Folklore: Mel Bay

Subject: Folklore: Mel Bay
From: GUEST,Seth in Olytown
Date: 06 Nov 04 - 09:36 AM

Last evening I was playing my mandolin, with an ancient Mel Bay book in my lap. My seven year old son listened for a while and then said" You're holding it wrong, Dad. Your thumb should be back here instead of up and curled around like that." He was right. He got that from looking at the book illustration upside down. Any more Mel Bay stories? Did he ever record anything? Who was this guy with the tie that so many of us started with? Do you think his instruction books are any good?
Seth in Olytown

Subject: RE: Folklore: Mel Bay
From: Blissfully Ignorant
Date: 06 Nov 04 - 01:15 PM

I had a guitar teacher who reccommended a Mel Bay book, so i went out and bought it. It didn't do me any good, but it has since been adoopted by friend,s siblings, and various other people who have all found it helpful.

I think i just have the wrong type of brain for standard notation! :0)

Subject: RE: Folklore: Mel Bay
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 06 Nov 04 - 01:47 PM

As I understand it, he runs a music store in I think Nebraska, though I may be wrong on the location. One of those states in what I call "the near West". I don't know what instrument(s) he may play, but an anecdote told in a class at Banjo Camp North a few years ago by an excellent old-time banjo player (whose name stubbornly escapes me at the moment) leads me to believe Bay is certainly no banjo player.

And, although he displays his name on the books he publishes, they are at least generally written by others. I won't say he hasn't written any of the books bearing his name, however.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Folklore: Mel Bay
From: Stewart
Date: 06 Nov 04 - 02:07 PM

Mel Bay, founder and first president of Mel Bay Publications, Inc., died at age 84 on May 14, 1997

S. in Seattle

Subject: RE: Folklore: Mel Bay
From: Gypsy
Date: 06 Nov 04 - 09:04 PM

Now what we need to dig up are the lyrics to the MelBay song. Grisman and Garcia recorded it a while back..........

Subject: RE: Folklore: Mel Bay
From: GUEST,Seth in Olytown
Date: 07 Nov 04 - 12:22 AM

I think his books for the most part are pretty straight forward, he doesn't pander or lose focus, there are good illustrations (mostly), and the books were pretty cheap. A little on the stiff and formal side, but appropriate for beginners. Of course, maybe that serious guy with the tie was not really Mel Bay at all. Maybe Mel really looked more like,say,Johnny Otis.How would you know?

Seth in Olytown

Subject: RE: Folklore: Mel Bay
From: Kaleea
Date: 07 Nov 04 - 01:42 AM

No story about Mr. Bay, but I have been using his "Guitar Class Method" book for teaching private lessons for @ 30 years. I think it had just come out a couple of years before. I never found a better foundation for up & coming guitarists whether bluegrass or classical or anywhere around abouts or inbetween.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Mel Bay
From: GUEST,Ellis
Date: 07 Nov 04 - 02:53 AM

Fascinating! I had NO idea that there really was a Mel Bay. I stupidly assumed it was a place name and not a person. The things you learn!

Subject: RE: Folklore: Mel Bay
From: Terry Allan Hall
Date: 07 Nov 04 - 10:44 AM

Many years ago, I saw Mel Bay perform with Les Paul in a club in New York...pretty good at the "chord melody" style of pop-jazz.

Les Paul introduced Bay as "the guy who corrupted millions of musicians".

Subject: RE: Folklore: Mel Bay
From: Gypsy
Date: 07 Nov 04 - 04:19 PM

Ya gotta admit it, pretty much anything you want to learn, MelBay will have a book on it! Great for starters!

Subject: RE: Folklore: Mel Bay
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Nov 04 - 06:09 PM

Mel Bay, who died six or seven years ago, grew up in the country. When he was a boy he wanted to learn to play an instrument, but there were no teachers around nor any books to help him. When he grew up he started a successful music store in Kirkwood, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. He was an excellent guitarist, and salty old fellow. Remembering his problems in teaching himself to play, he decided to start publishing "how-to" books for struggling musicians. The venture was so successful that the Mel Bay Publishing Company in Pacific, Missouri now has a catalogue more than an inch thick, and adds twenty-five new titles a month to its list. The company is now run by Mel's son, Bill Bay, who's a excellent businessman and easy to work with as an author. How do I know? Because I'm currently working on a book of funny songs and stuff for him. My first book "Basic Melodic Autoharp Solos" has just gone out-of-print, but I have two other Mel Bay books in publication: "Scottish Airs and Ballads Arranged For The Autoharp" and "Childrens' Song Favorites" a collection of 75 traditional folk songs that work well with kids. (They should be available in England although I've not gotten any royalties yet from that side of the "pond".) Alex Usher

Subject: RE: Folklore: Mel Bay
From: GUEST,Seth in Olytown
Date: 08 Nov 04 - 01:10 AM

Thanks so much. How would we know this stuff if not for Mudcat?
                                                 Seth

Subject: RE: Folklore: Mel Bay
From: Gypsy
Date: 08 Nov 04 - 10:01 PM

Now if MelBay will just put out a How to play the Kantele!

Subject: RE: Folklore: Mel Bay
From: Shanghaiceltic
Date: 08 Nov 04 - 10:05 PM

Having no tutor here in China I have been using a combination of various Mel Bay books for teaching myself the tin whistle. On the whole I think they are good value and have certainly helped me.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Mel Bay
From: GUEST,Bob Hitchcock(lost cookies)
Date: 08 Nov 04 - 10:37 PM

Back in 1977 I was living just outside St. Louis for a year. I went to Mel Bay's shop in Kirkwood as he was the only dealer for Gallagher guitars in the area. I tried one and did not like it enough to buy it, but he did have a nice looking Classical guitar on the wall. I tried it, playing the Prelude No.4 in E minor by Villa-Lobos. At this point Mel Bay himself came from the back room to listen, we talked for an hour about guitars and players an such. I treasure that moment, as he was one of the nicest people I ever met, he took time out of his day to chat with a nobody who liked to play guitar. I ended up not buying anything from and left town shortly after our meeting but I wish I could have run into him again.

Bob

Subject: RE: Folklore: Mel Bay
From: Snuffy
Date: 09 Nov 04 - 08:38 AM

Is he any kin to E Bay?

Subject: RE: Folklore: Mel Bay
From: Big Jim from Jackson
Date: 09 Nov 04 - 09:25 AM

This comment is about a guest above, one Alex Usher.........
I had the privilege of hearing Alex play her autoharp at the Missouri Folklore Society meeting this past weekend. She was fantastic! Her slim little fingers were flying all over that harp! She has won all sorts of trophies for her playing in contests, state, national, and international. At the same meeting was another a'harp player who also has won many contests, Dan Wietop. We, the members of the Society, were treated to a fantastic evening of tunes fromm all sorts of instruments played by some very gifted entertainers. We had a wonderful time. The Mel Bay books Alex has writen are excellent. I look forward to the one she is working on at the moment.

Hi, Alex!

Subject: RE: Folklore: Mel Bay
From: Once Famous
Date: 09 Nov 04 - 12:45 PM

When I first took lessons at age 12 in 1962, I was given a Mel Bay book. The first page showed a picture of a guitar pick and under it read: "this is the pick."

talk about square one.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Mel Bay
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 09 Nov 04 - 11:55 PM

When I got my first guitar, I bought a Mel Bay book on folk guitar, but it wasn't working out. So I bought a classical book and learned where the notes were on a guitar. (I already knew what notes make up chords from piano lessons.) After I felt at home on the guitar keyboard, I went back to the Mel Bay book, and pretty soon I was accompanying my own singing. Both books were well worth the money.

Further, without Mel Bay I never would have learned "Big Rock Candy Mountain" and "The Frozen Logger."