Influence
Many guitarists have, at some point, studied from Mel’s method books. Sales of his Modern Guitar Method series are estimated to be well in excess of 20 million copies. Mel Bay established the structure for modern guitar education and by so doing, helped create the foundation for the continued growth and advancement of the instrument. It is safe to say that Mel Bay is one of the pivotal figures in the world of guitar music and instruction in the 20th century. Mel Bay was still playing guitar everyday until his death in 1997 at age 84.
The song "Ode to Mel Bay" (written and first recorded by Michael "Supe" Granda of the Ozark Mountain Daredevils and featured on the album The Day Finger Pickers Took Over the World by Tommy Emmanuel and Chet Atkins), pokes fun at Mel Bay's books.
Read more about this topic: Mel Bay
Famous quotes containing the word influence:
“Women stand related to beautiful nature around us, and the enamoured youth mixes their form with moon and stars, with woods and waters, and the pomp of summer. They heal us of awkwardness by their words and looks. We observe their intellectual influence on the most serious student. They refine and clear his mind: teach him to put a pleasing method into what is dry and difficult.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Mothers have as powerful an influence over the welfare of future generations, as all other causes combined.”
—John Abbott. The Mother at Home; or the Principles of Maternal Duty, John Abbott, Crocker and Brewster (1833)
“The higher the state of civilization, the more completely do the actions of one member of the social body influence all the rest, and the less possible is it for any one man to do a wrong thing without interfering, more or less, with the freedom of all his fellow-citizens.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)