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Rating: 
Summary: Good for beginner blues harp players...
Review: I bought this book after reading Jon Gindick's blues harmonica book, so my review is from this vantage point. This book offers a little more on rythym and timing than Gindick's book, there are several really good "train" songs, as well as a couple of 12-bar blues songs. The CD is really good for understanding timing and rythym of the lessons. On the downside, the lessons and licks are really quick and easy, and are more lessons than killer riffs that you're probably looking for to add to your repetoire. There are a couple of sections on other harp positions --straight and slant -- that are of no interest to most inspiring blues harp players. Great for beginners. But if you've been playing for a month or two and have read some other blues harp instructionals, you can probably take a pass on this one.
Rating:
Summary: Good for beginner blues harp players...
Review: I bought this book after reading Jon Gindick's blues harmonica book, so my review is from this vantage point. This book offers a little more on rythym and timing than Gindick's book, there are several really good "train" songs, as well as a couple of 12-bar blues songs. The CD is really good for understanding timing and rythym of the lessons. On the downside, the lessons and licks are really quick and easy, and are more lessons than killer riffs that you're probably looking for to add to your repetoire. There are a couple of sections on other harp positions --straight and slant -- that are of no interest to most inspiring blues harp players. Great for beginners. But if you've been playing for a month or two and have read some other blues harp instructionals, you can probably take a pass on this one.
Rating:
Summary: A good place to start learning blues rhythms and licks
Review: I enjoyed this book along with the companion Blues Harmonica Licks because the one page lessons focusing on one lick were simple enough to feel like you were accomplishing something. This layout fosters confidence in harmonica playing such that by the end of the book I was comfortable improvising to the backing music with the numerous riffs and techniques learned in this book. The shortcoming of the book is that the volume 1 stops right at bending. This wouldn't be that bad, but as I understand it, volume 2 was never finished or published. Without bending, you really are not playing the blues. I would still recommend this book over other beginner books because it sticks to teaching licks without all the goofiness of books like Gindicks. I am left though to ponder how much less of a struggle learning to bend would have been had they published volume 2.
Rating:
Summary: For harmonica beginner with no previous music experience
Review: This book is perfect for a beginner to blues harmonica who is also a beginner to music theory. The tunes in this book are easy and progressively get more challenging. I could play decent sounding stuff from the first attempt but had to work hard to do the harder stuff later in the book. If you already play another instrument and/or can read music another book would be better as this one doesn't use standard notation. This book is best for someone who has no musical experience. Also, If you have no experience playing with other musicians the CD is very helpful - you play along with other musicians (drums, guitar, bass, keyboard etc) on the CD so that you will learn correct timing and rhythm. And with the CD you can listen to the harmonica on the CD, play with it and then play on your own as the CD leaves a verse or two free from harmonica for you to play along. Great value for a harmonica beginner who is also a musical theory beginner. I also have the accompaning book "Blue Harmonica Licks Vol.1 - it has more of the same but doesn't feature bending notes. Some of the tunes are simple and you may want to move onto something by David Barret or Jerry Portnoy later.
Rating:
Summary: For harmonica beginner with no previous music experience
Review: This book is perfect for a beginner to blues harmonica who is also a beginner to music theory. The tunes in this book are easy and progressively get more challenging. I could play decent sounding stuff from the first attempt but had to work hard to do the harder stuff later in the book. If you already play another instrument and/or can read music another book would be better as this one doesn't use standard notation. This book is best for someone who has no musical experience. Also, If you have no experience playing with other musicians the CD is very helpful - you play along with other musicians (drums, guitar, bass, keyboard etc) on the CD so that you will learn correct timing and rhythm. And with the CD you can listen to the harmonica on the CD, play with it and then play on your own as the CD leaves a verse or two free from harmonica for you to play along. Great value for a harmonica beginner who is also a musical theory beginner. I also have the accompaning book "Blue Harmonica Licks Vol.1 - it has more of the same but doesn't feature bending notes. Some of the tunes are simple and you may want to move onto something by David Barret or Jerry Portnoy later.
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