How to Play the Harmonica: And Other Life Lessons

by Sam Barry

Filled with ideas for how to liven up your life, How to Play the Harmonica is the perfect companion for keeping you happy. Lost your dog? Call him home with a shrill whistle on your harmonica. Bored at work? Impress your colleagues with your witty banter and new thoughts on life. Tired of cooking? Throw in the apron and head out for Chinese . . . in Beijing. With the harmonica as his guide, Sam Barry leads the way to higher sense of self and fun...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1423605705
• ISBN13: 9781423605706
• Release Date: August 2009
• Publisher: Gibbs Smith
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.5" x 7.3"

Customer Reviews

Funny Bone

Not since seeing Borrah Minevitch & His Harmonica Rascals have I laughed so much! This book delivers on it's promise to teach you how to play the harmonica, but the lion's share of the book is about learning how to play in life. Humor was definitely bred in the bones of the Barry family!

Harmonica, Life, and Learning to begin again

I'm the guy who handed Sam that Hohner harmonica back in the late 60's. It was chrome colored and bigger than the usual small harmonicas you see, and it was concave and had a nice etching. Anyway, Sam took to it like, well, a seal to the sea. I really don't think I've ever heard a better harmonica player than Sam. He is in truth prodigiously good at it. He lives it-- as the Buddha, the Bubba, (or maybe even the Dubya) might say, he is one with it. This book is going to be a fun read for you. If you're like me, a slavish servant of corporate America-- one of the minions-- (you know who you are--) you will find release and inspiration in the gentle prodding here to let go a little, give it up a little, and have a little fun. If you've ever wanted to wail along with Bonnie Raitt, or Percy Sledge, or possibly even Perry Como, here's a way you can do it and here's some know-how to get you there, blowing and drawing on your own harmonica. Let Sam teach you how to relax, breathe, and enjoy yourself musically. If you ever get to see him in action, with his SF bands or with senior brother Dave and the Rock Bottom Remainders, you will understand, this is a guy who knows how to have fun. Sam is disarming, easy like lemonade on a breezy summer day, he can make you laugh, he can make you smile... Sam is heart and soul.