Introduction

     In the mid to late eighteen hundreds the Hawaiian lap slide guitar tradition developed after Hawaiians were exposed to the guitar. By the early nineteen hundreds Hawaiian guitar players were performing with other Hawaiian musicians throughout the United States. During this same period a slide guitar tradition had developed in the southern United States in the Mississippi Delta region. Early records of this music reveal that this style accompanied blues performances and was performed by African-Americans.

     The overlap in time periods in the development of the two styles, along with the little information available on how these styles developed has led some scholars to a number of conflicting conclusions. Scholars of Hawaiian music such as Donald D. Kilolane Mitchell and George S. Kanahele feel the Hawaiian guitar came along before the blues tradition. They state that African-American musicians were "some of the Americans most influenced by the steel guitar" and that slide players such as Son House and Robert Johnson were "heavily indebted to the Hawaiian steel guitar." (pg. 377) From a musical perspective it is hard to determine what this influence and debt is. Neither the musical styles of House or Johnson bear any resemblance or stylistic similarities to that of the Hawaiian "steel" guitar.

     The fact that there are several accounts of blues slide performances coinciding with the Hawaiian guitar player's arrival in the United States has led to other theories. Writers such as Larry Hoffman state, "There does not seem to be a linear development of slide guitar technique; rather it seems to have burst on the scene-fully formed-somewhere around the turn of the century." (pg. 28) Hoffman takes a position that is based on the fact that there is very little evidence of how the blues slide guitar tradition developed. Samuel Charters feels this situation could have been different if the American academic community would have taken an interest "In the growth of new creative art forms". (Charters pg. 21) He goes on to remark "At the point when a few moments conversation with a young singer would have answered nearly all the problems of source and concept there was no one who was interested in either the music or the singers." (pg. 21)

     By the mid 1900's a number of other slide guitar traditions began to develop. One of these was in North India. This tradition developed after the slide guitar style of Hawaii was introduced to North Indians through performances by Hawaiian groups. Early Indian guitarists incorporated the slide guitar into the popular "film" music of the time. The instrument later was incorporated into the classical music of the area.

     The purpose of this study is to look at the development of the North Indian tradition in comparison with the Hawaiian and Mississippi Blues traditions. The study will be introduced in three parts. First, brief histories of the Hawaiian and Mississippi blues styles will be introduced to show the inconsistent, as well as consistent, developments in these two traditions. The consistencies will then be addressed in the development of the Indian tradition. In order to do this I have tried to follow the example set by Eric Madis, in an article addressing the controversy between which slide guitar tradition began first, when he stated "The most that a present-day musical historian could do is present the facts as they are known and leave the conclusion up to the individual". (pg. 51) While following this example, however, I will attempt to present the material in a manner to present an argument. I believe, after looking at the North Indian slide guitar tradition, in relationship to the Hawaiian and African-American traditions, it becomes apparent that it isn't important whether or not one came before the other. The fact that all three musical areas chose to incorporate the guitar, played in a slide style, is quite interesting. The question I address in the study is "Why did the guitar become adapted as a slide instrument in all these different traditions?".

     When the African-American and Hawaiian traditions are looked at it becomes evident that both musical traditions were playing stringed instruments before coming in contact with the guitar. These string traditions were then applied to, as well as expanded on, on the guitar. Both traditions also incorporated vocal techniques onto the guitar when they had contact with the instrument. The use of a slide of some sort made it easier for the instrumentalists to "mimic" the human voice. These elements are most conclusively documented in the history of North Indian music. By looking more in-depthly at how the slide tradition developed in India it is quite clear that these were all important elements in the minds of this styles originators. It is then up to the reader to conclude whether or not similar ideas were present in the minds of the instrumentalists that developed the Hawaiian and African-American traditions.