请输入您要查询的百科知识:

 

词条 Mel Bay
释义

  1. Biography

     Early life  St. Louis and Kirkwood 

  2. Mel Bay Publications

  3. Later career

  4. Awards and honors

  5. Influence

  6. See also

  7. References

  8. External links

{{Infobox musical artist
| name = Mel Bay
| background = non_vocal_instrumentalist
| birth_name = Melbourne E. Bay
| birth_date = {{birth date|1913|2|25}}
| birth_place = Bunker, Missouri, U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|1997|5|14|1913|2|25}}
| death_place = St. Louis, Missouri
| genre = Classical, folk, country, jazz
| occupation = Publisher, educator, musician
| instrument = Guitar
| years_active =
| label = Mel Bay
}}

Mel Bay (February 25, 1913 – May 14, 1997) was a musician and publisher best known for his series of music education books. His Encyclopedia of Guitar Chords remains a bestseller.

Biography

Early life

Melbourne E. Bay was born on February 25, 1913 in the little Ozark Mountain town of Bunker, Missouri.[1] He bought a Sears Roebuck guitar at the age of 13 and several months later played his first "gig". Bay did not have a guitar teacher, so Bay watched the few guitarists he knew and copied their fingering on the fretboard, teaching himself chords. Once he felt he knew the rudiments of the guitar, he started experimenting with other instruments, including the tenor banjo, mandolin, Hawaiian guitar, and ukulele.[2]

Bay played in front of an audience every chance he got, including a stint with a snake oil salesman in and around his hometown. The man hired Bay to play the banjo while sitting in the salesman's car. Once a crowd gathered to listen, Bay would stop playing, and the salesman would pitch his cure-all.[3]

St. Louis and Kirkwood

Bay knew that to make it as a professional musician he would have to be in a large city. He therefore moved to St. Louis in 1933, and later to suburban Kirkwood, Missouri, to find his audience. He played with numerous local and traveling bands. In addition, he landed staff guitar jobs on several radio stations. He led the Mel Bay Trio and played for twenty-five years.[1][4]

While Bay was pursuing his playing career, he continued to teach as many as one hundred students a week. He decided to begin writing instructional material due to the difficulty encountered by guitarists in playing chord forms in rhythm sections, and the poor note reading ability prevalent among guitarists at that time. These books became the basis of the Mel Bay instructional method and the Mel Bay publication house.[1]

Mel Bay Publications

After the war, Bay was asked to write instructional material on the guitar for GIs wishing to learn music under the GI Bill. When he approached the three major music publishers in New York City, they turned him down, saying there was no future in the guitar.[3] In 1947, he formed Mel Bay Publications and wrote the first book, The Orchestral Chord System for Guitar. This book is still in print under the title Rhythm Guitar Chord System. His Modern Guitar Method was written shortly after in 1948.[1] After the success of Elvis Presley in the early 1950s, the guitar became more popular, helping to ensure the success of the company.[3] For years Bay traveled from town to town, talking to guitar teachers and players, and showing them his publications. He claimed to have known every guitar teacher in America on a first-name basis.[1]

Mel Bay Publications produces instruction books and sheet music for many instruments (guitar, banjo, mandolin, harmonica, violin, clarinet, accordion) and many genres (classical, jazz, folk, blues, rock).

Later career

Bay sold D'Angelico guitars. He played professionally on his New Yorker model, but his favorite was the Mel Bay Model made by John D'Angelico as a gift. The guitar had the features of New Yorker, but it was a "cutaway" model with a thinner neck. This guitar has been pictured on the Mel Bay Modern Guitar Method for decades.

Mel Bay was still playing guitar every day until his death in 1997 at age 84.

Awards and honors

Mel Bay received Lifetime Achievement awards from the Guitar Foundation of America, the Retail Print Music Dealers Association, and the American Federation of Musicians. The St. Louis Music Educators Association gave him a Certificate of Merit. The Missouri House of Representatives honored his achievements with a resolution. Mayor Freeman Bosley Jr. made October 25, 1996 Mel Bay Day in St. Louis. President Bill Clinton sent Bay a letter of commendation.

Influence

Many guitarists have studied Bay's books.[3] Guitar Player magazine called him "the George Washington of the guitar".[5] Sales of his Modern Guitar Method series are estimated to be more than 20 million copies. Bay established the structure for modern guitar education and helped increase the popularity of guitar.

The song "Ode to Mel Bay" (written and first recorded by Michael "Supe" Granda of the Ozark Mountain Daredevils and featured on the album The Day Finger Pickers Took Over the World by Tommy Emmanuel and Chet Atkins), pokes fun at Mel Bay's books.

See also

  • Banjo Hall of Fame Members

References

1. ^Bay, Mel. Mel Bay's Modern Guitar Method: Grade 1. Pacific: 1948.
2. ^Mel Bay Blog. "100th Anniversary of Mel Bay's Birth" {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222211713/http://blog.melbay.com/the-mel-bay-story/ |date=2014-02-22 }}, Mel Bay Publications, 1 February 2013. Accessed on February 9, 2014.
3. ^NPR. [https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11843658 "Music Instruction Series Marks 60th Anniversary"], NPR, 10 July 2007. Retrieved on February 8, 2014.
4. ^{{cite web| url=http://patch.com/missouri/kirkwood/star-power-kirkwoods-mel-bay-joins-walk-of-fame| title=Star Power: Kirkwood's Mel Bay Joins Walk of Fame| publisher=Kirkwood Patch| author=Lori Rose| date=June 22, 2011| accessdate=April 1, 2015}}
5. ^Johnson, Kevin C. "New St. Louis Walk of Fame inductions include Mel Bay, Robert S. Brookings", St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 14 June 2011 (accessed on February 9, 2014).

External links

  • Mel Bay Publishing official site
  • [https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11843658 Interview with Bill Bay], son of Mel Bay, on National Public Radio's Morning Edition, July 2007
  • [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoQa4RfIg3g Roy Smeck: The Wizard of the Strings (1983)]. Mel Bay (guitar) plays a wonderful duet with Roy Smeck (uke) at 8:00, plus a banjo duet at 22:08.
{{Authority control}}{{DEFAULTSORT:Bay, Mel}}

13 : 1913 births|1997 deaths|American country guitarists|American male guitarists|American music educators|Fingerstyle guitarists|Guitarists articles needing attention|Sheet music publishing companies|20th-century American guitarists|People from Bunker, Missouri|Educators from Missouri|Country musicians from Missouri|20th-century male musicians

随便看

 

开放百科全书收录14589846条英语、德语、日语等多语种百科知识,基本涵盖了大多数领域的百科知识,是一部内容自由、开放的电子版国际百科全书。

 

Copyright © 2023 OENC.NET All Rights Reserved
京ICP备2021023879号 更新时间:2024/11/12 2:36:39