Blues Harmonica for Dummies

by Winslow Yerxa

The fun and easy way to play blues on the harmonica Blues harmonica is the most popular and influential style of harmonica playing, and it forms the basis for playing harmonica in other styles such as rock and country. Blues Harmonica for Dummies gives you a wealth of content devoted to the blues approach―specific techniques and applications, including bending and making your notes sound richer and fuller with tongue-blocked enhancements; use of amplification to develop a blues sound; blues licks and riffs; constructing a blues harmonica solo; accompanying singers; historical development of blues styles; and important blues players and recordings. The accompanying audio CD features all the musical examples from the book, plus play-along exercises and songs that let you hear the sound you're striving for. If you're intrigued by the idea of understanding and mastering the compelling (yet mysterious) art of playing blues on the harmonica, Blues Harmonica For Dummies has you covered. CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of the e-book file, but are available for download after purchase

Genres: Music

366 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2012

Reviews

[Altivo Overo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Learning a musical instrument without personal lessons from an experienced player can be a dubious experience with undesirable outcomes. However, when you already have some musical knowledge and can play one or more instruments, a good self-teaching method can be very useful. This book falls into that useful category. Yerxa's instructions are extremely well detailed, and include both photos and verbal information. The included CD demonstrates the sounds that should be generated by each step in the learning process, and provides samples along with which the reader can play her/his own instrument. I still would not recommend this as the only source for an absolute beginning musician, but for the experienced player who wants to add a new instrument to the arsenal, this is about as good as it gets short of finding a live teacher.

I had toyed with the harmonica in the past, but never got very far. I have several method books and teaching recordings, but none were much help. This is true in spite of 50+ years of musical experience on several instruments and voice. This book gave me enough courage and knowledge to pull a harmonica out of my instrument bag and improvise with it at a recent rehearsal with my group partners. No, it wasn't perfect, but it was clearly on the right track and we will probably use it with that song. None of the other books I'd read in the past were enough to let me get so far.

[Pranjal Pranta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good starter for harmonica enthusiasts, helped me with some fundamental issues youtube usually avoids.