Hawaiian Melodies Reference Collection: He Mele Aloha List
(2003, 2004) Solfege List & Access to sound Clips)
 These lists are a gift to all who love to sing Hawaiian songs.  Most of our personal and published song-collections include only text and chords, and all we need to launch into singing a song is get the first few notes or the first musical phrase. All too often the lament, "Eh, how does this song go...?" can dampen an otherwise enthusiastic family kanikapila ("domestic music making") session. This reference website exists solely to help keep alive our kanikapila tradition.
This is a reference collection of incipits, that is, the first few notes of a song. Because this is an incipit reference list, no current or former copyrighted ownership is infringed upon, and none intended either. This purely instructional list is a teaching reference,  assembled as a gift for those who love to kanikapila for their personal domestic/school use.  This printable webpage is a means of recalling the tune of a song:
      1) Solfege Musicologists have long used  "solfege" as non-notational recalling device. Solfege explanation.  Mondoy Music has some sheet music;  (MM piano accompaniment). Click here to see a sample of sheet music piano accompaniment.
The Hawaiian lyrics can be found in the recently published He Mele Aloha A Hawaiian Songbook (ʻOliʻOli Productions, LLC, Honolulu; 2003)
Please support the continued growth of Hawaiian music in our community by purchasing composers' published song books and other song collections, as well as recordings of Hawaiian music. Many books may be out of print but available at public libraries; please mälama these old and venerable books, and do return them. 
These web pages are for instructional home/school study purposes only.  There is no claim of definitive rendition of these incipits, just approximations of current (sometimes former) usage - Different performers and island locales and venues provide a variety of interpretations. This is an on-going project that will take time to complete. Your suggestions, corrections and insights (and historical data)  may prove helpful; do keep in touch. Mahalo.
Please note that  many of the individual songs are still the copyrighted © property of song owners/publishers. Please contact those song owners for legitimate recording permissions. I do not have a list of song owners/publishers; sorry.
Go fetch your instruments and He Mele Aloha songbook and enjoy your kanikapila!
 Created Feb 2004  ©2004 Mondoy Music |  Last updated: 07/26/2017

If you've just entered this page, click on bars BELOW to search for your song.  Go to the right for other links:

Songs are grouped in ALPHABETICAL Order  HMA   He Mele Aloha  (Wilcox, Hussey, Hollinger & Nogelmeier; Honolulu, 2003)

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