19 Facts About Mel Bay

Melbourne Earl Bay, known professionally as Mel Bay, was an American musician and publisher best known for his series of music education books.

Melbourne Earl Bay was born on February 25,1913, in the little Ozark Mountain town of Bunker, Missouri.

Mel Bay 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.

Mel Bay played in front of an audience every chance he got, including a stint with a snake oil salesman in and around his hometown.

Once a crowd gathered to listen, Mel Bay would stop playing, and the salesman would pitch his cure-all.

Mel Bay knew that to make it as a professional musician he would have to be in a large city.

Mel Bay therefore moved to St Louis in 1933, and later to suburban Kirkwood, Missouri, to find his audience.

Mel Bay led the Mel Bay Trio and played for twenty-five years.

Mel Bay 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.

For years Mel Bay traveled from town to town, talking to guitar teachers and players, and showing them his publications.

Mel Bay claimed to have known every guitar teacher in America on a first-name basis.

Mel Bay Publications produces instruction books and sheet music for many instruments and many genres.

Mel Bay played professionally on his New Yorker model, but his favorite was the Mel Bay Model made by John D'Angelico as a gift.

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

Mel Bay received Lifetime Achievement awards from the Guitar Foundation of America, the Retail Print Music Dealers Association, and the American Federation of Musicians.

Mel Bay was inducted into the American Banjo Museum Hall of Fame in 2001 for his work furthering banjo instruction.

Mel Bay established the structure for modern guitar education and helped increase the popularity of guitar.

The comedy song "Ode to Mel Bay", pokes fun lovingly at Mel Bay's books.