Blues Harmonica Masterclass

If you can find an instructor, Harmonica lessons can cost between $20-$75 and hour, and you have no idea how good the teacher is. This is a great Blues Harpist who also happens to be a really good teacher. For the cost of 1-3 hours of professional instruction, you can get this set.I'd recommend buying this. ThThere are cheaper sets on the market. In fact I think this is the most expensive set of it's kind. A lot of the less expensive sets are the ones where the author has you playing simple songs in 5 minutes. 6 months later, you may be able to play 2 or 3 songs, but that's about it. The harp, book, and CD end up in a drawer.If you buy these, you will NOT be playing simple sings in 5 minutes. You will learn the techniques that will allow you to make continual self-directed progress. You will be able to expand your repertoire as you progress. By the time you're done, you will know how to teach yourself to play the music you hear.If you already play a little (like I was when I got this set) you should still go back to the beginning and see what he's got to teach. This guy is a serious Harpist. He's played with BB King & Eric Clapton.It requires time and patience. The author understands how to teach, and he understands the limitations of the "CD/book set" as a medium. The CD talks you through each exercise, and you learn skills. He gives you clear instructions, and he provides examples of what each exercise should sound like.This is incremental instruction. The lessons are short and structured. You will want a CD player where you can pause and go back pretty easily.You will also need a Harp in A. I recommend you skip the $3-5 cheapies and get something good. I use a Hohner Special 20, and I'm really happy with it.Plan out a schedule where you can regularly spend some time learning the new lesson. I'd suggest listening to it at least once or twice. Then listen to it and stop and practice as you hear what he's doing. Play along with it a couple of times. You'd spend a serious 45 minutes to an hour on a lesson. Then you practice your butt off for a while. Portnoy suggests 20 minutes or so as the length for a good practice session. I try to practice at least once a day. Come back to it and listen to it to make sure that you've got it right. Practice more. Come back again and again until you've got it right. Move on.WIll it take a while? Yes.Will it be easy? No.Will you have to practice a lot? Yes.Will you become the next Little Walter by next week? Of course not.Will you learn to play the Blues Harp? YES.If you want to get really good and you're prepared to make a real committment of time, this is excellent stuff. It's expensive, but it's really good.

This boxset of cd's methodically relates the necessary techniques to play what your hear in your head. It's Masterclass designation attracts folks who have listened to a great deal of blues and are looking to move ahead in their own playing. Jerry Portnoy is a world class artist with decades of live venues and recordings. His first name alone is enough to know who's who in the blues community. Folks starting out can gain an iron hard foundation here, as the progression of physical actions needed to play are made clear.Portions of this material is on the internet. This course of study, in my opinion, needs to be owned in whole. Much effort, MUCH effort was exercised in presenting the layout in clear and concise steps. Some have observed there are not "enough" riffs or solos etc. Songs or tunes... all, will respond to being treated right! There is one example of Jerry playing "When the Saint's come marching in"...in five positions on one diatonic harp! That is what this is about. Own it and grow with it. No short cuts here.

I am learning to play the harmonica. I live in a small isolated town miles from anywhere. I'm learning to play from books, CD's, DVD's, and the internet. I've bought so many books and learning material online, that I have a big stack of it, but now I only use this course together with the Annie Raines course (Blueprint for Blues) and also David Barrett's course work (Basic to Intermediate) to get my harmonica- playing knowledge from. I've found this course to be good enough to stick with. What I do, is practice twenty minutes with this course, then twenty minutes with Annie Raines, and then I practice twenty minutes with David Barrett course work daily, I'll also watch DVD's of David Barrett explaining techniques once a week. It works for my needs. If I knew from the beginning, I would have saved a lot of money and zeroed in on these three teaching authors' works, alone or all three of them. If you are learning to play the harmonica, this is a good course to follow.

I really had high hopes for this set. I had listened and learned from two other book/CD sets that I purchased and figured this might really help me take things up a notch.On the one hand I was impressed. Jerry teaches many fundamentals witha very down-to-earth, easy to understand style. His descriptions of what is necessary to produce sounds that he is demonstrating are easy to understand. However, when he gives examples of riffs using what he has just taught, they tend to be very complex and very fast. I could not keep up and try to duplicate what he was doing. Yes he's a pro and I'm an amature, but I wish I would have had a snowball's chance of doing what he was.On the other hand, if I were a bit more advanced and had not developed more than a single technique or two, I would have found this to be very helpful. His explanation of tongue blocking is very good.The bottom line is that I felt like there were two audiences that would have benefited from this (beginners and advanced players), but neither is totally satisfying.Finally, I could do without his comments at the end. They were lengthy and were all about his philosophies rather than teaching. Interesting, but not helpful.

This CD set is dated, but it has some great information that other CD's sim over. For the novice, beginner this is a set that should be in your collection. You don't miss much by not having video. Jerry describes all techniques very well and as you reply the CD to get better, you appreciate his technique.

Best method teaching on bending notes

The booklet and CDs are awesome, but the glue that holds the CDs and booklet in place inside the hardcover book was super old and dried up. Everything fell out of the book when I unwrapped it. Had to reglue everything.

I have not used this product alot since I recieved it but in Harp World it is highly rated. Managed to get it 2nd hand for allmost half the price of the usual Amazon price. Jerry Portnoy played with Muddy Waters and although white - is up there with the best black harp players. I missed a chance to bid on this at the National Harmonica League Festival due to lack of cash. Rest assured the winning bidder picked up a bargain. Pretty much held in high regard in the blues harp community. If you're serious about harp it's definately the way to go. Did try ordering from Jerry Portnoy's website but it didn't seem to want to accept orders from GB. Didn't want to pay 80 quid for it but would have done at a push.

A great resource for learning blues harmonica. It's learning by ear, rather than tabs. Highly recommended

Was soll ich sagen? Für mich ein Lehrwerk, nachdem ich jahrelang suchte, bis dato allerdings nicht gefunden hatte. Wie schon Norbert Lohan hier rezensierte: Jerry Portnoy geht die Geschichte komplett anders an als die allermeisten anderen Lehrwerke. Die Basis bei seiner Lehr-Methodik ist das Rhythmusspiel, auf welchem die Melodiestimme darübergesetzt ist. Das entspricht zum einen dem afro-amerikanischen Musikverständnis, zum anderen der Tonanordnung der Richter-Harp.Ich spiele seit zwanzig Jahren die Harp, muss allerdings - zumindest vom spielerischen Ansatz her - nochmal von vorne beginnen. Portnoy zwingt mich mit seinem Lehrwerk dazu.Für absolute Anfänger ist diese Schule vielleicht nicht unbedingt das Richtige. Einzeltonspiel und Bending sollten bereits einigermaßen beherrscht werden. Zudem ist kein Lehrbuch vorhanden. Alles läuft über die Schiene "Zuhören (englisch) und Nachspielen."

Ok

Un bellissimo cofanetto.. Metodo chiaro e fruibile..