The sound was so pleasing he obtained a steel bar from the school's shop instructor and soon his friends were emulating the new style. In 1872, Henry Berger came from Germany to enlarge Kamehameha Schools music department. In the ensuing years, he arranged more than 200 Hawaiian songs, composed 75 Hawaiian songs, recorded numerous ancient chants and wrote 500 Hawaiian and Western marches that were performed by the Royal Hawaiian Band. In 1935, Hawai'i's music caught the ears of West Coast listeners via Hawai'i Calls, a radio program broadcast from under the Banyan tree at the Moana Hotel and other locales until 1972. Today, many of the more than 300 Hawaiian musicians who were heard on Hawai'i Calls are legends in the entertainment world, among them are Danny Kaleikini, Alfred Apaka, Benny Kalama, Palani Vaughn.
Hawaiian music continues to evolve and can be enjoyed at many Big Island hotels.
Best known on the Kohala Coast are members of the talented Lim family, who weave a magic mood with guitars, dance, oli and heart-tugging songs nightly at at the Mauna Lani Bay Hotel, while sisters Nani and Lorna and brother Elmer Lim entertain at the nearby Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. At Mauna Kea Beach Hotel, talented Gary Haliamau renders a mean slack key guitar at the Terrace Wednesday through Saturday and during Tuesday night's Hawaiian feast. Nearby, at The Orchid, a Hawaiian duo roams between Brown's Beach House, the Ocean Bar and the Orchid Court strumming guitars to accompany a graceful hula dancer every night. In mid-April every year, a slack key guitar festival brings musicians from around the state to the King Kamehameha Kona Beach Hotel. The sounds of Hawai'i may not be the same as they were pre-Western contact, but they continue to evoke romance in the moonlight on many a balmy Island night.