About Mele Kokua

Mele Kokua is the culmination of an idea formed between myself, Dirk Harriman, and my close friend and fellow musician Jesse Kunewa.

My background is in computer software development. Music has long been a major hobby of mine. I have some formal training in music theory, MIDI, and some instruction in piano. Although I have had some instruction with piano, I consider myself to be self taught in piano, guitar, bass, ukulele, drums, and percussion. As a young child I took piano lessons, but most of what I learned back then was forgotten. I was later given some instruction on the basics of piano chords, triads and sevenths, as well as some scales (major and minor). It wasn't until I started learning guitar that my piano playing vastly improved. This was the result of collecting tablature for guitar and learning to play the chord/lyric charts on piano.

Jesse's background is in construction. He's certified to operate the large machinery used in construction. He also has a pilots licence. I consider Jesse to be one of the best musicians in the Kailua Kona area. His love for music is unparalleled. We are constantly sharing discovery of new music and old, with genre's all over the map. One of the things I really love about Jesse is that he loves all music. He doesn't reject anything because it doesn't fit into a classification. He's very open that way. While music for me is primarily a hobby, Jesse actually plays live and often gets paid to play in various venues around the island. He has a heart of gold, is very generous, and I consider it an honor and privilege to call him my friend.

I first met Jesse at Holualoa Bay on the Kona side of the Big Island. Jesse was a regular down at "Da Tree", a tree near the water where local musicians would gather to play and barbecue. He wanted to learn to play piano and I wanted to learn to play many of the traditional Hawaiian songs that he was so good at playing. So we decided to help each other out. We became close friends. We are also both surfers and when we weren't playing music we often surfed together at some of the local breaks in Kailua Kona. When I mentioned the idea of turning the instructional books I had written into a web site, he was the one who suggested the name Mele (Music) Kokua (Help).

Mele Kokua was started from a series of books that I wrote for my nieces and nephews and a few friends. They were instructional books on music theory and simple learning methods for playing guitar, ukulele and piano. Over time the information grew to include other instruments such as bass guitar, drums, orchestral instruments, recording, mixing, mastering and more. We hope to keep expanding this knowledge base as we learn new subjects. Note that learning is a constant ongoing process and we may not always get it right, but we will strive to make the information as accurate as possible.

The information gathered here is from many different sources that also include my own experiences in learning music.

I have found that music is a binding force. People's love for music transcends everything and it is very easy to find common ground in the thing that all musicians share, our love of music. Jesse and I are happy to share our manao of music.