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Rating: 
Summary: Excellent beginners book!
Review: I bought this book based on the two earlier recommendations and am glad that I did! It's a much better book for beginners than Keola Beamer's (which is more suitable for skilled guitar players). If you're just starting out, use this one. This is Volume 1 of a 3-part series. Volume 2 should be released in 2003.
Rating:
Summary: Best for beginners
Review: This is the best book for those beginning slack-key. This songs is mostly composed of 9 song transcriptions. The songs are well-chosen to help you develop skills, progressing from easier to harder, using different tunings, and all of them are fun. Each song contains notes about how to play difficult measures. The CD is a straight run-through of the songs. It's worth noting that the fun-but-simple "Kani Ki Ho'alu" can be found both in this book and on Ozzie Kotani's first Dancing Cat CD. There, he plays it straight out, then builds upon the basics to make a more accomplished song. For those who at some point want to listen and figure the music out, it's great.More advanced guitarists will enjoy this book, but will fly through it, and might be annoyed how little theory goes into it - while obviously the songs can be learned from, it would have been nice if there was some mention of such things as scales, or when the chord change is occuring. These more advanced players will probably prefer Mark Hanson's "Masters of Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar" and perhaps his "Alternative Tunings Guide for Guitar."
Rating:
Summary: Best for beginners
Review: This is the best book for those beginning slack-key. This songs is mostly composed of 9 song transcriptions. The songs are well-chosen to help you develop skills, progressing from easier to harder, using different tunings, and all of them are fun. Each song contains notes about how to play difficult measures. The CD is a straight run-through of the songs. It's worth noting that the fun-but-simple "Kani Ki Ho'alu" can be found both in this book and on Ozzie Kotani's first Dancing Cat CD. There, he plays it straight out, then builds upon the basics to make a more accomplished song. For those who at some point want to listen and figure the music out, it's great. More advanced guitarists will enjoy this book, but will fly through it, and might be annoyed how little theory goes into it - while obviously the songs can be learned from, it would have been nice if there was some mention of such things as scales, or when the chord change is occuring. These more advanced players will probably prefer Mark Hanson's "Masters of Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar" and perhaps his "Alternative Tunings Guide for Guitar."
Rating:
Summary: The definitive introduction to learning slack key
Review: This is, quite simply, the best introduction to learning slack key you can find. While there are plenty of other books and resources that pick up where Ozzie leaves off, this book establishes a solid foundation for the others to build on. Each song builds on the skills used in the previous one and Ozzie breaks each song down, measure by measure, to make them easy to learn. The songs are in the old style, very sweet and simple, but don't let that put you off...the more you listen to them (and play them), the more you will fall in love with them. Highly recommended.
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