Mel Bay presents Improvising Blues Harmonica Paperback – February 12, 2008

I am enjoying this instruction book immensely. I have been playing harmonica for a year and this is the right level of instruction to move to my next step. The online/downloadable audio is great too.

Didn't read the book, just rating the book format for Kindle: this book is just a set of digital scans of the pages, no effort has been put into adapting it to digital readers. It is imposible to comfortably read this book on a small screen like a phone or small/mid sized tablet. I understand the book has a lot of charts, but so do other books (example Harmonica for dummies) and they are properly adapted to screen reading. Returned for a refund as soon as I downloaded it and see I had to constantly zoom in and out and pan to read the book.

This man probably knows more about the harmonica and good instruction than anyone on the planet. His approach to improvising will greatly improve your playing. Not for a beginner, but, if you have a solid background, this will get your improvising onstage.

Good information for those wishing to improvise. Some music theory is covered. The included cd is excellent as it allows you to hear what is being talked about. Excellent source for harmonica licks!!

This is one of the best harmonica books I've ever seen. Very well organized and structured. There's no way you could not be a much better player after working through this material.David Barrett is an exceptional teacher!I highly recommend this book!!!!

Very good this book for harmônica player.

As good as it gets in harmonica instruction! Will have you listening in a whole new way to 12 bar blues and all music genres!

OK. I'm a very critical person. I want what I want for my money. I'm the person who takes everything back that doesn't work well. That being said....David Barrett is one of the few people I've experienced in my 59 years who provides an excellent product. At my age, I don't have time to waste. I need results now. David Barrett delivers. You will get what you need to know in order to improvise from this book. If you're a timid beginner with improvising, start with Blues Harmonica Jam Tracks & Soloing Concepts #1. That will quickly get you ready for this book. (If you need basic harmonica training, see his book First Lessons--also excellent.) But once you can find your way around the harmonica with tongue blocking (explained in his first book), move on to the soloing concepts and then improvising.He will provide you with an understanding of what the great harmonica players do that results in quality performance.If you're an experienced player, even a professional, I understand that many are playing by instinct. This book will take you to new levels.I have never seen anyone excel so consistently. I recommend exploring all his books for the specific topic you are interested in (the backs of most of his books provided a recommended path for proceeding through his books).i gotta go practice. Best of luck.Annamarie JacksonAnnamarie Jackson

Since reviewing this book, I came across a playalong book of Little Walter songs and a best of Little Walter CD (both via Amazon). These items gave more inspiration and foundation for playing solos than the book being reviewed below. So I have down-graded the review to 3 stars and will write a review of the Little Walter book (5 stars) as soon as I can.I am just learning harmonica and after mastering some basic technique like beding, dipping and basic (v simple) playing down at my pub I order this book. It is very good - giving theory and practical exercises/songs to learn and practice.Dave Barret's books dominate the teach yourself market. He is very good and probably offers the most comprehensive tuition. However, it is all sliced up into bit sized chunks and spread around The School of Blues Series (of which this is one) and Blues Harmonica Series. This books packs quite alot in from other books (literally - alot of the same songs and riffs appear elsewhere). I recommend it. It's not good for teaching technique - but I would argue the best way to do that is listen to some good records and these tracks and try to mimic. You can only suck and blow in so many ways!

A well thought out breakdown for blues harmonica and harmonica improvisation. It starts slowly, building phrases until you are playing quite complicated riffs. Recommended.

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