ReviewI was 17 years old instructing at Ernie Ball’s Guitar Shop in Tarzana, California. That’s where I met Mel Bay through a workshop he taught. It was then that I took myself through his 7 book guitar method the basi time which was very instrumental toward my professional training. Now, all these years later just I finished the modified expanded edition of the 7 book method. It is a gorgeous workout and journeying of graded material including: 1. Reading studies in all keys and positions. 2.Beautiful chord melodies ranging from classical to folk, blues, jazz and latin in style. 3. Theory is an integral portion of this method presenting harmonized chord forms, studies in thirds and triads and quartal harmoniousness in all keys. 4. Technical development and challenge and strong musicality frame this outstanding work. This production is in my opinion the consumate guitar method which I commend as a ought to to all severe guitarists. Congratulations to William Bay for this masterpiece. –Michael Anthony
About the AuthorWilliam Bay is president of Mel Bay Publications, Inc. He is an accomplished guitarist and trumpet player and has performed on both instruments in a wide potpourri of professional settings. He is experienced as a performer and composer of music ranging from jazz and rock to the classics and sacred. He received his bachelor’s degree from Washington University in St. Louis and his master’s from the University of Missouri. Bill has received international acclaim for his innovative instructing methods, and he has authored over 200 books with sales in the millions.
Mel Bay
Mel Bay’s Modern Guitar Method is the world’s premier method for learning progressed guitar. Now it is available in this package with it is associate DVD video. This method, written by Mel Bay himself in 1947, is time tested and has proven to be rather successful in building the harmonic psychological result of perception learning and reasoning and technique necessitated to play any style. In book one, the guitarist will learn basic notes on the guitar, single note playing, thirds, triads, chords, and chord progressions. The student will play solos, duets, scales, and chords in the keys of C, A minor, G, and E minor while learning to read musical notation. The 105-minute DVD video follows along with the book, providing added instruction and tips along with split-screen right- and left-hand views of the exercises, solos, and duets being played. The music is also shown on screen (in notation only), so the student may either watch it on screen or follow along in the book.
Jazz guitar player Mel Bay was born on February 25, 1913 in the little Ozark Mountain town of Bunker, Missouri. He purchased a Sears guitar at the age of 13 and various weeks later played his introductory “gig.” He recalled playing right up until his fingers were raw! Mel took up the tenor banjo shortly thereafter and continued to master both instruments. Throughout his teen years Mel played with a wild assortment of bands and characters in rural Missouri. Perhaps no “gig” was as strange as the occupation he landed with, in Mel’s own words, “a snake oil salesman.” This flamboyant peddler would pull his ostentatious Pierce Arrow automobile, finish with steer horns installed on the grill, into the center of a small, rural town. Mel would sit on the car and play up a storm on the tenor banjo. Soon after a crowd gathered, the peddler took over and started extolling the miracles of his “wonder elixer.”
In 1933 Mel Bay moved to St. Louis and commenced his professional career. He performed with a lot of local and traveling bands. Additionally, he landed staff guitar employment on respective radio stations. Mel fronted his own trio (piano, bass, guitar) and played regularly for 25 years! He was evenly adept on most fretted instruments and played mandolin, uke, Hawaiian guitar, tenor and plectrum banjo professionally.
Whilst Mel was actively carrying out or participate in his playing career, he continued to tutor as numerous as 100 students a week. He decisive to commence composing instructional books of jazz guitar tabs and jazz guitar tablatures owing to the problem ran into by guitarists at performing outstanding sounding chord forms in rhythm subdivisions and due to the mediocore note reading capacity prevalent amid guitar performers.
Soon after World War 2 Mel was asked to publish instructional tutorials on guitar for soldiers wanting to learn music underneath the GI Bill. In 1947 Mel formed his own publishing company and authored his landmark introductory book titled “The Orchestral Chord System For Guitar”. This book is still in print and proceeds to be one of the best rhythm guitar chord books available! His “Modern Guitar Method” was authored soon thereafter. For some years Mel traveled from town to town talking to guitar teachers and players and showing them his publications. At one time Mel claims to have known almost just with regards to each guitar teacher in America on a initial name basis! The guitar and Mel Bay’s publications caught on in a huge way in the 1950′s. Things have continued to grow ever since.
Mel likewise used to marketing D’Angelico jazz archtop guitars. At any given time he would have 5 or 6 “lying around the house.” Mel played in a professional manner on his D’Angelico New Yorker Model but his favored guitar was the introductory Mel Bay Model constructed as a present for him by John D’Angelico. This well-known guitar had all of the main features of the New Yorker but was a “cutaway” model and had a more or less thinner neck. This same instrument has been pictured on the Mel Bay “Modern Guitar Method” for decades.
Someone once calculated that sales of guitar publications written by Mel Bay have exceeded 25 million copies. When asked, Mel normally explained that he quit counting long ago. Sales of his “Modern Guitar Method” have alone passed the 7 million mark! It is safe to say that Mel Bay is one of the pivotal figures in the world of guitar music and instructional materials in this or any other century!
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Most helpful client reviews
72 of 72 humans found the following review helpful.
 One of the Best Method Books Around
By Scott Kolecki
I have been a professional guitar teacher for over 10 years. In that time, I have had more than 100 guitar students, galore of whom came to me with no former playing experience. At the onset of my own career as a guitar student, I never had a single method book that I studied from, but rather learned from respective instructors who gave me exercises they created. As a result, when I started teaching, I had no idea which method book to use. In the course of ten years, I have seen and tried a lot of method books, and none has ever been more utile than MelBay’s Gutiar Method Books.
These books are laid out precisely the way I think the guitar ought to be taught. Too often, method books want to introduce the student to a couple of notes on the basi two or three strings, and then delve right into chords, by-passing much of the necessitated understanding of where notes are located on the neck.
However, MelBay’s books do the opposite. They get started by instructing meter and note identification, supplying the student with a comprehensive overview of all notes on all 6 strings in 1st position. By the time the student is introduced to even a single chord, he/she ought to have a strong understanding of how to count and read music on the treble clef, as well as a better than intermediate vocabulary of a lot of guitar and music terms.
The book teaches the strings one at a time, and as each string is introduced, exercises are given that focus on the new string as well as those already learned. Familiar songs, such as “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,” “Michael Row the Boat Ashore”,”When the Saints Go Marching In”, “Aura Lee” (Love Me Tender by Elvis Presley) and a great deal of others give the student a means of measuring their person success by giving them amterial that is recognizable, even to the casual listener.
As the student masters each string, chords are introduced, and, like the development of exercises for each string, one building on the next, chords are taught the same way, focusing on playing rhythem guitar and lead guitar at the same time. Many songs are written in a “classical” style, and require the student to play melody and chords at the same time, integrating the two elements of the book together, and permitting the student to have a decent cognition of how to use the chords when playing any song.
As this is the initial book in a series, the student, upon completion, will still have a great deal to learn-but-by the time he/she finishes, they will have the capacity to play with a level of competence far dandier than peers who have finished the primary level of a method book in any other series. They will graduate with a strong cognition of notes-both counting and reading, the capacity to play a assortment of chords: C, G7, G, A, D, Emin, B7, Dmin, Amin, F, E7, and will be competent to play rythem and a lot of basic lead guitar.
With instruction, the book ought to take 6 months to a year to complete, and more or less longer if the student wishes to go regarding it without the help of an instructor. The book is designed to be self-teaching-that is, anybody wanting to learn may instruct themselves with the support of this book.
I commend it highly for any individual aspiring to start out playing. I have seen galore method books over the years, and I keep coming back to this one for it is concise approach to playing the guitar.
NOTE: This book does not instruct TAB. For students looking to learn tablature style playing, this book is not for you. However, for any person who is severe in regards to playing, learning to read music will serve you in far better stead than relying solely on tab.
Scott Kolecki
14 of 14 persons found the following review helpful.
great for sight reading
By A
Despite what the former reviewer said, this is a outstanding book for self-teaching. But, I don’t inevitably commend it for the sheer novice. I started out working with this book after having played a little over a year, and it benefitted me greatly. The entire book is written in ordinary notation (treble clef), with NO tab. While note-reading may seem daunting at first, it is staged very logically, adding one string at a time, until half-way through the book you find yourself reading notes with no problem. Mel Bay’s progressed method is time-tested (written in 1948) and proven. Is it the most stimulating method book published? No. But it will lay an magnificent foundation for any aspiring guitarist.
28 of 35 persons found the following review helpful.
 Not for Self-Learning
By A
Good book for a beginning guitarist, but must be applied in a class or private lesson setting. The novice will be lost if attempting to use this book on his or her own. Some of the exercise songs are out-dated, even though musically valid for learners.
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