Kweyah - Jan 7, 2011

Today the lecture was about Hawaiian Musics. This lecture was very interesting
because it was diverse, meaning that it touched on history, culture, music and many
other aspects. The lecturer Frederick Lau, even touched on geography. We learned that
there are eight islands in the state of Hawaii and what each island is known for. For
example, the island Nihue is home to mostly Hawaiians. The island Kahoolawe is
controversial because it is used by the military and one of its location. Recently a
project was started to clean up the island. On the island Molokai, there is only one
road in the entire island and two stop lights. What I found most interesting was
that, there are 1.2 million people in the state of Hawaii and 90 percent of those
people live on the island Oahu.

I learned that each group of people that came to Hawaii developed their own music to
address universal themes and to express a world view. Each of the settlers that came to the island of Hawaii have their own music and instrument. The settlers of Hawaii are
Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Filipino, and Portuguese. There are also different genres
of Hawaiian music. In chinese music, the most popular is the Lion Dance which are
still used for openings of new shops in centers around the island. Contenese Opera is
also very important to Chinese music. Japanese music is called Japanese Koto. Koto is
a smooth and relaxing sound. Also, if women wanted to marry into a proper family,
they had to learn or know how to play the Koto. Korean music is soft music. Filipino
music is known as the latina of asia. Portuguese music is mostly from the Azores
Island. Hawaiian music genres are Hula, Hapa Haole, Slack-Key which is hawaiian way
of playing guitar, Jawaiian which is mixed between reggae and hawaiian music, and
Ukulele which is a small pluck string instrument.

After hearing this lecture I realized that Hawaiian is not what I thought it was.
Before I came to Hawaii I use to think it was all about the beaches and palm trees
and great resorts that you see on TV. However, I realized that it is much more than
that. Hawaii as a whole is diverse in every aspect which makes it such a great place.