The Big Harmonica Songbook: Popular and Rare Folk Tunes – 200 Songs & Recordings, Olaf Böhme
(272 pages, english version, colored – 200 songs with harmonica version and backing tracks)
The Big Harmonica Songbook offers two hundred popular and rare folk songs from America and Europe America. The Scandinavian dances, Russian folk music, Italian Tarantellas, Irish folk and Yiddish music herein take the harmonica back to its European roots. Meanwhile, the Country & Western, Bluegrass and Oldtime melodies, Blues, Ragtime and Latin American music celebrate the instrument’s development and success in America. Stylistically and culturally, this book covers a lot of ground. Nevertheless, each of the 200 pieces has been chosen specifically for its playability on the harmonica. Some bluegrass and blues originals by the author, complete with written-out solos, are also included.
This book comes with recordings which you can download online for playing along to. Each song comes in two versions, a harmonica version and a backing track of other instruments for you to use when you can play the piece. To access these recordings, simply scan the QR code of a song with your smartphone. Each piece is written in standard notation and in harmonica tablature. This means players who don’t read music can also learn the songs. The songs are divided into three levels, easy, intermediate and advanced. Although all of the songs have been recorded using the C major harmonica, many pieces on harmonica are typically played in G major, A minor, D minor or F major. As this book shows how to play in different positions, one can ultimately learn to play all 200 songs in this book using your C harmonica alone.
