Guitar Tuna Blog

History-College to Now

2008-08-25T19:14:00.006-05:00

The band teacher at Dickson High School my senior year had studied percussion at Southwestern Oklahoma State University. He encouraged me to try out there on the baritone horn. I tried out and received a scholarship for tuition, books and fees. I actually received 2 scholarships for tuition, books and fees...one was an academic scholarship, and the other was music. I started as an instrumental major on the baritone horn, but after taking Men's Glee Club with Mr. Casey, I changed my major to combined instrumental and vocal at his urging. I was one of two music students in my class that had a combined instrumental/vocal major. The other was Jeff Leslie, who at one time was my room mate and is now a songwriting partner of mine. In college I studied all aspects of music and took private vocal, baritone horn, guitar, and piano lessons. For my senior recital, I sang, played classical guitar, and played the baritone horn.

After graduating from college, I taught 2 years in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico; 1 year in Hinton, Oklahoma, 1 year in Waurika, OK, and after taking a break from teaching for a few years, I taught 1 year in Dover, OK. I taught 5th-12th grade band and 5th-12th grade choir. During this time I decided that teaching in the public school system was not for me.

From 1979 until now, I have worked in several fields in addition to teaching school...radio announcer/dj, Hardee's manager, Braum's manager, home remodeling, respiratory service technician, and management support team at WalMart. One thing was constant during those years---my love for music. My involvement in music grew from singing and playing guitar to writing songs, arranging music, collaborating on songs, and leading worship (traditional and contemporary). 90% of my music experience has been church related.

In 1985 we moved to Enid--we meaning my family of 7 at the time--Karen my wife, Isaac, Daniel, David, Rebekah, and Noah. Gideon was born after we moved. in 1997, I was working for Jensen's Music (later Brook Mays Music, and now Midwest Music). I noticed the number of folks coming in asking about guitar lessons and decided to give it a try. It wasn't long before I had a full schedule of students on Monday nights. Soon every night was full, and I found a job that allowed me to get off earlier in the day so I could start lessons as soon as public school was out. Harvest School of Music---now Guitar Tuna---was born in 1997. At some points in the history of the studio, we have had over 80 students taking lessons on a weekly basis. Twice during that time I employed an additional teacher. One was my son Isaac, who died with his friends Sarah, Stevo, and Aaron in a car accident in 2006. After that, a former outstanding student, Luke Buthman, taught with me for a time.

Right now, I teach alone and have a waiting list of over 30 students.

History--my first guitar through high school

2008-08-21T20:19:00.003-05:00

My name is Dale King. This year I will be 51 and I have been playing the guitar since junior high. I have taught guitar in Enid, Oklahoma since 1997...11 years this year. I teach guitar, bass guitar, and music theory in the evenings, and during the day I am the Maintenance Director at the Denny Price Family YMCA.

I'm told by my parents that when I was a little boy I was given a toy guitar. For reasons only known to God, I called it my 'look-guitar'. No matter how many time my parents tried to get me to say 'guitar' it always came out 'look-guitar'.

Whenever we visited my Grandma's house, I noticed my uncle's guitar in his room. He was a teenager at the time. Some years later he gave that guitar to my family, but it wasn't well taken care of and was soon unusable.

In grade school I found that I loved to sing, and I loved to sing LOUD! The teacher had to ask me to sing a little softer in the class play so I wouldn't drown out my classmates. In junior high, I joined the school chorus and my love for music grew, due in no small part to a wonderful choir teacher, Mrs. Kizer. I also became more involved in the music program at the church.

Around the 8th or 9th grade, I saved my money and bought a $99 classical guitar. Mama paid for lessons for me, but they were a disappointment. I soon lost interest and the lessons stopped. The guitar was stored on a shelf in the closet for a couple of years.

Meanwhile at the church, a beautiful young lady who played guitar had moved into the community. She started playing and singing with our youth choir. By now, I had some experience in choir and had joined the newly-formed concert band at our school. I was in the 9th grade. I had also gained an understanding of music theory. As I watched the newcomer play and sing, I decided that I could do that too. My guitar came out of the closet and the new girl in church taught me quite a bit about fingerstyle playing. Now that I could read music, I bought some books and began to learn more on my own. It wasn't long before I was accompanying myself and others at church and at school.

Welcome to Guitar Tuna

2008-06-18T18:13:00.001-05:00

Welcome!