Leonard Kwan - Pioneer/Teacher

Pioneer/Teacher

Kwan was also a pioneer in disseminating information about how to play slack key. In his youth, techniques, tunings, and even some songs were not freely exchanged but considered family secrets--one learned from family members and did not share with outsiders. There was some loosening of this attitude in the 1960s, and by the 1970s the old secrecy was rapidly disappearing, and in 1975 Kwan was the first player to publish the tunings he used on a recording, on the sleeve notes to The Old Way, which also included a transcription of the new version of "ʻOphihi Moemoe" that was on the album. In 1980, Kwan and collaborator Dennis Ladd followed Keola Beamer, who in 1973 had published the first how-to book for the tradition (First Method for Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar) by producing Slack Key Instruction Book, which presents ten of Kwan's compositions and arrangements in a range of tunings, in standard notation and tablature, with performance notes and photographs of correct left-hand positions for the chords.

Although Kwan's reputation rests on his guitar playing, for much of his life as a working musician he played string bass in big bands, and this may account for the elements of swing and jazz that flavor his compositions.