[Harp-L] Jerry Portnoy's Masterclass 3 CDs



Zvi,

It's pretty good as far as it goes. Heavily focused on teaching traditional blues style playing with tongue lifts, especially on the first CD, but there's a lot of other useful stuff, too. You don't need to TB in order to learn many of the techniques Portnoy discusses, but some of it is definitely TB oriented. Good instruction on draw bends and handling the 3 bends in draw 3. Not as detailed on blow bends, as I recall.

No follow along written materials, which would have been nice, but the instruction on the CD is clear and understandable. Doesn't contain very much that an advanced player would not already be familiar with, but there are quite a few useful little tips. Nothing on how to achieve proper embouchure, the actual mechanics of tongue blocking, how to hold the harp or how to generate diaphragmatic air flow, except in the most general terms which, IMHO are fairly significant omissions.

Some of the techniques Portnoy spends a lot of time on are very specific to traditional blues playing and of limited utility for playing other styles of music, but one can filter through those parts if not interested in that style. The CDs are remarkable for what is NOT discussed, but the instruction is pretty good on the topics that are covered. On the whole, the 3 CD set is pretty decent. Portnoy is a very skilled player and clearly explains the topics he covers.

Hope this is of some help.

JP



This archive was generated by a fusion of Pipermail 0.09 (Mailman edition) and MHonArc 2.6.8.