Sonny Terry's Country Blues Harmonica

I bought this book when I found it in a local sheet music store, even though it was quite expensive. The first half of this book is about Sonny's life. He tells the story and it is quite interesting. I would think this is the most valuable thing about the book. After this, Sonny's technique is briefly explained, and then there are some songs tabulated for the reader to play them. I found this tab very hard to understand, IT DOESN'T HAVE STANDARD MUSIC NOTATION, and that makes it very hard. Besides, Sonny's style is complex. It comes with a vinil recording. I FOUND THE BOOK VERY INTERESTING, AS LONG AS YOUR MAIN FOCUS IS TO LEARN ABOUT SONNY. If you want to learn to play harp I wouldn't recomend it. There are better books for beginners (look for peter pickow).

If you want to do it the way Sonny did this is the book for you. Of all the harp books I have this one is the most clearly laid out and easy to follow. Clear annotation shows which holes to blow/suck bends etc. No substitute for practice but it get you well on the way.With the aid of a few cd's or better still vinyls you can follow what Sonny does. An addictive book.