Richard asked Macario to say a few words about the slack key guitar class they both took recently, which was taught by slack key master Cyril Pahinui.

The class, held at the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo, was popular — so many signed up that they had to split the group into two different classes.

Macario says it was Richard’s “fault” he was there. “Richard told me about this class coming up, and I signed up at the very last minute. It was fun taking the class with a friend. We were having so much fun, we wouldn’t play we would just listen. You get caught up when he starts to play, and we’d just put our guitars down and listen to him playing.”

“Richard was into it,” he says. “Both of us were. He and I were just like two little kids at a candy store. It was great.”

Macario was a professional musician in his “former life” — a couple decades ago, before changing careers and becoming a photographer. But he played drums, not guitar, and says he always wanted to learn slack key.

“It’s more than just playing the music,” he says. “There’s a feeling to the music. Cyril kept saying, ‘Don’t play how I play. Play how you feel.’ Because when you’re playing, and you’re in that groove, then something happens. Because you can move people.”

Cyril’s father was the late great Gabby Pahinui, the legend in Hawaiian slack key, and he learned to play guitar from his father since he was a young boy.

Macario says Cyril taught his father’s tuning — the way he tuned his guitar. In older days, this information was private and never shared. So why does Cyril teach it now?

Cyril told the class he likes to pass it on. “He said if he doesn’t teach anybody, and nobody carries it on after him, then he’s going to lose it.”

Macario says he’d definitely take a class from Cyril again. “There’s so much coming at you. I think it made the beginners a little scared. But it’s good for them. It’s good for them to see we can all do this. All you have to do is work at it. If you practice everything he taught you in this class, then when he comes back to teach the next one you’ll be ready for that class.”

“The music is just in him,” he says. “And in class, he’s coming at ya. It’s a lifetime, two lifetimes of music coming at you, and you’d better pick up what you can because you’ve only got six classes to do it.”

He says he’s still trying to find his way around his guitar. “But everything Cyril taught us just makes sense,” he says. “If you practice what Cyril taught in that class, you can pretty much play any Hawaiian song. And not only did Cyril teach the class, he made people go up and jam with him. How many chances do you get to play with Cyril Pahinui?”

He says the class was a nice surprise. “Before, his dad just overshadowed everything because he was so great. But Cyril is on his own and carrying on the tradition even without his dad.

“And Cyril himself is ‘the man’ now,” he says. “He’s the icon now. He is a great slack key player in his own right.”

Last night was the second of my slack key guitar lessons with Cyril Pahinui. I still can’t believe it. At the first session we received some papers with basic chords on them and then the rest of the class was a talk-story, one-man jam session. We were the audience.

Cyril would play a song and then talk about the old days with his Pop, Gabby Pahinui, and the people who came over to their house in Waimanalo to jam. They were all there. Atta Isaacs, Sonny Chillingworth, Peter Moon, Kui Lee—they would all drop by. And then he would play another song. Without realizing it, the class was getting a feel for the music.

Cyril said his father, Gabby, never sat down to teach him a chord or show him how to play. He just told Cyril to watch and listen. And he did. Eventually Cyril would get to accompany the guys in the background. He said he would wait and wait for somebody to say: “Okay, boy. You take ‘em.” Then he would play the lead for one turn. That was the highlight for him.

At the start of last night’s class, Cyril said that the earlier class—all 37 students—was able to play two songs when they went home. He handed out sheets of paper with the words to the songs Puamana and Kaulana Kawaihae. He played and sang them once and told us where to write the chord changes. Then we all played it together a few times. In a short time, we had enough of it to go home and be able to get a lot better with practice.

I’m going to take out my guitar now….