Keola Beamer is one of Hawai'i's premier singer/songwriters, arrangers, composers and Master Of The Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar. His well of talent springs from five generations of Hawai's most illustrious and beloved musical families. The Beamers trace their roots to the 14th century; among their ancestors are the Princess Manono, killed in 1819 at Kuamoʻo, the last battle fought in Hawaiʻi, waged for the principle of retaining the old ways of Hawaiian religion and culture.

Keola established himself early as a leader of the wave of contemporary Hawaiian music when he wrote the classic Honolulu City Lights - which is still one of the absolute all-time best selling recordings in the history of Hawaiian Music.

You will find information here on all of Keola's releases, his Aloha Music Camp, Online Lessons, Tablature, Instructional Books & DVD, Humor, Bio, Family History and much more. Please refer to the left hand column for site navigation.

What's New

We've just returned from a tour Brazil, with one of my most favorite Slack Key Musicians' - Jeff Peterson. Moanalani did a great job with several hula workshops and we had a wonderful time while doing our best to share the concept of Aloha in a part of the world where most people did not even know where Hawai'i was!

I'm working on the staffing for Aloha Music Camp in February 2014 and writing in my studio. This weekend we are doing a benefit for Volcano Arts Center on Hawai'i Island and look forward to making new friends and exploring the misty uplands of Pele's domains.

With Aloha - Keola Beamer

Win a free CD in our Monthly Giveaway by joining our email list. Congratulations to Mike Nishimoto of Winters, CA our May 2013 Winner!

PBS Hawaii's music documentary, Keola Beamer: Mālama Ko Aloha (Keep Your Love) has inspired the slack key guitar master musician and composer to release a CD of the music performed in the program.	"Aloha is Hawaii's greatest gift to the world." Keola Beamer

When I was growing up, my mother Winona Kapuailohiamanonokalani Beamer would often say, “Malama Ko Aloha”.

Mom wanted us to cherish or keep our love. Her idea was that by keeping Aloha in our hearts and reflecting upon its meaning in our lives, we could help the idea of Aloha to grow in the world. Thanks to my mother, Aloha became much more than a word to me. It became a way of being in the world.

You've heard the music - did you ever think about creating it yourself? The Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar is a wonderful platform for expression. It's easy to learn to play and a great way to relieve stress and achieve a sense of well being. Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar defines the word "relaxation". It's a rewarding and enjoyable activity that can give you years of meaningful interaction with a whole world of rich, beautiful, and somehow still mysterious music. It can take you places that you never imagined.

Teaching the Slack Key Guitar has been one of the greatest joys of my life and through the years I've helped many aspiring musicians.

It's an exciting time in distance learning technology and thanks to some wonderful innovations on the 'net, we can share the resources and knowledge of our culture like never before. I've given considerable thought to using the net as a teaching tool which has resulted in the some wonderful innovations. My web-lessons are new teaching methods, enabling you to work faster & smarter. These powerful techniques really work. This wonderful style of music will come alive from beneath your own hands, as you create it from the story of your own life.

Keola has both beginning and intermediate level lessons available, and has post a free lesson to demonstrate how the lessons work.

For over thirty years, Keola Beamer's artistry has helped breathe new life into slack key guitar music while remaining true to the soul of its deeply Hawaiian roots. Born February 18, 1951, in Honolulu, Keola grew up in one of Hawai'i's most famous music families. The Beamers can trace their involvement in Hawaiian music and hula at least as far as the 14th Century.
Keola's sixth Dancing Cat album, Ka Hikina O Ka Hau (The Coming Of The Snow), is not a traditional slack key recording. "It poses a simple question," he says. "Can the palette, coloration and tonality of Ki ho'alu add an indefinable something to the interpretation of songs written by truly great composers?" The answer is a wonderful surprise.

The album features eighteen arrangements of classical compositions by Satie, Ravel, Stravinsky, Mendelssohn, Rimsky-Korsakov, Dowland, Piazzolla and others, as well as two more Hawaiian inspired pieces. For the first time Hawaiian Slack Key guitar tunings have been used to interpret the works of classical composers, resulting in a romantic, winter oriented album that uniquely blends both the Hawaiian Slack Key and classical music traditions.

Famed Native American flutist R. Carlos Nakai joins with Keola in a new album, Our Beloved Land. Nakai, the world's leading performer of the traditional flute with over 3.5 million albums sold, journeyed to Hawai'i where he spent time working with Keola to weave the haunting melodies of his traditional flute into Keola's songs and arrangements. The result is a new music, blending elements of two indigenous American cultures that expresses the cultures of both artists.

Magic in the recording studio just kind of happens. You can't predict it or plan for it ... all you can really do is hope for it. We all know that one aspect of the beauty of music is its special ability to touch the human heart, but we sometimes forget that music has the remarkable ability to transcend time. Here is a recording that has magically touched the hearts of people all over the world and continues to do so to this day.- Keola Beamer