Ronald Leventhal (March 2, 1927 – April 22, 2015), known professionally as Ronny Lee, was an American guitarist who wrote method books and taught at Kingsborough Community College of the

City University of New York The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven Upper divis ...

. He wrote popular, classical, and rock guitar arrangements for

Hansen Publications Chas. H. Hansen Music Corp. was an American music publisher founded by Charles Henry Hansen (1913–1995) in 1952 and incorporated in New York. Its music covered a broad spectrum of genres that included classical (opera, orchestra, band, choral ...

Sam Fox Publishing Company The Sam Fox Publishing Company was an American music publishing house, founded in 1906 by Sam Fox of Cleveland, Ohio. The company was the first to publish original film scores in the United States, and was the publisher of numerous artists and int ...

, and Alfred Music. He conducted workshops and seminars for music teachers was a judge at music festivals. Lee performed in clubs, in jazz, rock and pop recording sessions, at resort hotels, and in a concert with the New York Philharmonic. He accompanied singers

Eydie Gormé Eydie Gormé ( ; born Edith Gormezano; August 16, 1928 – August 10, 2013) was an American singer who had hits on the pop and Latin pop charts. She sang solo and in the duo Steve and Eydie with her husband, Steve Lawrence, on albums and telev ...

and

Fran Warren Frances Wolff (March 4, 1926 – March 4, 2013), known professionally as Fran Warren, was an American singer.D'Angelico guitar. At sixteen—having adopted the professional name Ronny Lee—he appeared as a featured soloist on local radio station WNEW's Bobby Sox Canteen Show. As the show was being prepared to go on network radio, Lee turned eighteen and was drafted "shortly after his eighteenth birthday". Since that birthday was March 2, 1945, we can assume he would have arrived at a military camp by April 1, 1945. If Lee was drafted into the U. S. Army ground forces to serve as a rifleman—the most needed speciality, he would then have received 17 weeks of training before being considered ready to report to a front-line unit. By August 1, 1945 World War II had been over in Europe for nearly 3 months. After the first atomic bomb was successfully exploded at Alamogordo on July 16, and even more after atomic bombs were dropped on Japan on August 6 and 9, it was obvious that a U. S. land invasion of the main islands of Japan would not be necessary. When Lee was discharged, he studied engineering—funded by the

G. I. Bill The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, commonly known as the G.I. Bill, was a law that provided a range of benefits for some of the returning World War II veterans (commonly referred to as G.I.s). The original G.I. Bill expired in 1956, bu ...

—at the RCA Institutes of Technology. At the same time he played club dates and taught guitar to a limited number of students. Lee studied guitar privately with Shadow Ferber, Anthony Antone, John Sigelitto, Nicholas DeBonis, Hy White, Charles Ruoff, and Juan De la Mata—with whom he later wrote "Flamenco Guitar Method".

Musician

At the end of his studies, Lee decided to become a professional musician. He worked with "society" orchestras, and filled out his daily schedule by teaching guitar students at their homes. He played at resort hotels in the Catskills and New Jersey during the summer months, often as a classical and jazz soloist or accompanying recording stars There Lee acquired experience as a "pit musician"; he frequently read from violin and conductor parts while backing up vocal, dance, comedy, and novelty acts. From 1959 Lee began accepting dates for occasional recording sessions. Over the years he accompanied such singers as

and

Fran Warren Frances Wolff (March 4, 1926 – March 4, 2013), known professionally as Fran Warren, was an American singer.Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhatta ...

was as guitar accompanist to the Pilar Gomez Spanish Ballet troupe in 1962.Date-labeled photo from unidentified NYC Spanish-language newspaper. In March 1968 Lee played in a

Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 millio ...

benefit concert for the New York Philharmonic Orchestra's Pension Fund, in a concert version of Oklahoma! featuring

Howard Da Silva Howard Da Silva (born Howard Silverblatt, May 4, 1909 – February 16, 1986) was an American actor, director and musical performer on stage, film, television and radio. He was cast in dozens of productions on the New York stage, appeared in mo ...

, who played Jud Fry in the original Broadway production. The performance was conducted by Skitch Henderson, with

Richard Rodgers Richard Charles Rodgers (June 28, 1902 – December 30, 1979) was an American Musical composition, composer who worked primarily in musical theater. With 43 Broadway musicals and over 900 songs to his credit, Rodgers was one of the most ...

himself coming out to conduct the Encore. In 1969, Lee played tenor banjo and guitar with the Philharmonic, under the direction of Andre Kostelanetz—with Veronica Tyler and

Robert Mosley Robert Mosley (1927 – April 30, 2002) was an American operatic bass-baritone. Part of the first generation of African-American opera singers to achieve wide success, he performed in numerous opera productions, recitals, and in concerts f ...

—performing excerpts from the Gershwins'

Porgy and Bess ''Porgy and Bess'' () is an English-language opera by American composer George Gershwin, with a libretto written by author DuBose Heyward and lyricist Ira Gershwin. It was adapted from Dorothy Heyward and DuBose Heyward's play '' Porgy'', itse ...

Teacher and technical expert

Lee opened his first guitar studio in November 1954. He created many original lessons for his students, thus beginning his writing career. Aided by his wife Frances—whom he married in 1957—he opened a larger midtown Manhattan studio and store in 1959 at 255 West 55th St., employing four guitar instructors. Visitors to the studio included astronauts (as store customers)

John Glenn John Herschel Glenn Jr. (July 18, 1921 – December 8, 2016) was an American Marine Corps aviator, engineer, astronaut, businessman, and politician. He was the third American in space, and the first American to orbit the Earth, circling ...

and Scott Carpenter, numerous show business personalities, and many of the nation’s leading guitarists. At Kingsborough Community College of the City University of New York, Lee taught Jazz alongside his colleagues

Lee Konitz Leon Konitz (October 13, 1927 – April 15, 2020) was an American composer and alto saxophonist. He performed successfully in a wide range of jazz styles, including bebop, cool jazz, and avant-garde jazz. Konitz's association with the cool jazz ...

, famed jazz saxophonist, and guitarist Robert Spellman in the Music Division—directed by Morris Lang—of the Center for the Performing Arts. He was appointed guitar editor of Guitar World Magazine, for which he also wrote the Guitar Book Review column. Lee’s repeatedly-expressed view was that "It is quite possible for the student to devote one half hour to one hour of adequate music practice each day and make adequate progress on his instrument." He taught guitar teachers at a Louisville KY convention in 1964, at a Pittsburgh PA sponsored workshop in the spring of 1968, at a Des Plaines IL convention in July 1977, and at a Cumberland MD sponsored workshop in June 1979. Lee also officiated as an adjudicator at major music festivals. Using his engineering background, Lee invented an electronic "guitar conversion kit" that converted an electric guitar into a bass guitar in 5 seconds. It was sold by Imperial Creations in New York for $12.50. Lee studied further at New York University from 1969 to 1971. From 1972 to at least 1983, Automated Learning Inc. in New Jersey was selling Lee’s cassette-recorder-based "programmed instruction" course "Instant Guitar". Lee was "recognized as an authority on the guitar", and was "often consulted by manufacturers on various technical aspects of guitars and guitar accessories"; a measure of his reputation for expertise is that he was able to sell this same article to another magazine. In 1971

Buegeleisen and Jacobson Buegeleisen and Jacobson (B & J) was a musical instrument distributor in New York City, United States. B & J opened for business in 1901, on 17th Street in Manhattan, run by the previously salesmen Samuel Buegeleisen (1871–1957) and David Ja ...

took out an ad to publicize his endorsement of the Espana EL-240 electrical-acoustic bass for his students.

Writer

For

in 1964, Lee arranged the music from the Beatles’ " A Hard Day’s Night" for guitar. For Williamson Music in 1966, he arranged "

The Sound of Music ''The Sound of Music'' is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, and a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. It is based on the 1949 memoir of Maria von Trapp, '' The Story of the Trapp Family Singers''. Se ...

: selection for guitar solo". Also in 1966, for Sam Fox Publishing Co. Lee arranged "Guitar selections from

Man of La Mancha ''Man of La Mancha'' is a 1965 musical with a book by Dale Wasserman, music by Mitch Leigh, and lyrics by Joe Darion. It is adapted from Wasserman's non-musical 1959 teleplay ''I, Don Quixote'', which was in turn inspired by Miguel de Cervantes ...

". For Sam Fox Publishing Co. in 1972, he arranged "Magical Melodies: for guitar"——which included music and lyrics by

Lerner Lerner is a German and Jewish family name. Its literal meaning can be either "student" or "scholar". It may refer to: Organizations * Lerner Enterprises, a real estate company * Lerner Newspapers * Lerner Publishing Group, a publisher of childr ...

and Loewe and

John Denver Henry John Deutschendorf Jr. (December 31, 1943 – October 12, 1997), known professionally as John Denver, was an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, actor, activist, and humanitarian whose greatest commercial success was as a solo singe ...

. In the early 1960s Lee wrote more than 40 guitar instruction books for various publishers. These included "Folk Strums for Guitar", "Beginner’s Chord Book", "Rock ’N’ Roll Guitar Book", and "Classic Guitar Book". In 1964 Alfred Music called Lee "undoubtedly the 'hottest' writer of fretted instrument instruction books today. He specializes in 'instant best sellers' as it is not unusual to have pre-publication orders running in the thousands before his book is off the press." In 1971 Alfred considered Lee's "Ronny Lee Guitar Method" so salable that it bought the back cover of a Musical Merchandise Review issue to advertise it. By 1979 he had increased this to more than 80 guitar instruction books. Alfred Music is still selling Lee's "Christmas Guitar Book" and "Beginners's Chord Book". However his "Twist Music for Guitar" and "Rhythm and Blues for Guitar", books of ''original compositions'' written for Sam Fox Publishing Co., are among those no longer in print. One of Lee's most-enduring books is his "Jazz Guitar Method", which he wrote for Mel Bay Publications as two volumes in 1962. Mel Bay is still selling "this highly acclaimed study of jazz rhythm chords and their application hatcontains extensive instruction on jazz chord accompaniment and chord substitution" as a single volume in paper and as an eBook as of 2015. By 1974 Lee had written two new series of thoroughly graded, easy to follow guitar instruction books: "The Ronny Lee Step by Step Guitar Method" in 6 volumes, and "The Ronny Lee Step by Step Chord Method for Guitar" in 4 volumes. He retained or re-acquired the copyrights to these series and they are still being sold at his own website, together with "Advanced Chord Playing for Guitar by Ronny Lee" in 2 volumes that he published in 1979-80. The two principles that Lee followed in these series are that (1) note playing and chord playing should be taught separately—even if simultaneously, and that (2) step-by-step means that the student should never be obliged to make any mental leaps—as competing method books often do. He expanded the step-by-step principle with "Learn to Sing Step by Step", which he published with two cassette tapes (now reissued as CDs) in 1984.

Later years

Because Lee became fully occupied with writing by 1964, he had to discontinue his studio. He chose not to sell it because he did not wish to sell the right to use his name. By 1971 he was teaching guitar and bass guitar students at his Midtown Manhattan home. For some time after 1984, Lee visited Veterans Administration hospitals with Bedside Network Hospital Show Tours #9 "Sophisticated Misbehavin'", a five-person group of show business artists sponsored by

ASCAP The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadca ...

who interpreted the music of "Fats" Waller and "Duke" Ellington. He published the guitar method "Learn How to Play Any Song by Ear" in 2011—writing the text on his computer despite having developed macular degeneration. At age 85 in 2012, Lee recorded a performance of Jobim's "The Girl from Ipanema" for Raf Moscatel's forthcoming film about

Mary Small Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religious contexts * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...

—who had studied guitar with Lee when she was 50 (and he 45 in 1972) and became a friend. He died on April 22, 2015 at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, a widower since 2005 who had chosen hospice care, and was cremated at his own request.

Legacy

In 1962, Gretsch Guitars named 2 guitars for players: one for Chet Atkins, and one for Ronny Lee. The Ronny Lee guitar is now a rare and valuable guitar, coveted by collectors of fine guitars the world over.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Ronny American jazz guitarists American rock guitarists American male guitarists People from the Bronx 1927 births 2015 deaths American male singer-songwriters Singer-songwriters from New York (state) Guitarists from New York City 20th-century American guitarists Jazz musicians from New York (state) 20th-century American male musicians American male jazz musicians