Research: Oahu Publications - Teachers and Students

Jordan Stern · From: Texas, USA

Hello! I am both a steel player (pedal and lap) and an adjunct music education professor. I am considering writing a book about the music education phenomenon that occurred when the Oahu publishing co. took advantage of the Hawaiian guitar fever that had swept the country in the 1930s, and created a massive network of teachers and students (who needed music and guitars... of course!). I have been fascinated with what I have read about Oahu publications in Troutman's Kika Kila book, and have had some great discussions on this topic with Alan Akaka.

Anyways, I was wondering if any of y'all forum members took lessons with an Oahu teacher, or were an Oahu teacher yourself. I know most of that generation of teachers have probably left this earth, although I know some of the teachers were also very young at the time. If you have any experience with the Oahu courses and teaching/learning, I would love to hear from you. My email is js1052@txstate.edu.

Jordan Stern

Bill McCloskey · Posted 6 Jul 2022 1:00 pm

Interestingly Eddie alkire worked for Oahu publishing before creating his own Hawaiian guitar publishing business.

Brad Bechtel · From: San Francisco, CA

The Wikipedia entry for Oahu Music Company may give you some leads. There's a section on the Oahu Music Company in The Hawaiian Steel Guitar and Its Great Hawaiian Musicians edited by the late Lorene Ruymar.

I wish you luck with your book!
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Glenn Wilde · From: California, USA

A book about Oahu sounds good to me, I've always loved the gear and accessories, got a decent little collection myself. The Guitarist magazine was put out by them and would seem to be your best bet for information imo, there are a lot on eBay right now, here's a link
https://www.ebay.com/itm/255585237023

Here's a couple guitars from my collection.

Joe A. Roberts · From: Seoul, South Korea

From what I’ve seen, those Guitarist magazines have been really disappointing and seemed to mainly be platforms to post group pictures of regional educational groups and generally catered to a young demographic rather than professionals or adult hobbyists, as say, BMG magazine seemed to.

Lloyd Graves · From: New York, USA

The is a guy in Clarence, NY (outside Buffalo) that sells lapsteel paraphernalia on craigslist. I've emailed him a bit. His dad taught Hawaiian guitar. I believe through Oahu.

Glenn Wilde · From: California, USA

Doug Beaumier · From: Northampton, MA

I bought a boxful of “The Guitarist” magazines on eBay about 20 years ago. The so-called magazines were primarily Oahu sales literature designed to sell guitars, bars, amps, picks, and lessons to their thousands of mail order students. There were a lot of group photos of Oahu student bands around the country and encouraging words to keep the students motivated... and to keep them buying Oahu lessons and products.

The early magazines, 1930s, didn’t have much useful information and they had very few pictures. The ones from the late 30s, early 40s, had a few interesting articles about guitars and guitarists. The most interesting article IMO was from the fall of 1941. It was about Hawaii and it featured Pearl Harbor, with pictures of how beautiful it was, the naval base, and the surrounding area. That was published just a couple of months before the bombing.

A forum search will turn up a lot of Oahu threads here with vintage pictures of students, advertising, and comments from a few members who studied the Oahu method back in the day.
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Jordan Stern · From: Texas, USA

Wow! Thanks so much for all of your very informative and helpful responses.

The book I envision will examine the Oahu company through the lens of music education (I am finishing my doctorate in music education this summer at Boston University). From what I can tell, the Oahu schools and teachers combined to create one of the largest private music education movements in the history of music teaching. I want to approach this from a critical perspective. What worked well? What didn't work well? Who participated? Why? What was Harry Stanley's motivation for starting the company? Money? Love of Hawaiian music? Perhaps both? Did cultural appropriation take place, particularly regarding folks who had never visited Hawaii writing supposed Hawaiian tunes? How did the success of the steel guitar relate to the great depression, i.e., did the relatively inexpensive steel guitar appeal to those who were effected by the depression, as opposed to the more expensive piano? There are a lot of questions I have, and many more that I will develop. I don't mind traveling to gather data, so a trip to locations such as Flint, Michigan (where Oahu was founded) and Cleveland, Ohio (where Oahu was headquartered) might be in the picture if I can find data sources in these cities.

Bill: I am planning a trip this fall to the University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign to study the Eddie Alkire archives, lots of great material there. They also have the John Philip Sousa American Music Archive, which has a lot of early steel pictures. I am curious why Eddie left Oahu. I wonder if his own work, compositions and arrangments and so forth, were being co-opted by Harry Stanley (who is listed as a composer and arranger on most Oahu sheet music publications, even though, according to what I have been told, was not a musician at all.

Brad: Thanks for the tips! The Wikipedia page was quite helpful. I love the Ruymar book, it is so well curated, and full of many different sources I can cite in my book.

Glenn: Love those guitars! I am working on buying a large collection of "The guitarist" magazines from a forum member.

Joe: Yes, I have heard the guitarist magazine was mainly a sales pitch for Oahu products. However, this itself is a fascinating source of data as I work to reconstruct what Oahu really "was." The book isn't going to simply be a history, it will be written from a music education angle, which naturally will involve a certain amount of critique.

Lloyd: Thanks for the heads up! Please send me this person's name and email address if you don't mind.

Doug: The group photos of Oahu students are going to be a very important source of data for my book. I am interested in the social phenomenon that occurred around lap steel study, how it came to be competitive (and whether the school band movement had any influence on this), and so forth.

Doug Beaumier · From: Northampton, MA

Another interesting aspect of their marketing, as I understand it, was the traveling teacher/salesman. They would go into a town and rent a hall or some other space for teaching, and knock on doors, selling guitars and a series of lessons. Then move on to another town. That’s what I’ve heard from old timers, although I’ve never seen any advertising from the period for the door to door sales.

Then there was the big Oahu Convention in Chicago. I don’t know if it was an annual event, but I’ve seen pictures of the convention, a massive room, student performances, student competitions, awards presented, etc.

There was a music store close to where I grew up that taught the Oahu method, and the store had a huge framed picture of the crowded convention room hanging on the wall. It was pretty impressive to see that when you walked into the store.

There are a lot of images of Oahu material in this thread: https://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=245550
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Bill McCloskey · Posted 12 Jul 2022 6:58 am

Notice Eddie Alkire and Dick Richardson's title. Wonder what "Exploitation" entailed?

Matt Berg · From: Pennsylvania, USA

I'm wondering if and how Oahu was integrated. It's known that the steel was (and still is) a part of certain black churches. Was their music education done through the church or Oahu or both (or some other source(s))?

Matt Berg · From: Pennsylvania, USA

I'm wondering if and how Oahu was integrated. It's known that the steel was (and still is) a part of certain black churches. Was their music education done through the church or Oahu or both (or some other source(s))?

Matt Berg · From: Pennsylvania, USA

I'm wondering if and how Oahu was integrated. It's known that the steel was (and still is) a part of certain black churches. Was their music education done through the church or Oahu or both (or some other source(s))?

Bill McCloskey · Posted 12 Jul 2022 8:38 am

Matt, you posted the same thing 3 times. Maybe a glitch on your end?

George Duncan Sypert · From: Colo Spgs, Co, USA

I started taking the Oahu standard guitar course in April of 1953. My brother did the steel course. Our teacher recently passed. He was about 18 or 19 at the time, a member of the Texas National Guard..He had taken his lessons from a Mr Rogers in Holland Texas I believe. Their courses were very good and if you completed the entire course (I didn't, but did do about the 1st year) you were well prepared to play your instrument depending upon your talent level and desire.

My friend Doyle took the entire 2 year course and has made his living with the knowledge he learned for the last 60 plus years. He is a great player both standard guitar and pedal steel.

Without the Oahu Music courses and teachers there would be many less proficient musicians than there are today.

Good luck with your book.

Doug Beaumier · From: Northampton, MA

Matt Berg · From: Pennsylvania, USA

Bill McCloskey · Posted 12 Jul 2022 5:11 pm

You can delete if no one else has replied yet. Once someone replies, you can't delete anymore But you can pm the moderator and maybe they can delete for you.

Doug Beaumier · From: Northampton, MA

Or you could Edit the duplicate posts… wipe out all of the text and just put -edit- or -duplicate post- or something like that.
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Michael Hillman · From: Boise, Idaho, USA

I've really enjoyed reading through these comments-brings back a lot of memories of my earliest attempts to play music. An Oahu salesman came through our little rural Idaho community in 1956 and was allowed to send a printed flyer home with any of the kids in grades 6 through 8 of Parker Elementary School who might be interested. I discussed my interest with my parents, and they let me to sign up for weekly lessons. I do not recall all the costs involved, it must have been reasonable for the times, as things were always a bit tight financially for us. I do remember my first attempts to wear finger/thumb picks and hold the bar, I thought that would never be something I could do, but it turned out that with practice, I could. Our teacher turned out to be a second cousin of mine, an accomplished violinist, the Oahu people couldn't find anyone else willing to sit with 5 or 6 kids and patiently teach them to read the treble clef in open E tuning. Her name was Gayle Seeley, and she told me many years later that she'd never had any experience with lap steel or any other guitars. She took eight lessons at Chesbro Music in Idaho Falls, and they pronounced her ready to be an Oahu instructor. Shortly after that, she found a number of Oahu acoustic guitars with the raised nut, and boxes of music on her front doorstep. I was in my 13th year, and, having survived a serious case of polio that left me with one weakened leg, not able to play sports--sitting for hours with the guitar on my lap was a great way to spend time, especially during the brutal Eastern Idaho winter. I became proficient enough that my parents could actually recognize the songs I'd been working on, and we traded the Oahu acoustic in on a little white Supro lap steel (the one with the geometric style fretboard in black) and a red and white Supro amp. That caused me to practice a little more, and I was just beginning to find some other tunings to experiment with when I was about 15. Admittedly, songs like "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" and "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen" weren't what this 15-year-old was really interested in playing. About that time, one of my Oahu classmate's older brothers stopped by to show us the new Gibson archtop he'd just bought. He showed us C, F and G7, and the interest in all things lap steel started to wane. I persuaded my parents to let me trade the Supro equipment in on a used Gibson J200, that had a DeArmond pickup, and a Silvertone Sears amp. I attended every jam session I could to learn as much about guitar as possible given the constraints of a sparsely populated area, and shortly after that saved up enough ($125.00) to buy a double necked Danelectro (shown in my avatar) since no one was playing bass when we'd get together and jam. With the help of my high school physics teacher, I built my own bass amp, (another story that involved buying an 18" speaker from a drive-in movie theatre owner) since there was no way I could afford what Leo was building at the time. It is interesting to note that from that handful of Oahu students, three of us went on to have bands of our own, one traveling throughout the Pacific Northwest for several years, with a band called "Sage Junction" and one based in Salt Lake City, opening for Ernest Tubb as well as playing weekends there for many years. Just after college, my wife and I were part of a country rock band for well over 40 years, and still jam with those guys just for fun, but quit playing "out" in 1999. I am very thankful for the Oahu organization that was the foundation for all things musical in this farm kid's life. I doubt that I'd ever have the interest in bass, guitar, Dobro and lap steel that I have today without it.
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David Ball · From: North Carolina High Country

That's a great story, Michael. Thanks for sharing it.

Dave

Andy Volk · From: Boston, MA

From Doug Beaumier in 2008.

Bill McCloskey · Posted 13 Jul 2022 7:28 am

The real test would be for the lawyer to randomly pick a piece of sheet music off the shelf and see if they could play it. When Eddie Alkire directly competed with Oahu, his lessons were aimed to teach sheet music from the first lesson. forcing people to learn tab rather than notation is not advantageous to the student but works well for the publisher who keeps them locked into their publications and their arrangements. Like teaching paint by numbers rather painting from life.

Brooks Montgomery · From: Idaho, USA

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