Oahu Publishing Co. sheet music covers

Chris Renna · Post by **Chris Renna** » 1 May 2013 10:15 am

Hello all,

I was just given a bunch of Oahu Publishing and Leon Coleman steel guitar sheet music. Have scans of this stuff already been posted here? If not I will scan some of the Oahu covers as some are pretty entertaining. Love the look of some the line art.

Looks like the tuning is not one I will be delving into as I am sticking with C6 these days, but who knows maybe one day.

George Rout · Post by **George Rout** » 1 May 2013 3:53 pm

Hi Chris. I love the artwork and pictures on the old music. Are they notation or "diagram" (now known as TAB). What is the tuning, A Major, or E Major by chance????

Geo

Chris Renna · Post by **Chris Renna** » 2 May 2013 3:59 am

Hi George,

the Coleman book has music notation and says the tuning is E A E A C# E low to high which he calls "key of A or Spanish Tuning".

The Oahu sheet musics are all tablature with no mention of tuning that I have found yet.

Here is another scan:

- C

George Rout · Post by **George Rout** » 2 May 2013 4:29 am

Hi Chris and thanks so much for your note and picture. The work that went into that pen and ink drawing of the picks and positions of them is not something you'd see these days.

I've never seen a piece of Oahu TAB where it doesn't name the tuning. Does it possibly have the notes of each string written down the left end. Or if it has the chord names at the bottom of the stanzas, we at least can know what Key the tune is in.

See the sample of Cheatin' Heart below.

Geo

Chris Renna · Post by **Chris Renna** » 3 May 2013 4:48 am

This batch of sheet music has no mention of tunings that I have found. Here is a scan of 1/2 of a song and its cover:

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 3 May 2013 7:22 am

The early Oahu music was written for the A tuning, either high bass or low bass. That's what the music shown above is written for.

The A minor 7th tuning is C6th.

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 3 May 2013 9:51 am

It's interesting to see the names Bronson and Alkire on the early Oahu sheet music. Both of those gentlemen became very successful teachers and publishers of steel guitar material in their own right. Both had teaching studios, wrote and sold books, and both had a line of steel guitars branded in their name. Alkire is in the steel guitar Hall of Fame.

George Rout · Post by **George Rout** » 3 May 2013 4:40 pm

Hello Chris and Erv (and Doug);

Erv, you are correct re the early method was the A Major tuning. First was the Low Bass, then the High Bass. The Low Bass allows a solo performer to accompany him/herself better because the open A tuning is limited to playing 6th, 7ths, minors etc.

Just so everybody knows, Low Bass is EC#AEAE hi to low.

High Bass is EC#AEC#A, only the last two strings differ.

Just going back a step for a moment for Chris' benefit. Chris, if you didn't know it, that music you posted is for two guitars playing together. The top stanzas are for the lead (first) guitar and the lower for the 2nd guitar. Note how the TAB of the lower stanzas is just chording.

Note the last bar in the first stanza. It has a 10 on the first string and a 0 on the last string. Playing these two notes is like an E7th. Note that the chord notation in the bar (2nd guitar) below shows E7th.

Chris, I might add here, that if you had a guitar tuned in the Low Bass G tuning, DBGDGD, you can readily play this TAB, but where it shows A chord, it will be a G chord, an E chord will be a D chord and so on, all will be 2 notes lower from A to G.

I was also going to mention what Doug stated, it's somewhat unique that Eddie Alkire had a hand in this music.

Oahu was a great marketing business success. They sold bars, picks, guitars, amps, all the accessories you could think of. I was 11 when I took lessons in Halifax in 1948 and I thought it was the cat's meow to wear one of those Oahu brightly coloured shiny braided cords (not chords!!!) around your neck.

When one of my sons was a young boy, he asked me if Roy Smeck owned "this"bar before me because his name was stamped in the end of it. It was just another Oahu marketing item.

I have most of my old two years of A Major lessons plus much more which I have accumulated over the years. It's a lot of good memories although some of the old music was "corny"!!!!

I still play a lot in A Major High Bass and teach in the Low Bass tuning. In this era of speed and time is of the essence, people want to learn to play "something" in a very short time. A Major allows that to be accomplished.

Thanks again for posting that Chris.

Geo

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 3 May 2013 5:32 pm

I agree, George, Oahu Publishing was a huge marketing machine. Here's something I posted in an earlier Oahu thread:

About a dozen years ago I bought a whole box of old Oahu Co. magazines from 1939 to 1941 called "The Guitarist"... about 40 magazines. Oahu sent the magazines out worldwide to Oahu students and customers back in the day to keep them motivated and interested in buying Oahu products. The magazines were Loaded with pictures of student players... One issue featured an Oahu Convention in Chicago in a huge ballroom, hundreds of attendees, performances, student competitions and awards ceremonies... All Oahu, and all designed to promote the company's products, amps, guitars, steel guitars, sheet music and accessories and keep the students psyched.

One particular issue was kind of eerie... Sept. 1941. It featured Pearl Harbor, the "Jewel of the Pacific", and showed the ships and the night life in Hawaii, the music, the players and dancers, etc. Of course three months later was the horrific attack on Pearl Harbor.

George Rout · Post by **George Rout** » 3 May 2013 5:55 pm

Thanks so much for posting that pic and info. As a kid, I vaguely remember seeing that magazine. I had forgotten all about and have never seen one in 60 years!!!

Those International Hawaiian guitar conventions in Chicago were quite the thing. A chap, Norm English tuned each and every one of the over 200 guitars. I have some pics on file somewhere of the crowd. There is some mention of it and Norm English in Lorene Ruymer's great book on the Hawaiian Guitar and it's Music (I may not have the title correct at the moment).

Back to Chris's music for a sec, I have a few of George Bronson's music folios of tunes.

Thanks again.

Geo

Joe Snow · Post by **Joe Snow** » 3 May 2013 7:30 pm

I still have some Oahu sheet music from steel guitar lessons I took in 58-59 when a young kid. The EZ (tab) I learned was Emajor then E7, though some of the sheet music also had Am7 and A tuning versions. I started on music notation (E7 tuning) late in my short time of taking lessons.

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 3 May 2013 8:53 pm

A chap, Norm English tuned each and every one of the over 200 guitars.

Norman English is another Oahu disciple who went on to open his own teaching studio, in Lansing MI. I heard that he had an entire building with several floors. He did enough business to have Valco Co. build and brand lap steels and amps for him: English Electronics. It's amazing how many players came out of the Oahu schools. Oahu had 1200 teaching studios throughout the US and Canada, and is said to have graduated about 200,000 students in all. They also offered teaching positions and studios to the 'top graduates'.

There was a music store in Holyoke Mass. years ago that taught the Oahu method. I went there often when I was a teenage rock guitarist wannabe, back in the 60s. There was a big picture of the Oahu Convention hall in Chicago hanging in the store. The store owner's wife taught steel guitar lessons. At the time I wasn't quite sure what a steel guitar was, although I had heard the term. My main interests at the time were girls, cars, and guitars.

Bob Stone · Post by **Bob Stone** » 6 May 2013 5:19 am

This is one of my favorites.

Enjoy!

Bob

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 6 May 2013 7:50 am

Some of the Oahu ads are pretty funny. Reminds me of the ads in cheapo magazines back in the 1950s... Earn CASH Now in Mail Order!!! It's Easy and Fun!!!

Here's an interesting announcement that was on the back cover of Oahu's monthly magazine called The Guitarist:

G Strout · Post by **G Strout** » 12 May 2013 5:59 pm

Jack McLean · Post by **Jack McLean** » 12 Aug 2015 2:50 pm

Did you by any chance come across this image below? I'm trying to track an original down.

If you have it, would you mind emailing me at jack@lomaxfilms.com? Thanks!

George Rout · Post by **George Rout** » 12 Aug 2015 4:59 pm

Jack, he cannot do that. I'm going to collect the $100 reward for copying that document!!!!!!

Geo

Jack McLean · Post by **Jack McLean** » 12 Aug 2015 5:20 pm

Wait, does that mean you actually have a copy, Geo? I found it here: http://www.ukuleleawesomesauce.com/blog ... lishing-co

... or is that wishful thinking on my part?

George Rout · Post by **George Rout** » 12 Aug 2015 5:32 pm

Don't get exccited Jack. Doug Beaumier posted back two posts a warning for a $100 reward by Oahu for anybody who copies, mimiographs, even hand written Oahu materials will be charged for copyright infringement. My post was just a joke in that respect!!!!!!!!!!

Geo

George Rout · Post by **George Rout** » 12 Aug 2015 5:34 pm

Don't get exccited Jack. Doug Beaumier posted back two posts a warning for a $100 reward by Oahu for anybody who copies, mimiographs, even hand written Oahu materials will be charged for copyright infringement. My post was just a joke in that respect!!!!!!!!!!

Geo

Dennis Smith · Post by **Dennis Smith** » 12 Aug 2015 10:30 pm

A few more Oahu .

George Rout · Post by **George Rout** » 13 Aug 2015 2:34 am

Thanks Dennis. I particularly enjoy the old pic of Andy Iona and his group. What class, neckties et al. You can almost feel the music looking at that picture.

Great stuff.

Geo

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 13 Aug 2015 6:18 am

I love the Oahu propaganda that promises you money, success, and girls, if you just practice your steel guitar!

Mark Roeder · Post by **Mark Roeder** » 13 Aug 2015 7:21 am

I love the art. It is so high-society.....

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 13 Aug 2015 7:41 am

Yes, it's so Deco, 1930s. A lot of depression era advertising sold the image of high society... the idea that people could improve their situation, get rich, if only they had this product or that product.
By the way, that $100 reward would about $1000 in today's money.