About Us

More than you ever wanted to know

It’s funny how things work out.  A few years ago I had an idea for a card game—a new version of an old favorite: Go Fish!  But in my game, all the fish were real fish you might find while snorkeling in Hawai’i. And, instead of asking for aces or kings, you had to ask for the fish by their Hawaiian name.  “Do you have any humuhumu-nukunuku-apua’a?”  That game is called Go Fish! Hawai’i, and we are now in our fourth printing. 

As that business (aka Card Shark) continued to grow, I realized I needed to know more about the Hawaiian language and culture to make sure I honored it.  I’d heard about the Beamer family's Aloha Music Camp on Moloka’i, a week of Hawaiian cultural immersion, and decided to go to the winter camp with my 11-year-old son, Taylor. And that, as the poet Robert Frost said, has made all the difference.

I took along my ‘ukulele, which I had been struggling to learn to play for years. One day, in Kaliko Beamer’s beginning ‘ukulele class, I had some kind of epiphany and it all seemed to come together.  I could whip through any song he gave us—as long as it was in the key of C or G and there were no more than three chords (and those were spaced well apart). With new-found confidence I decided to perform with a small group of other musicians at the ho’ike, a type of recital, the last night of camp.  We were well into the second verse of “Moloka’i Slide” when my song sheet slid right off my lap! That initiated a pile-up with my fellow musicians resulting in the biggest train wreck Moloka’i has ever seen. I resolved to get rid of the “papeh.”

A few weeks later, Taylor and I joined the Napa Valley Flea Jumpers, a local group that gets together once a month to eat good food, drink great wine, play ‘ukulele and sing. My music, however, was in a big binder with my chord charts. It was cumbersome to say the least and without a music stand (or room to set one up) I was sunk. I started looking for a clip-on music stand that would hold my music right where I wanted it.

After weeks of searching, I came up with clip that would attach to the headstock of my ‘ukulele and hold my music about a foot away from my nose. Taylor came up with the name: loosely translated, in Hawai‘i, kani ka pila means to get together to play music.

I went back to Aloha Music Camp in June with a bunch of Kani Ka Pila Klips and discovered that the clip not only worked for ‘ukuleles, but the slack key guitar players wanted them as well.

I started making chord charts and other devices I needed to help my in my quest for stardom on the ‘ukulele circuit. Then I took the clip and the rest of my goodies to the Southern California ‘Ukulele Festival and sold a bundle of them. We were on our way.

In February, one year after my first visit, I went back to Aloha Music Camp with new business under my belt. I performed in the hō’ike at the end of the week with nary a hitch and was delighted to see other students breezing through their performances with their Kani Ka Pila Klips attached.

Our next project is a song book full of old favorites on with tear-out song cards designed to fit right on the Kani Ka Pila Klip. It should be available this summer. (In the meantime, you can check out the cards we have already available under Song Cards.) After that there will be a set of instructional cards and more song books. All this because my music slid off my lap. Life is, indeed, very good.

Shortly after the February 2008 Aloha Music Camp, we received word that our dear Auntie Nona Beamer had passed away in her sleep.  This was the last time I saw her: waiting for her flight at the Moloka‘i Airport. Someone had handed her an ‘ukulele and Auntie led us in a few rousing songs. (“Skinnamarink a Dink a Dink” was her favorite.) She soon had just about everyone within hearing distance in the terminal tapping their feet,  singing along, and smiling.

She’s not gone. Her heart still beats in everyone she touched.