Ukulele · Chapter 24 of 24
Hawaiian Songs
The ukulele grew up with Hawaiian song. To end the course, meet some of the songs that matter most in Hawaiʻi, and the people who wrote them.
Hawaiian music is a living tradition, and many of its best-loved songs were written by the royal family of the Hawaiian Kingdom in the 1800s. They are still sung at gatherings, ceremonies and concerts across the islands.
Queen Liliʻuokalani
Liliʻuokalani (1838–1917), the last reigning monarch of the Hawaiian Kingdom, composed hundreds of songs and chants. In 1866 she wrote He Mele Lāhui Hawaiʻi, which served as the kingdom’s national anthem for ten years. Her most famous song is Aloha ʻOe, a song of farewell; her manuscript of it is dated 1878. The Royal Hawaiian Band played it in San Francisco in 1883, and it has been recorded many times since.
Here are the chords of Aloha ʻOe in F, as printed in the German Wikibooks songbook: a verse, then the chorus. Strum gently, with the island strum played slowly, or with four soft down strums per bar, while you listen to a recording or sing.
| Bars 1–4 | Bars 5–8 | Bars 9–12 | Bars 13–16 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Verse | F | B♭ | F | F | C7 | C7 | C7 | C7 | F | B♭ | F | F | B♭ G7 | C7 | F B♭ | F F7 |
| Chorus | B♭ | B♭ | F | F | C7 | C7 | F | F7 | B♭ | B♭ | F | F | C7 | C7 | F B♭ | F |
King Kalākaua and Hawaiʻi Ponoʻī
King David Kalākaua, Liliʻuokalani’s brother, wrote the words of Hawaiʻi Ponoʻī in 1874, honoring Kamehameha I. The music is by Henri Berger, the Prussian-born bandmaster who led the Royal Hawaiian Band from 1872. It became the kingdom’s anthem in 1876 and, in 1967, the official state song of Hawaiʻi. It’s played and sung standing, with respect.
Hawaiʻi Aloha
Hawaiʻi Aloha sets words by the missionary Lorenzo Lyons to an old hymn tune by James McGranahan. It is sung at gatherings large and small, usually with everyone standing in a circle holding hands. It’s a good example of how hymn melodies became part of Hawaiian song.
The old D tuning
During the Hawaiian music boom of the early 1900s, many ukulele players tuned a step higher than today, to A D F♯ B. Old songbooks often show chord shapes for that tuning: the shapes are the same as ours, but every chord name is a whole step higher (our C shape is a D there). If you play from an old book, check its tuning first.
Remember
- Queen Liliʻuokalani wrote Aloha ʻOe; King Kalākaua and Henri Berger, Hawaiʻi Ponoʻī.
- Older Hawaiian songbooks may use D tuning, A D F♯ B.
- Learn a song’s story, say its words with care, and name its composer.
History from Wikipedia’s articles “Aloha ʻOe,” “He Mele Lāhui Hawaiʻi,” “Hawaiʻi Ponoʻī,” “Henri Berger,” “Hawaii Aloha” and “Ukulele,” and the Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame. Chords of Aloha ʻOe from the German Wikibooks songbook.