Product Details

• Actors: Happy Traum
• Directors: Happy Traum
• Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: All Regions
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Homespun
• DVD Release Date: April 1, 2011
• Run Time: 100 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• ASIN: B003BQ1HQG
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #254,826 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Here's the first in a two-DVD lesson series that will be deeply satisfying for any acoustic guitarist who wants to move beyond simple chords and easy strums. Beginning and intermediate players will quickly gain an understanding of guitar basics through the process of building compelling arrangements of well-known, much-loved traditional songs. In an instructional tour de force, Happy details each step, starting with a simple version of each song and then slowly adding chord substitutions, bass lines, harmonies, fill-in licks, fingerpicking patterns and other techniques that eventually create a fully-formed performance piece. By the time you have completed these two DVDs, you'll have gained a better command of the fretboard, increased your repertoire and improved your guitar technique.DVD 1 features songs arranged in dropped D tuning: The Cuckoo, with its haunting "mountain modal" minor key tonalities; the Caribbean-tinged American ballad Delia's Gone; and The Water is Wide, one of most beautiful and widely sung love songs in the English language.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must for the Guitarist's Library, July 14, 2010

By 

Peter Hyatt (Orrington, Maine) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Basic Arranging That Every Guitarist Should Know #1 (DVD)

Another great release from Happy Traum of Homespuntapes.com

The last few years has given us one teriffic release after another; with careful, step by step instruction, perfect camera changes, close ups, encouragement, instruction, and enthusiasm for some classic songs. Called "Mountain Music" affectionately by forum members at Homespun.com, This two DVD set gives not only the classical step by step (line upon line; precept upon precept) teaching we expect from Homespun, but now gives the student a "push from the nest" as the instructor is teaching students to "flavor" their songs on their own.

DVD 1 is in dropped D tuning (where the low E string is tuned to D; Happy's favorite tuning) and has the old ballad, "The Cuckoo" with its beautiful Dm feel, Happy's often heard version of "Delia", with a lovely solo, and one of Artie Traum's favorites, "The Water is Wide".

This is a "must have" for all acoustic music fans with starts for beginners, but a challenge for intermediate guitarists wishing to "spread their wings" a bit and improvise soundly.