minor chords and accidentals...

nick manoloff published a number of how to play guitar guides, books, and sheet music in the 1930's. this beautiful art deco looking accompaniment guide was published in 1935, and came free with "book no. 1". there's a window wheel on the outside and a chord and finger position wheel on the inside so that one can spin the inner wheel to find which chords accompany which key... there's also a picture of the finger positions and major and minor key positions on the back. i really like the the idea that there are known chords called accidentals.

while looking manoloff up online i found this excerpt from an interview with bb king. apparently king began to learn guitar fingering and to read music through nick's books and most likely a little disc like this one.

"There was a guy called Nick Manoloff. Nick Manoloff had books. Guitar instruction books in the Sears Roebuck catalogue, the big one. I'd order those books and I studied them religiously, and that's how I learned to put my fingers on - learned how to tune a guitar and learned my first bit of learning how to read music. I'm a blues singer, a blues musician, but I can read music - not fast, but I do - and I learned to even write a little bit."
bb king