About The Authors

Sandra Cooper is the true guiding force behind this publication.

Over the past several years Sandra has assisted at harmonica workshops and seminars presented by her husband, Dennis. Scanning the audience for the blank stares that inevitably sweep across the room when Dennis starts to move too fast through the material or skips an important point, Sandra is the “plant” who raises her hand and asks the magic question that everyone in the room is wondering about, getting the absent-minded harmonica professor back on track.

After exploring the many beginning-harmonica instruction books that are available on today's market she decided to have Dennis teach her to play the harmonica. She translated his lessons into simple English, devoid of the musical jargon, cute stories, harmonica history, and music theory that encompasses many instructional books.

The result is a compact and concise manual and audio cd written for folks with limited experience on the harmonica and little or no musical knowledge. It is probably the only harmonica instruction book ever written and produced entirely on the road in a vintage motor home and vendor tent along this exciting journey we call life.

This publication is not her first literary venture. Her monthly newsletter, “Keeping in Touch” was a very popular health and wellness publication at her therapeutic massage practice, day spa and massage school.

Sandra also previously owned a hotel-restaurant in Idaho that has been featured on the show “America’s Most Haunted Places” on the Travel Channel.

She continues to be an entrepreneur, traveling the United States and navigating for her directionally-challenged husband. She assists with workshops, seminars, and concerts, and sells eclectic items of tie-dye and batik clothing, CD’s, harmonicas, and  this book at music events, festivals, and fairs. 

Sandra has acted in a number of community theater plays and is past-president of the Weiser, Idaho Little Theater Board of Directors.

Dennis M. Cooper began playing harmonica at the age of nine when Uncle Eldred Luckenbill gave him one as a gift, “primarily to annoy my mother,” he says.  No one knew how that little gift would spark a love that has endured and grown for four decades.

Mr. Cooper loves to play music, loves to share the humble diatonic harmonica with all he meets, and loves to pass on the knowledge of his unique style.  He has been privileged to play his music from Nashville to Austin to L.A. to the Gulf Coast of Texas and throughout the West.  He spends most of his time on the road exploring the cultures and lives of this great country.

So many of the folks he met in passing  asked him to write an instruction book and requested  play-along CDs that it became obvious that was to be the next step in the journey.  Dennis acted as technical advisor to his wife, Sandra, a beginner harmonica student, entrepreneur, and writer, and the project took flight.  It was the ideal merger of expert and novice. The correct questions were asked and the answers were simplified so absolute beginners could gain the knowledge and confidence needed to progress to the ability level of their choice. 

Some of Mr. Cooper’s accomplishments follow:

2002 Jim Beam B.E.A.M. (Benefiting Emerging Artists in Music) Award, one of 23 awarded nationwide.

2001 Yellow Pine Harmonica Contest—1st Place, Diatonic Division
2000 Yellow Pine Harmonica Contest—3rd Place, Diatonic Division

1999 Yellow Pine Harmonica Contest—2nd Place, Diatonic Division

Top Selling Jazz CD—www.mp3.com, January, 2002, March, 2002, April, 2003, September, 2003

“Dennis M. Cooper carries his music like a Doctor carries his PhD. It is a part of his name, a part of his soul...it is the blues. You can hear it with every note of this song. He has lived the pain and the melancholy, he has lived this song. Amazing Grace...without knowing anything about the man behind this Harmonica, I would venture a guess that he had once been lost. And, now he's saved. There is a sweet tenderness, which mixes with just enough bitterness throughout this track.” Bottom line; this is the blues. I am giving a perfect score for lyrics because, with Mr. Cooper's skill I can hear them.” 

Clint Gage, Gods of Music, 2001