Progressive Blues Harmonica

SKU: AD.ADG242

ISBN 9781958017296. UPC: 663389124226. 9 x 12 inches.

The Blues Play A Long and Solos Collection for Harmonica is an indispensable instructional book written by renowned musician and educator, Andrew D. Gordon.

Specifically designed for beginners, this book provides a comprehensive guide to playing the blues on the bass while offering a plethora of play-along tracks and soloing opportunities.

Andrew D. Gordon, with his extensive experience as a multi-instrumentalist and music educator, has meticulously crafted this book to cater to harmonica players who want to delve into the captivating world of blues music. Whether you're a complete novice or have some basic knowledge of the harmonica, this book will guide you step-by-step through the fundamentals of blues playing, enabling you to develop your skills and confidence.

The Blues Play-Along and Solos Collection for harmonica is part of an esteemed series of instructional books, with other editions available for a variety of instruments such as piano/keyboards, guitar, bass, alto and tenor saxophone, flute, trumpet, trombone, ukulele, recorder, mandolin, bass and violin. This series ensures that musicians across different disciplines can explore the blues genre and its unique characteristics.

Key features of The Blues Play-Along and Solos Collection for Harmonica include: Play-Along Tracks: Explore a diverse selection of 30 professionally produced play-along tracks, featuring authentic blues grooves in various Blues styles, keys and tempos such as: Funky Blues, Boogie Blues, Jazz Blues, Minor Blues, Country Blues, Latin Blues, Old Time Jazz Blues, Jazz Swing Blues, Classic Blues Rock, Soulful Blues, Slow Blues and many more. These tracks allow you to apply your newly acquired skills and play alongside a band, providing an immersive and enjoyable practice experience.

Each of the 30 play-a-long tracks has been recorded with 10 choruses of the 12 bar blues progression giving you the opportunity practice soloing techniques totaling over 3 hours of music. Each of the 30 Blues styles contains a solo improvisational melody line, 12 measures in length, designed for the beginner student in mind as a starting point to create your own improvisational solos.

Soloing Techniques: Discover various soloing techniques and improvisational approaches, empowering you to create your own expressive solos and melodies within the blues framework. Repertoire Building: Develop a repertoire of blues songs, licks, and riffs specifically tailored for the harmonica. Expand your musical vocabulary and gain confidence in your ability to perform and jam with others.

Music Notation : The book contains clear and easy-to-read music notation ensuring accessibility for beginners and facilitating a smooth learning process. Whether you aspire to perform on stage, jam with friends, or simply enjoy playing the bass at home.

The Blues Play-Along and Solos Collection for Harmonica provides you with all the tools you need to embark on an exciting blues journey. Andrew D. Gordon's expertise and passion for teaching music shine through in this book, making it an essential resource for any bass player seeking to explore the expressive and soulful realm of blues music.

SKU: PR.144407290

ISBN 9781491135150. UPC: 680160687008.

Jazz luminary Ali Ryerson traces a unique and personal artistic path in this solo work. With an engaging form reminiscent of jazz charts (a dreamy introduction, a catchy, swinging head, and improvisatory-feeling 12-bar choruses), Ryerson’s music pays deeply-felt homage to Charlie Parker and other jazz greats, while maintaining an organic connection to the lineage of unaccompanied woodwind music in the classical tradition. Classical players will gain insight into jazz harmony, rhythm, and expression as they learn this knockout recital piece, while Ryerson fans in the jazz world gain an image of her musical mind in this fully-notated composition.
Jazz Dream, a jazz-inspired solo flute piece, was commissioned by Claudia Anderson for her Glass Ceilings project. Claudia once told me that playing jazz flute has been one of her musical ambitions. I daresay her performance of JD could very well break a glass ceiling of her own!Moved by the events of 2020, composing Jazz Dream became my way of honoring my musical heroes from the Black community, namely the jazz musicians who created this music and truly broke glass ceilings. As jazz shares its origins with the blues, both genres having originated in the African-American community, I decided on a 12-bar blues form as the framework for the piece.The opening theme gently draws us into a dream-like state, with a melody in slow motion and lines that linger. When the REM cycle kicks into gear, there’s an abrupt rhythmic shift that leads straight into a swingin’ blues. Idiomatic jazz rhythms abound, with blue notes galore – the tension notes that virtually define the sound of both the blues and jazz (i.e. the flatted third, fifth, and seventh notes of a scale in place of the expected major intervals).After several groovin’ choruses of a 12-bar blues in B(, often played as if the soloist is improvising, the blues modulates to the key of E(, and as a tribute to the great Charlie Parker (AKA Bird), I harmonically suggest the more complex set of bebop changes that Parker introduced in his composition, Blues for Alice. Often referred to as Bird Changes or Bird Blues, instead of the basic I - IV – V chord progression commonly used in the blues, Parker used a series of sequential ii-V progressions (and secondary ii-V progressions). With the addition of some tritone substitutions, a chromatically descending bass line deftly replaces the original I-IV-V root movement. This is the harmonic background I was hearing as I wrote this particular chorus.After my 12-bar nod to Bird’s changes, the introductory dream theme returns, now in tempo and with a straight-ahead swing feel. Variations on this theme follow, again to be played as if improvising, with the soloist once again bringing their own personality into the performance. This section builds to a climax, the music pauses, then modulates to C, with a return to the original blues theme. The energy and groove increase through the final flourish, where a blues line ends on the idiomatic flatted fifth.