Oahu Publishing Course Material

George Fischer · From: California, USA

I'm doing a little bit of research and trying to piece together The old Oahu courses. I've got this crazy idea that I want to run through the Beginners Hawaiian Guitar Diagram Course 1B-60B as was documented on an old enrollment contract.

In pulling various lessons together I've discovered a number of courses but information as well as lessons are scattered and need to be pulled from many different sources to get something resembling complete courses.

So far I've seen references to the following courses:

Hawaiian Guitar Courses
Beginners Diagram
Professional Theatrical (Diagram)
Harmony & Arranging (Note)
Advanced Harmony and Orchestral Tunings
Manager's Instructor's Course
Spanish Guitar Courses
Beginner's Diagram
Professional Theatrical (Diagram)
Harmony & Arranging (Note)
String Bass

I'm mainly interested in the Hawaiian Guitar material. It appears as though the Beginners Diagram material runs from 1B-60B with a certain amount of reuse of the series numbers and lesson topics as the course was modified and changed over the years. Some renumbering and topic changes seem to coincide with the change from a single color sheet to a two color sheet

Second, I'm running across some material with "A" and "E" suffixes in the series. It's not clear to me yet which series these lessons fall into. One of the A series lessons also has a 74B series number typed on it which is shaking up my 60 beginner lesson theory. I'd appreciate if anyone could help clarify these issues. I'm seeing "PN" and "PT" suffixes and need an opinion on what series they belong too.

I'm curious too about the Manager's instructor's course and was wondering if this was primarily a business management course or was it music and music education related.

What I really need is a collective brain dump on the old Oahu Publishing Company Course material or pointers to any documentation that clearly identifies the course content at any given point in time.

Thanks.

George

Ernest Cawby · From: Lake City, Florida, USA, R.I.P.

I do not know if this is what you want, but it is one lesson from OAHU

MODERN NOTE METHOD

ERNIE

George Fischer · From: California, USA

I just ran across the Modern Note Method and they look interesting but I wanted to stay focused on the older 1930's lessons for now. My goal is to get as close as possible to the material as documented on the back of an old enrollment contract.

It's been a bit cryptic to track all of these down since the Lesson numbers, titles and subject matter have changed over the years. At this point I've got a working list of about 200 lessons that I compiled from various sources covering the Oahu A Series, B series, PN, PT, and EZ Series. If there is interest I'll post it.

John Limbach · From: Billings, Montana, USA

Heck, I decided to take up the lap steel about 6 months ago (with no prior musical experience), at the tender age of 67.

Turned out my grandson's guitar teacher (who is almost 80) also plays the lap steel. Her father was also a music teacher and she learned back in the 40's on the Oahu PN series course, which is what she's using to teach me. Bit of a throwback to be playing in E Major and E7 tuning when the rest of the world has moved on to (mostly) C6th. Sort of like the blind leading the hopeless. But what the heck, vintage material for a vintage student.

However, although I may not have much (any) talent, I do have hardheaded persistence and am making progress in fits and starts. Sort of like when I first learned to fly. Some days I felt like I couldn't hit the ground even with the aid of gravity. I have lots of days like that on the lap steel but at least I don't damage anything but my pride when I screw up.

At any rate, I have seen some of the old diagram method stuff on e-bay and at vintage music places. Also the PN method sheets. I've been picking up some to fill in some gaps in my teacher's collection.

George Fischer · From: California, USA

What I'm finding is that the old Oahu course material is all over the place and available at Ebay, Amazon, estate sales, and antique stores. Prices are all over the place too. The same piece of music can be purchased for $0.30 to $15.50. Pricing has no relationship to condition. It seems to be based solely on the seller's bias that if something is old and they're trying to sell it, it must be worth more. Some seller's seem genuinely amazed that someone would actually buy the material to play and not just frame it in some collection Smile

If something is too high priced just wait a minute. There is always someone cleaning out grandma's attic and I swear at times I thought that I was the only person interested in this stuff --maybe I am Smile

It's been fun so far. I've run across some interesting people and discovered lots of good old songs. I've got about 100 hours into this already between researching the material, locating it, buying it, scanning it and organizing it

I'm getting closer to my goal. It's more work than I thought and I'm looking forward to wrapping it up and just concentrating on playing though the course. It should be interesting.

John Limbach · From: Billings, Montana, USA

The PT series is titled: "Oahu Advanced Harmony Note Course for Hawaiian and Electric Guitar, A Professional Training Series teaching E7 and C# Minor Tunings"

I'm looking for numbers 6PT thru 66PT in that series. If anyone runs across these I'd appreciate an e-mail to john@bigskyaero.com

John

Don Kona Woods · From: Hawaiian Kama'aina

I think that I may have a solution for you. Idea

I know a person who taught the entire Oahu Conservatory of Music courses, who still has in her possession those items which you may wish to have. She has numerous sets and this would be a good opportunity for you to get them.

She is wanting to sell her collection and her price is 25 cents per sheet or song.

You can give her a telephone call at:
1-815-399-1917

I hope you will find this helpful! Smile

Aloha,

Don

Bill Creller · From: Saginaw, Michigan, USA (deceased)

I had a couple of friends who learned the "number" system in the 30s on with the Oahu course.
The neat thing about what I remember, is that they played their own accompaniment on the bass strings, which I thought was cool!
It would be interesting to hear some of that type of playing in these times.

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