Easy Steps to Guitar Fingerpicking
HOMESPUN
Taught By Happy Traum.
Level 2
Three DVDs, Includes music and tab

DVD One: Demystifying Alternate Thumb Technique
DVD Two: Songs in Dropped D Tuning
DVD Three: Graduating Into Classic Repertoire

Drawing on four decades of teaching experience, Happy Traum has devised this nearly foolproof method to help you get off to a great start. He trains you to “rewire your brain” so that playing in this style becomes second nature. Happy also imparts invaluable information about finger picks, string damping, Travis style picking and other important topics.

DVD 1 starts you from scratch. The simple children’s song "Skip to My Lou" helps you learn the basic concepts before you move on to fingerpicking standards such as "Spike Driver’s Blues," "Green, Green Rocky Road," "Staggerlee," "Nine Pound Hammer" and "Hobo’s Lullaby." With each piece you’ll acquire new skills and by the end of this lesson you’ll be able to apply them to any song in your repertoire.

On DVD Two, Happy shows you how to play in the versatile and useful “dropped D” tuning. You’ll learn how to play and sing five classic songs, each one rich with possibilities for creating exciting arrangements: "The Colorado Trail," "My Home’s Across the Smoky Mountains," "Fishin’ Blues," "The Blues Ain’t Nothin’" and "John Henry."

Back in standard tuning, DVD Three introduces you to the songs and styles of Merle Travis, Doc Watson, John Hurt and other masters of traditional guitar fingerpicking. You’ll learn to move freely around the fingerboard playing licks, slides, hammer-ons and bass runs while maintaining the steady thumb rhythm that gives this style its ear-catching appeal. Songs: "I Am a Pilgrim," "Deep River Blues," "Louis Collins," "Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out" and "Step It Up and Go."

Student Review:

"It's been a little over a year since I bought the first DVD in the "Easy Steps to Fingerpicking" series. One year ago I was struggling with 'Skip to My Lou', and today I have just played through - in it's entirety - 'Deep River Blues'. In my books, that's a pretty big distance to come in a relatively short period of time. For that, sir, I cannot begin to thank you enough." - Russell Sawler

"I am an experienced player who always had trouble with the Travis style. So after years of failing to teach myself, I purchased Happy Traum's "De-mystifying the Alternating Thumb" DVD. I cannot praise this video enough. It's very easy to follow and the teaching style is excellent. While I am no master of the style, it has taken me to a point where I can actually do it. Getting better is up to me. Thanks Happy. You did a wonderful job on this one." - Brian Buckley

About Happy Traum
During the past forty years, Happy Traum's avid interest in traditional and contemporary music has brought him recognition as a performer, writer, editor, folklorist, teacher and recording artist. He has performed extensively throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia and Japan, and has appeared on recordings as a featured artist, as a member of various ensembles, and as an accompanist. He has played and recorded with Bob Dylan, Chris Smither, Maria Muldaur, Eric Andersen, Rory Block, Jerry Jeff Walker, Allen Ginsberg, Levon Helm, Rick Danko, Richard Manuel and innumerable others.
Happy is the author of more than a dozen best-selling guitar instruction books, has written numerous magazine columns and articles, and for three years was editor of Sing Out! The Folksong Magazine. He and his brother, Artie Traum, have been playing as a duo since 1968. Their first two Capitol albums, "Happy And Artie Traum" and "Double Back," are widely considered to be classics. Long-time residents of Woodstock, NY, Happy and Artie co-produced several important records for Rounder, featuring some of the area's finest folk and rock musicians. These included "Mud Acres, Music Among Friends" and "Woodstock Mountains." Happy and Artie's album "Hard Times In The Country" featured liner notes by Allen Ginsberg. In 1993, Happy and Artie released their latest duet album, "The Test Of Time," featuring traditional and contemporary songs backed up by some of Woodstock's finest musicians.
Happy's solo albums include "Relax Your Mind," "American Stranger," "Bright Morning Stars" and "Friends And Neighbors." A compilation CD, "Buckets Of Songs," has been released by Shanachie Records. In 2001, “Bright Morning Stars” was reissued in CD format in the U.S. (Lark’s Nest Music) and in Japan (Slice of Life Records).
Perhaps Happy Traum's most important and lasting musical contribution has been Homespun Tapes, which he and his wife Jane founded in 1967. This dynamic and growing mail order company has a catalog of approximately 400 different music instruction lessons on audio cassette, CD and video tape, taught by top professional performing musicians. Happy produces all of the lessons, and brings to Homespun his many years of experience as a popular and productive member of the music community.