Oahu Steel Guitar Method

[Kenneth Kotsay]

How many steel players have taken the, OAHU MODERN NOTE METHOD for Steel Guitar?

Back in May 1965 when I was 16 years old I started taking A-6th Hawaiian steel guitar lessons from late Cedric Lindsey of Flushing N.Y. At that time he was 70 years old, he also taught guitar & tap dancing. His experience with the steel guitar goes back to the late 1920s.

I was able to complete lessons 1 thru 56, but due to having discovered fine young looking chicks (birds & bees stuff) I ended my steel guitar lessons.

Any regrets.....................well you got to understand these chicks were mighty fine, mighty fine and besides they were after this 17 year old guy, what eles can I say.


KEN

[David Matzenik]

Love A6th! and those memories.

[Jeff Au Hoy]

Those are some hot grandmothers.

[John Limbach]

I took up lap steel three years ago at age 67 with no musical background or experience (talent either, it appears).

Went looking for a teacher and it turns out the lady (age 80) that owns the studio where my grandson took guitar lessons had played steel for years and agreed to take me on.

She used the same Oahu lessons that she had learned years ago. Most are copyrighted late 30's and early 1940's. We did it in open E and E7 instead of A, but all the lessons had A arrangements as well.

Not easy for an old dog to learn new tricks, but I have a lot of persistence (hard-headed) and I'm managing. Got to about lesson 60 and decided that I needed more specific instruction on technique, switched to C6 and am taking Skype lessons from John Ely.

I have a complete copy of both the Modern Note Method and the Advanced Professional Course and may look at them again soon since I just got a D8 Stringmaster and will put E7 on the back neck for the time being.

[Rich Gardner]

I took lessons back in the late fifties and early sixties using the Oahu method. I studied at Vi's School of Music in Tiffin, OH. I remember starting out in E7 and A6. Did C#m and eventually C6. I don't think Oahu did instruction in C6, and to be honest, I don't remember the instruction material for C6. There was a point in time I was taking lessons on the lap steel and lesson on the regular guitar. Oahu had instruction on the plectrum guitar. Good times then.

[Robert Allen]

I took Oahu lessons from Chalero Music in Springfield, MA back in 1945 through 1949 high bass A tuning. Then changed to Pizzatola Music with an instructor who taught a different course in E7th tuning. I didn't learn C6th tuning until I retired 10 years ago. I'm proof you can teach an old dog new tricks. I never let my musical endeavors get sidetracked by any young women.

[Doug Beaumier]

...changed to Pizzatola Music with an instructor who taught a different course in E7th tuning.

I remember Pizzatola Music in Holyoke. Bob Ezold ran the store, taught guitar and some lap steel in the '50s into the 70s. His wife also taught lap steel. She went to the Oahu Music Co. convention in Chicago and had a big picture of the convention on the wall. I was a young kid at the time. Seems like 100 years ago. Actually, it was only 50!

[Robert Allen]

Doug, Pizzatola also had a studio on Worthington St in Springfield which is where I took lessons. Yes, I think Bob Ezold was the instructor. He may have split his time between the two stores. That building was first torn down to make way for a bus terminal then the bus terminal was torn down to make way for I-91. Been many years for me, too. I left Massachusetts in 1993. Did you ever meet Felix Chalero who had the store on Dwight Street in Springfield and taught the Oahu method? I was 8 years old at the time I started. We lived in Ludlow so it was a big ride each week traveling 10 miles each way in the old Model "A" Ford.

[Glen E. Lanning]

I took almost all of the Oahu lessons through Hup's Music (Now Roselyn's Music) in Dover, Ohio, in the early 1950's. It covered the "E", "am7", "C# minor" tunings. I still have at least 90% of the music we studied. Uploaded a picture of my teacher. Now you know why it took me so long to learn!

[Doug Beaumier]

Bob, I never met Felix Chalero, although I remember hearing about Chalero's Music when I was very young. I lived in West Springfield. Believe it or not, I took accordian lessons for a while at a music store in Springfield, about 1960, and I think it may have been Chalero's Music. Maybe that's why the name stands out in my mind. I didn't last long with the accordian! When the Beatles appeared in 1964 I was hooked on guitar. We used to hang out at "Accordian Mart" on Riverdale in W.S., which stocked Gibson and Fender guitars/amps... way more than accordians. I didn't get into steel until about 1970.

[Doug Beaumier]

Where do I sign up?!

[Glen E. Lanning]

She is still teaching. She is the owner of Roselyn's Music.

[Joe Snow]

I took Oahu based lessons 58 and 59 (I was 8 and 9)from Siglers studio in Tyler Texas. Quit for little league baseball; one of my regrets since I was a bad player on a bad team. I started with EZ method (tablature) in E. Was working on playing notation near the end of my lesson "career". Some music was also tabbed in Am7, which is what Oahu called C6 at the time. I still have the same Fender Champ amp my parents bought me in 58, and still play through it regularly.

[Kenneth Kotsay]

My only regret was I never completed the A-6th lessons, Mr. Lindsey had me set up for the E7th lessons down the road once I finished the A6th tuning.

I was young back then and my brain was able to breeze through the steel lessons in a flash.

I still have all the lessons pack away in a box. I also have my double neck 6 string Fender String Master from 1966. Paid $225 bucks at Sam Ash store in Hempstead, Long Island.

In 1975 I discovered steel again but it was pedal steel for my future.

KEN

[Danny James]

I started taking lessons from Harlin Brothers Hawaiian Guitar studio / store in Indianapolis Indiana in 1948 at age 10.

Harlins used the Oahu Method, mostly in A, E7th, & C#mi7th tunings.

Then they used their own arrangements for their Multi-Kords, of which Jay Harlin was the inventor and held the first patent on a pedal steel guitar.

I still have two Multi-Kords, one is a very early design, an all cast aluminum model which I still have that my father bought for me when I started taking lessons.

I took lessons for 4 years,-- then I was a student teacher on Saturdays while still in high school for 2 yrs.

I still have a lot of that Oahu lesson music and have actually taught using it recently.

[George Rout]

Glad to hear that somebody else took lessons in A Major and E Major back in the dark ages.

Geo

[Dom Franco]

I was taught the Oahu method from 1961-1965 at the Santa Ana House of Music....

[Bob McEvoy]

I just found this discussion and if anyone is still reading it, I thought I would chime in.
Yes I took those lessons.
Ron Dearth from Lima Ohio used their music for his lessons. I still have some of that music. Not sure what to do with it.
I thought that they published in c6, however I see that he tabbed songs in C6.
I heard that Jerry Byrd paid for his first steel guitar from Dearth by writing up some music he used in his lessons. Those may have been the hand written music in C6. What a thought.

[Erv Niehaus]

There was another teaching method by Bronson, I have some of those in addition to the Oahu lessons.

[Don Mogle]

Can you buy this course somewhere?