…to someone who doesn’t know anything about guitars? Is it the initial tuning that makes it slack? If so, what’s the difference between regular tuning and slack key? Why is it called slack?
Google sez:
http://www.kbeamer.com/sk_history.html
Brief summary:
It’s a style of guitar play that is solo (only one person playing with no acompanying voices or anything else), fingerpicked (using all five fingers to pick all the strings instead of a pick), and with the strings slightly looser than normal (means the tone will be slightly lower than normal).
The page also implies that there’s a Hawaiian flavor to it, and that it was developed in Hawaii.
-Ben
Slack key tuning is open tuning, the guitar is tuned so that the strings when played straight is in a chord. G chord (Taro Patch tuning) and D chords (I think it was called Mauna Loa?) are most popular. It’s mostly finger picking while you simultaneously pick out the bass notes on the top strings. There’s a lot of hammering of strings and sliding involved and chimes. Hmm, it’s hard to explain. But I can play 3 slack key songs!
Maybe someone can come along and explain better?