slack-key guitar

Slack-key guitar, or ki hoʻalu, is a distinctive style of playing the guitar that originated in Hawaii. This technique involves loosening, or "slacking," the guitar strings to achieve open tunings, where strumming all strings produces a chord. This contrasts with standard guitar tuning, which results in a dissonant chord when all strings are strummed simultaneously.12

The steel guitar, a related instrument, is played by moving a metal bar across the strings while plucking them, creating a glissando effect. Joseph Kekuku, a Hawaiian musician, is credited with refining the steel guitar in the late 19th century, developing unique tunings and playing methods. Both slack-key and steel guitars have significantly influenced Hawaiian music and have been adopted into various genres in the United States, including country, jazz, and blues.324