland MicroCube and use the reverb of the amp;

however, I cannot change the recording later on. If I recorded dry with the pro version

of MixCraft, then I could add reverb afterwards, or other effects. Simply put, the pro

version of MixCraft gives you total control over your sound after you've recorded it;

whereas the basic version doesn't allow you any editing. Still, the basic version does

everything I need. I've never wanted to change my reverb after recording.

Here's another way of playing a very recognizable Hawaiian riff...

E__________________7~8___8____OR_____7~~8_________________________

B____8__________8________8___________8~~8_________________________

G#_________8~9___________8___________9~~8_________________________

F#______8_________________________________________________________

E_________________________________________________________________

D_________________________________________________________________

**ABOVE: It is very important to do a reverse bar slant here or this piece will likely

lack the sound you want. By slanting the bar, you eliminate the time it takes to move the

bar from fret 3 to fret 2, thus making your playing more smooth, which in this particular

musical piece is critical. Try it and you will see that you'll feel much more natural and

relaxed by slanting the bar. If you don't slant the bar, you can still play the part, but

it isn't the same to me. I have to do a bar slant to feel comfortable playing this. Do

what you feel comfortable with as a musician.