Customer Reviews

FASTFORWARD: COOL BLUES KEYBOARD (Fast Forward (Music Sales))

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This book might be useful for a player new to the blues. Anyone with any kind of experience in the genre, though, I think will find it's not all that informative.

I was expecting a book more like "100 Ultimate Blues Riffs" by Andrew D. Gordon. That book has plenty of licks to chew on for a long time. By comparison, this book has very few unique riffs (perhaps 10 different ones, depending on what you count as unique). What it does do is to build up the 12-bar frame one piece at a time using the same riffs and variations. So adding the first time going to the IV becomes a separate page and a separate pair of tracks on the accompanying CD. This adds volume to the book without necessarily adding a lot of new material. Anyone who can transpose a lick will find that aspect unnecessary. I found it annoying when I decided to start by giving the CD a once-through. It sounded like the same track was repeating over and over through many tracks.

Towards the end of each riff/variation, the CD throws in some tasty backing organ licks behind the piano leads. Unfortunately those licks are not written out in the book.

Some of the turnaround and octave rundown licks toward the end were more interesting to me. Again, there were not that many to make this book valuable to me.

Purchased this book for my son who is an intermediate level piano student. With the help of the CD, he was able to work his way through the book over the course of about six months, in a very laid-back way, without the help of a teacher. (He spent a total of about 1 or 2 hrs./week on this book.) The material is well presented, fun, and sounds great to play. Each lesson builds on the previous material and is a great introduction to improvisation. Now, my son is putting together blues progressions of his own and having real fun at the piano.