How To Play Boogie Woogie Piano (Music Sales America) [Paperback] Review

I have been playing piano for ten years and I finally decided it was time to move away from classical music and try something new. I looked into several Boogie Woogie books and ended up buying this one about a week ago.

This book has a wonderful collection of songs which are fun to play and sound like professional pieces. The book orders the songs from easy to the more difficult to help build on your skills.

The music is not hard at all. Most of the time the same bass pattern is kept in the left hand while the right hand plays the melody. There are no tricky fingerings or even rhythms. The pieces are all in either C, F, or G (from one flat to one sharp) and use familiar notes and chords. The difficulty of this book is a 6 on a scale from 1 to 10 - 10 being the hardest.

This book is perfect for beginners - beginning piano players, maybe not - but if you've never tried Boogie Woogie before and are looking for something new, this book is for you.

Anyone who has taken a year or more of piano lessons should have no problem with this book.

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Product Description:
A collection of 14 boogie woogie solos for piano, with tips on playing technique. They include such favorites as Barrel House Boogie, Tommy DorseyÂ's Boogie Woogie, and Bad Penny Blues.

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Blues Piano: Hal Leonard Keyboard Style Series (Keyboard Instruction) [Paperback] Review

I got this book along with a number of other blues books, and this one has been my favorite.It doesn't contain as much material as the multivolume Alfred series, but I find the organization, presentation, and *especially* the examples to be superior in Mark's work.The way the examples build section by section and chapter by chapter is exquisite.They are musically interesting yet very focused on the point at hand--I always enjoyed playing through the examples, but was never confused by unnecessary complications.

The companion CD is the best I've seen in any music instruction book, ever.Most examples have the left and right hand parts on the left and right channels, so you can mute one speaker or the other for "hands seperate" practicing.I personally don't use this much, as I prefer to work it out with the metronome, but I'm glad it's there and you may appreciate it.On tracks that have a backing band, the band is on one side and the keyboard on the other so you can play along to just the band.Finally, the "complete" examples at the end of the book feature a "slow" and "fast" version on the CD.One nitpick: I wish he'd included (in the text) the metronome settings he used, making it easier to practice/jam without the CD.

I've got several of the Hal Leonard books in this series, and they're not all by Mark Harrison.His books are definitely a cut above.All in all, if you have any interest in the subject whatsoever, you can't go wrong with this book.

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Product Description:
Ever wanted to play the blues, but weren't sure where to start? Blues Piano will teach you the basic skills you need. From comping to soloing, you'll learn the theory, the tools, and even the tricks that the pros use. And, you get seven complete tunes to jam on. Listen to the CD, then start playing along! Covers: scales and chords; left-hand patterns; walking bass; endings and turnarounds; right-hand techniques; how to solo with blues scales; crossover licks; and more.

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