Customer Reviews

Professor Longhair Collection (Piano Solo Personality)

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

 

 

Being a piano player myself, I know how hard it is to find someone to teach you New Orleans Style piano. (If you've ever had someone give you the 'that's not Chopin' look, then you know what I mean.) This book will help you nail down all the patterns and licks you can hear in the music, but can't quite get to your fingers yet. I found it to be really helpful not only to learn specific Professor Longhair songs, but also to learn basic New Orleans/Boogie & Blues piano riffs and styles suitable for accompanying singers or other players. This book will take you miles and miles into the world that is Professor Longhair. Definitely recommended!

I bought this book based on the fact that I am a huge Professor Longhair fan and wanted to learn how to play in a New Orleans style, and thought this would be a great place to start. Unfortunately, I have found this book to be basically useless. I have been playing piano for over 15 years and have bought many books but this has to be one of the biggest wastes of money I've come across.

Yes, it does contain lyrics to many of Fess's best known songs, but you could probably find those easily by googling the song. The basic problem I have with this book is the "arrangments". First of all, they leave out most (or in some cases) all of the right hand improvisation and touches that are integral to the Professor's playing style. What's left over are overly simplistic songs that don't teach you much about New Orleans piano. You might as well download some pfd's of public domain Scott Joplin rags if you want to learn basica ragtime technique. Because that's basically all that these arrangments consist of, since they leave out everything that made Professor Longhair into Professor Lonhair.

Secondly, the majority of these "arrangments" leave out the piano solos! Yes, I'm not joking, they just feature a short intro section, the chorus with the lyrics and a small closing tag and that's it.

I don't know about you but I sure didn't buy a Professor Longhair collection for the lyrics. If you want to learn how to sing like Fess I guess this book's for you then. Otherwise, save your money and buy a book on New Orleans piano technique instead. You won't find much of that here.

This is an excellent songbook to get. Contrary to the previous reviewer I believe the majority of these transcriptions are accurate. As with a lot of Jazz and Blues transcriptions you cannot document the 'feel' that Professor Longhair had. The book I have certainly includes some of his solos and some of the pieces are instrumental without lyrics.

His style is a mixture of Blues/Boogie-Woogie/Rumba/Samba all mixed up together. If you want to learn to play like Prof Longhair there is no better place to start - and there are no other songbooks of his material That I know of!

This is the only definitive piano tablature for Professor Longhair. Includes lyrics to songs that cannot be found ANYWHERE on the internet. Many items on this site are reviewed as "Must Buy". This book is the "Only Buy". There are no substitutes or other compilations. You want the lyrics and piano tablatures for Professor Longhair songs? This IS the book!

I have enjoyed Dr. John for years and was delighted to discover the major influence to his style. The transcriptions are good and it is a good selection of the music of Professor Longhair. It has an informative introduction that I enjoyed and keyed me in to listening to his music. Worth the money. Challenging but accessible.