Don.............I have both of these tutorials. You will not be disappointed in either one. The David Barrett book and CD is excellent for the advanced beginner looking to pick up a few tips on technique, and articulation. I like the way he teaches a particular lick and then builds on it to teach variations. Like most tutorials it emphasizes the pucker embouchure. I bought this one first (before Portnoy's was available)and was very pleased with it. The Jerry Portnoy MasterClass is IMO much broader in scope. It covers a lot. It starts out emphasizing the tongue block embouchure. It also builds nicely. Though I'm glad I have both, if I had to pick one, I'd pick the Portnoy. Even though I am a pucker-player, I learned a lot from it. Also, I find one key value in the CDs is how many 'play along' tracks are there. These are where they play the song once with the harp and then once without the harp so you can play along. Barrett has basically two, "I'm Ready" and "Baby, Please Don't Go", both for 2nd position playing. Portnoy has nine in three different keys, so you can play in 1st, 2nd and 3rd position. They are not specific songs, just a march, a shuffle and a slow blues. Portnoy costs a lot more. Everybody says "You get what you pay for". I say "You can't put a price on a good time".
