Your Books on Other Instruments
I am so happy that I have spent the last three weeks going through all your videos even though I couldn't keep up with them on the harmonica. I not only got such a great overview of what I will be learning on the harmonica for the next 5 or more years, but also on the the blues for all instruments. My husband was saying to me today (with the videos going constantly morning til night) that it sounded like it was all so similar. I said to him that that was EXACTLY what I liked about it. I feel like I can have a chance to learn step by step what you have been teaching for the harmonica but on many instruments because you did such a great job of breaking things down and building upon known material. I've been playing along on other instruments that I have more experience with. So much of what you say is so valuable for all instruments. What you taught at the end about improvising gives me hope. When I went to fiddle lessons as a child I was better at playing the melodies that were written than the teacher but then he said things like, "just play an A chord" without explaining what on earth he was talking about and I gave up. I know more now, but still wondered how on earth I was going to learn to improvise, but then you talked about instilling licks into muscle memory. I can do that! In your course you go over every detail. All I have to do is follow your instructions - it's such a clearly delineated path! I was so wishing that there were a similar course for the guitar and piano and for the bass lines (so I could learn them on my cello).
Then when I got to section 10 you talked about learning other instruments, especially a chordal instrument and that you wrote BOOKS on THAT... or at least you did so along with other teachers at your school. That's like a dream come true!
Here I was thinking that I was going to take all these little steps on all my instruments as much as I could with the limited ability that I could muster to figure them out as I went along and then you say there are books!
What do you do in terms of concert pitch and such issues in your books? Are the keys actually written out and lines say for the bass with actual key signatures? Are the jam tracks provided with the books or do you use the same ones here?
Is there a link you can share for those books?
Thank you so much for existing! :D
Wonderful!
And so glad there are samples.
Some don't have samples of the auditory aspect. Are those done for guitar, piano and bass like you do here with and without those parts so that you can hear how it's "supposed to be" and then try it on your own with that part removed so you can play it?
As far as the drums go, I was going to buy my husband just a snare drum and some brushes (he likes hand drums but is a beginner) so that he could learn to play along without being too loud as all my instruments are only acoustic. Are any of the books on the drums geared predominantly to snare playing by a long shot?
Thank you!
There are examples on the recording of everything taught in the book. For the drums. it's focused on the trap set... I'm not sure how helpful it will be.
Hmmm, some of the ones I checked out didn't have recording samples. For instance, I was looking at this one:
https://www.melbay.com/Products/21057MEB/blues-guitar-method-level-1.aspx
One more thing, would the guitar books be appropriate for acoustic guitar? I know that Mr. Garcia plays an electric and there's an electric on the cover. Unless there's a lot of bending and sliding and such and a lot on the electronics, I would guess it would still be a fit?
I'm almost certain that the bass books will be easily adapted to the cello. I'm really excited about those!
Thanks about the drums. That's too bad but was expected.
Hello Dorothy. Examples with music notation/TAB are played on the recording. Yes, it should translate well to the acoustic guitar.
GREAT!
I have one more (hopefully last) question that might be easier for you to answer off the top of your head than me looking through the contents of all the books:
So far Walk With Me, Temperature, I Want you With Me, No Sweat and Buffet Line are all pretty straight forward and playable for me on the harmonica (without the dips). Are those songs used in any of the books on guitar, piano or bass so that I can learn how to accompany myself?
The songs with bending would be for later as per your advice. It would be nice to have a set of books that could all match up with one set of songs so that I could learn on multiple instruments, like I'm doing now on the site.
Thanks.
Hello Dorothy. Unfortunately, those instrument books do not have any similarity in material to the material on BluesHarmonica.com.
Do they have similarity to each other?
Like, are all the songs the same in any series for the guitar, piano, bass and harmonica?
If I were to buy four books for four different instruments, would there be the same songs in those four books?
Do they use the same backing tracks?
That would be pretty cool because then I could learn the same songs on 5 instruments and even bring the books to my meetup jam sessions in the future and give one to each player and know that we all are literally on the same page!
Yes, they are meant to work together, most specifically in the jam track series. I use the same jam tracks throughout that series. I teach how to play accompaniment to those jam tracks as well (as do the other instruments... that's their main focus). The other instructors do not use study songs, though I have a couple if I remember correctly in mine. Study songs are the focus of BluesHarmonica.com, but for the most part (even though there are some short ones in my harmonica books), study songs are not the focus of the books.
Great! I'll look for the "jam track series". Hopefully that will be in the titles.
Getting any songs handled across the different instruments with examples to hear of the playing and then the karaoke kind of thing of leaving at one instrument across the series and with the music written out would be awesome.
This way a bunch of beginners in different instruments can even get together and learn to jam with the songs.
This gives me a lot of hope of being able to go to a beginner jam group that I was hoping to go to but too unsure of myself without something like this so that I could practice beforehand and have a better idea of what everyone was going to do!
Exciting.
Take a look at Hal Leonard's catalog... I remember seeing one that's for the blues band... it has all the instruments in one book.
I'm glad you're enjoying the progression of the material.
The books can be found here https://www.melbay.com/Author/Default.aspx?AuthorId=37451
The harmonica books are written in the same format as I write material here at BluesHarmonica.com. The other lesson books (Guitar, Bass, Keyboard, and Drums) are written in the key they're played in, using stands music notation and TAB. In the series of books, the jam tracks is one of them, with that instrument missing, so that you can practice your parts "with" the band.