Customer Reviews

Best of Blues Piano

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have had a lot of fun with this book since purchasing it a month ago. This is not a method book and will not teach you Blues improvisation; however, it can help expand your Blues vocabulary and improve your playing technique. The transcriptions themselves are good, but not complete; at least some of the selections (the ones I'm familiar with) have missing choruses and lack proper endings.

The difficulty level is intermediate, however a few of the transcriptions are fairly advanced. Several pieces only have the right hand transcribed. Apparently the left hand could not be heard well enough in the original recordings. This is explained in the book's introduction. Each piece is introduced with a short paragraph of history, then an analysis of what you're actually playing (chords, scales, style, etc).

I knocked off a star because of the lack of fingering suggestions. Blues can require some unorthodox fingerings, so it would have been helpful. The included CD is pretty good. The faster pieces include a slower recording in addition to the full speed one. Although the CD is included, I recommend tracking down the actual recordings. The book tells you which recordings were referenced. Many of the recordings are available through Amazon on CD or MP3 download.

Overall, I am very happy with this purchase.

I just got this book and I haven't learned the songs in it but I can tell you that it has good transcriptions of many blues songs - a few of them being Tipitina, Honkey Tonk Train Blues, Big Chief and Blueberry Hill. The Blueberry Hill transcription is in B flat and contains the chorus (which is hard to find other places). Hope this helps.