It’s music to his ears when noted slack key guitarist Keola Beamer hears nahenahe, “soft, sweet, melodious sounds,” or sees a student’s face light up upon learning something new.
All can be found next month at the Aloha Music Camp, presented by Beamer, a member of one of Hawaii’s most esteemed musical families, and Honolulu-based Mohala Hou Foundation. The annual immersion camp strives to preserve and perpetuate Hawaiian culture through education and the arts.
Held July 1 to 7 at the Keauhou Beach Resort, it offers participants various workshops and one-on-one interactions with some of Hawaii’s finest performers. Workshops include slack key guitar, hula, lei-making, oli, Hawaiian language, ukulele, Hawaiian steel guitar, songwriting and ukulele building. Class sizes are kept small, about 20 students or less, with the intent of giving each participant personalized attention, as well as the opportunity to make progress in their field of study and to create lasting friendships.
The camp is a family affair. Beamer said he teaches slack key guitar while his brother, Kaliko, shares his expertise in the Hawaiian language and ukulele. Beamer’s wife, Moanalani, teaches hula and lei-making. Joining them as instructors are other talented experts.
Beamer said the idea for the weeklong camp derived more than 10 years ago, following a workshop in Seattle, where he talked little and mostly handed out papers with music notation called tablature. While flawed, tablature provides an easy to read way of sharing music with other guitarists — so simple that within minutes the recipients were already playing the first part of the song.
Beamer felt “uncomfortable” about how the three-hour workshop went and shared the experience with his mother, Nona, a well-known authority on Hawaiian culture, leading songwriter and kumu hula. She helped reveal he didn’t have the opportunity to provide the context and necessary depth about the pieces the workshop participants played.
Soon after, they decided to “embark on an interesting experiment,” creating a camp for people from around the world to learn a range of Hawaiian cultural activities, with “quality experiences filled with the aloha spirit shared over an extended time.” Their worries about feeling like being in a fishbowl quickly floated away at the first camp and never resurfaced at subsequent ones. All the camps feel more like an intimate reunion, daily filled with fun-loving talk story and kanikapila (jam) sessions, all of which contribute to the high number of returnees, Beamer said.
“We teach in the old Hawaiian way, which focuses on contextual learning,” Beamer said. “An example of contextual learning is when my wife, a kumu hula, teaches her students a song, she takes them to the place, adding a level of experience and higher understanding. They walk through, for instance, the forest, pick the flowers they sing about, smell the blossoms and reflect. So when they dance, they know the blossoms and their whole being lights up.”
Students must bring their own instruments to camp. Mohala Hou Foundation does have a very limited number of instruments available for borrowing. Still, those without a guitar or ukulele are strongly encouraged to rent something from a local store, such as Soundwave Music on Luhia Street in Kailua-Kona.
No experience is necessary, Beamer said. “The camp is open to anyone who loves Hawaii, but wants to experience the culture firsthand and take away personal enrichment that we hope they in turn share with others.”
The cost is $1,400 for a camper, $1,000 for a non-instructional partner or spouse, and $600 for children. The fee includes all workshops, evening concerts and special events during the week, as well as two meals per day. Registration is required and can be done online at alohamusiccamp.com or by calling (650) 733-4643.