I said, “Have y’all seen this?” Y’all said, “No. Review it for us.” I said, “It’s gotta be good ‘cuz it’s by David Barrett.”

Well, I have it in my hands now. Here’s my review:

It’s good.

I hope y’all found my review to be helpful.
Enjoy!

---EDIT---
See "Rock Harmonica by David Barrett (cont.)" for a better review.



Post Edited (2011-04-13 15:22:57)

Bump
(I want this one on top.)

OK. I read your review. I'm convinced. I tried to order it from the linked site ...
[www.harmonicamasterclass.com]
but alas, they do not accept international orders (I'm in Switzerland).
I also tried Amazon where I have an account, but it is temporarily out of stock there. Anyway, I'm in no hurry and will attempt to add it to my next order.
By the way, many thanks for the detailed review.

The review is much appreciated, Gene. I have one on back order at Amazon.

Yes the review has moved me into sounding this out, good on ya.

My copy has finally now arrived (ordered from Amazon) and my first impression is that it is well written and probably very good but, at the moment, completely beyond my comrehension.
It is gradually dawning on on me that I have one basic problem in that although I love the diatonic (Blues) harp, I am not particularly a special fan of Blues music. So for instance when Barrett lists names of gifted players in the scene, I have heard of perhaps one in ten of them. Anyway, my focus will be mainly Rock music, hence my interest in this publication and I will, at my own pace, gradually work through the exercises. But, oh horror!, he uses a mirror image of the "normal" tab convention where an "unsigned" number eg "6" indicates a blow hole, in this case "blow on 6". For him, "6" means for him "draw on 6". However, I expect I'll get used to that.

Meanon, a lot of that sounded like me talking. I'm not a big blues fan, either. I like rock. (But blues is the a grand daddy of rock.) His tabs bug me, too. At first, I would rewrite some of the tabs. But his tabs ain't as bad as Gindick's tabs! Gindick writes 6d and 6b for -6 and 6. I get dyslexic trying to read that.

Anyway, Barrett's stuff is good material. If you have trouble comprehending something, I'm sure Google could help you.

I'm not a big fan of the way Barrett puts the wrong notes on the lines and spaces, but I do understand why he does it. Maybe it's a good idea....A note on the second line does not necessarily mean "G." (Only on a C harp.) It means "-2."

I am now straying from the main theme a bit but I have now found an even more confusing harp tab notation, much worse than the Barrett or Gindick "systems". It is here. Unfortunately, you have to look at the video and listen to the guy. It is not possible to give a typewritten description of it.

www.youtube.com/user/nighttrainjames#p/u/50/X6sRarC5D1g

After reading a few comments on the video, my suspicians are confirmed as to how he came up with that system.

Commenter: "...Do you like to drink and play? No offense, I just find that it's when I like playing the most."

His reply to comment: "I
don't drink, but I am certainly a fan of altering my state of being to enhance musical moments, on and off stage "

[www.youtube.com]

Ah, that explains alot. Although, I don't think I could understand his thinking no matter how stoned I got!!
Back to the suject: First of all, thank you Gene for recommending this book. I'm getting alot out of it. If the way Barrett writes his tabs bothers you, do what I did at the start and pencil in a - in front of the draw notes. Jeff



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/03/2012 09:21PM by gatman.

I get used to his tab easily enough, I guess.

OK. I've just told nighttrainjames what I think of his "system" and am bracing my self for a torrent of abuse as soon as he is aware of it.
He has made some very unpleasant attacks on other's in the "harmonica scene" so I already have negative disposition towards him.

I prefer tab that assumes draw notes. Use a + for blow notes. I play mostly in second and third position which both use a lot of draw notes. Draw being the default makes the tab cleaner.