He was exposed to music from an early age, listening to band concerts on Sunday afternoons in Kapiolani Park, and traditional singing in local churches.

He attended Kaiulani School, and in his spare time sold newspapers on the streets of Honolulu and entertained passers-by whistling popular tunes.

Cunha was born in 1879, also in Honolulu, and developed the hapa haole (half-Hawaiian) sound in 1900 by mixing traditional Hawaiian music and American ragtime.

Over the next few years Noble and his band publicized Hawaiian music by means of recordings, radio broadcasts, performances on cruise ships and tours of mainland America.

[1] Noble composed a number of hapa haole tunes, including "My Little Grass Shack", "King Kamehameha" and "Hula Blues".