Frank Vignola and Mel Bay are pleased to announce that Jazz Guitar Virtuoso Frank Vignola will appear at the Sheldon Auditorium in St Louis, MO on March 7, 2008 for a Live DVD recording for Mel Bay.

Jazz Guitar Virtuoso Frank Vignola
Sheldon Auditorium
St Louis, MO
http://www.sheldontheatre.org/

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Mel Bay Publications was featured in the "SUPPLY" section of the November 2007 issue of Music, Inc. magazine. Through interviews with Jeff Ponte, marketing/sales at Mel Bay, as well as William Bay, president, the article focuses on the history, present day and future of Mel Bay Publications. Read the full text here.

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Mel Bay Publications was recently featured on the Emmy Award winning television show, Living St. Louis, which airs on KETC, the local PBS affiliate in the St. Louis, MO metropolitan area. Featuring an interview with William Bay, the segment highlights the history of Mel Bay, both the man and the company he founded in 1947. You can view the episode online here. Simply click on the "Mel Bay" link in the left hand column.

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7th International Guitar Festival 2007 (Singapore) &
3rd International Guitar Competition
December 3-9, 2007

Guitarists from around the world converge on Singapore, December 3rd through the 9th, for the International Guitar Festival, a popular event featuring competitions, concerts, masterclasses and seminars in venues across the city: Singapore Conference Hall, Cairnhill Community Club, Alliance Francaise, NTUC Auditorium and Garden Hotel Singapore.

Cross-cultural referencing and public participation are high on the agenda as some of the best guitarists from Europe, the USA, Latin America and Asia prepare to dazzle audiences and enthusiasts. Flamenco, folk, fusion and classical guitarists take to the stage for the evening concerts, featuring some of the world's finest musicians. Packages are available for all seminars, masterclasses and concerts. Evening and lunchtime concert tickets are also individually priced.

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Mel Bay Publications Article by The Associated Press
September 4, 2007

The Associated Press has released a news article on Mel Bay Publications entitled, "Mel Bay still teaching music at 60" by Jim Salter. William Bay, the president of Mel Bay, recounts anecdotes of his father and the history of the company Mel Bay founded in 1947. In addition, William Bay reports on the growth of the company and its' continued focus toward the future.

Read the full article below or listen to the audio version with photos.

At 60, Mel Bay Publications
Still Teaching World to Play Guitar
by Jim Salter
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

September 4, 2007

PACIFIC — For six decades, Mel Bay Publications has taught much of the world to play guitar — and accordion, banjo, even the pan flute, for that matter.

Mel Bay Publications, housed in a nondescript industrial park surrounded by farm fields 35 miles southwest of St. Louis, is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year.

It has expanded beyond the how-to-play format with sales of CDs, DVDs and an increasing online presence. Its catalog of music books is 3,000 deep, and the company recently opened an office in London to expand marketing efforts in Europe.

In the 1940s, fresh out of World War II, Mel Bay was teaching guitar in St. Louis County when he developed his own method and put it into writing with "Mel Bay's Orchestral Chord System for Guitar," intended to teach guitarists more powerful-sounding chords for use in big bands and show orchestras. He went to New York's three largest music publishers.

"They all said, 'absolutely no way. There's no future for the guitar,'" Bay's son, William Bay, recalled.

Bay decided to self-publish. He made a go of it by taking the train to other cities and meeting face-to-face with guitar teachers, pitching his method.

"A city like Cincinnati might have three people teaching guitar at that time," William Bay said.

Then along came the King.

Elvis Presley burst onto the music scene in the 1950s, ushering in rock 'n' roll. Suddenly the guitar, previously considered as little more than a rhythm instrument, was all the rage. Thanks to his contacts, guitar teachers around the country turned to Bay as students by the thousands took up the instrument.

"These teachers had more than they could handle, and they all wanted dad's methods," William Bay said.

The Beatles arrived in the early 1960s, bringing along another wave of popularity for the guitar that wavered only once — in the early 1980s when small, portable keyboards briefly were the rage. The company's biggest seller, a book for beginners called "Modern Guitar Method Grade 1," has sold 8 million copies since it came out in 1949. It has been revised four times.

"The guitar is the driving force in popular music," William Bay said. "It's a lifelong instrument. You can play by yourself. And it's an easy instrument to get to sound pretty good in a relatively short time."

Frank Vignola, whose recordings have ranged from jazz to bluegrass, said he learned guitar starting at age 6 using the Mel Bay method.

"I still use some of the Mel Bay products for study," Vignola said. "I do believe that Mel Bay is the leader in guitar studies."

The how-to books have changed over the years. Once strictly written instruction, many now include CDs that allow the students to hear how the tune is supposed to sound and play along with it.

Mel Bay died in 1997 at age 86. William, now 62, runs the company along with his son, Bryndon, 33. Another son, Collin, is studying jazz guitar at New School University in New York.

Mel Bay Publications has expanded well beyond the guitar. Its books teach dozens of instruments and styles. There are books for the clarinet, the banjo, the sax, but also for the pan flute, dulcimer and darbuka, a Middle Eastern drum. You can use a Mel Bay book to play jazz or rock, but also bluegrass or Celtic music.

In recent years, Mel Bay expanded into recordings. Its MB3, featuring jazz guitarists Vic Juris, Corey Christiansen and Jimmy Bruno, was No. 1 on the Jazz Week album chart earlier this year. It also offers DVDs featuring concerts, anthologies and jam sessions.

The Internet also has changed the way the company operates. William Bay estimates that about one-third of sales are via the Web through Amazon and other sites. Sheet music can be purchased and downloaded from the company's website, www.melbay.com.

"The old way of doing business — printing a book and letting the music store know about that book — that's changed," William Bay said. "We've got to do a lot more marketing. Now, it's a worldwide market."

William Bay declined to offer figures but said annual sales in the $10 million to $15 million range have held steady over the past several years. The company employs 70 to 80 people, depending on the season — the start of school semesters and Christmas are the busiest times.

Most workers juggle a variety of tasks. That goes for William Bay himself. On many days, he'll go into the studio with one of his guitars, performing the etudes and lessons he writes for CDs that students play along with as they learn.

He began in music playing trumpet. "In college I decided I probably needed to learn to play guitar if I wanted to remain in the family," he said.

He taught himself using his father's method books. "When you took a lesson from dad you had to make sure you never made a mistake — he'd take over and play one tune into another. You'd never get the guitar back again," William said.

That love of playing remains evident at the company. William keeps a guitar next to his desk. He recalled a company Christmas party where so many of the worker/musicians took turns the party kept going long into the night.

"We ended up with so many people playing I wasn't sure when it would end," he said with a laugh.

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