Customer Reviews

David Bennett Cohen Teaches Blues Piano (Listen & Learn)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I bought this book based on the good feedback that was left here and I am absolutely thrilled with it. I am at an "intermediate" level of piano playing and found the instructions and exercizes extremely well done. He breaks it down into steps that you can actually follow, and you will learn to improvise too. I was able to play something that sounded really good in a short time. Now I have a piano teacher who works with me with this book, she thinks it's great too. The CD makes all the difference. I always wated to play blues and boogie woogie piano, and this is the book I've been looking for! I have book two as well and it looks good too but I haven't gotten there yet.

I had practically the same experience as that of reviewer Fredric M Mendes. David Cohen is an excellent teacher, and structures his lessons in a logical and orderly way. He makes learning to play Blues Piano fun and simple. In practically no time, I found I had mastered simple improvising, playing different right hand rhythems and riffs(including his awesome quintuplet), playing different baselines, playing turnarounds, and playing some really cool endings. My playing really got to sound like something, without very much practice. I've been inspired to go on to more advanced blues piano studies. I even traveled to Philadelphia to see David play in person, and to get his autograph on the cover of my book.

David Cohen's book and CD have been a pleasure--I studied piano as a kid and now many years later wanted to try blues piano. This package is extremely well thought out and clear-cut, including its excellent CD. It's fun to go through, with many classic blues themes and riffs; these can be mixed and matched and in no time you're pounding out the blues and having a great time at it! Thanks to David Cohn for this really nice work!

This is a great way to learn the basics of Blues Piano.The author breaks it all down into workable,understandable segments.
Within two weeks people were enjoying my playing.That was a good feeling.

Like most other reviewers, I had been looking for a way to learn to play the blues and was very frustrated. David Cohen is the answer to my wish! If one is willing to do the work and practice, following the music both written and on the CD, you will be playing the blues.

You must be able to read music and have an understanding of music theory for his explanations to make sense, but you don't have to be anything more than proficient.

I played one of his solos for my son last week and he could not believe how good it sounded!

this cat has been around block.he knows his stuff.only warning is if your comfortable with alot of theory you might be left wanting. that said,i recommend highly.

This instructional doesn't waste any time. I was amazed at how soon I began to improvise, and would often times find myself having already improvised the next lesson.

Some people give it 5 stars, some think it's a bad book. I think it may depend on your skill to some degree. If you are a proficient piano player with already some skill on piano, you probably won't learn much from this book. For me, being an early intermediate player, I did get some info from this book which I can directly apply to my playing. A couple of bad points about this book is that there are no fingerings!! I mean really, a piano book without piano fingerings? That is just a pet peeve of mine, so that is minus 1 star right off the bat. Also keep in mind that there are only 17 pages to this book. So there isn't a whole heck of a lot of info in it. You really have to look at every measure and decide what you like and what you don't like and try to incorporate those into your playing. All in all this book could have been a lot better. For one, incorporate fingerings and two, possibly he could have combined book one and two together to form one book. It does come with a CD though which is a good feature. If you can find this book for really cheap it may be worth picking up. A better book is Tricia Woods "Beginning Blues Keyboard", which I highly recommend.

I am a drummer/guitarist wanting to learn a bit of Blues/Boogie Woogie piano.

This book and its accompanying volume are just what I needed. David makes everything accessible.

Excellent instructions. Easy to follow and to the point. This CD would be useful even if you have never played a piano before. David obviously enjoys he music and takes great pleasure in teaching.

Excellent product.