HOMESPUN
Taught
By Happy Traum.
Level 1
Four CDs, Includes a book of chords and lyrics
Here is a complete course that will have you playing your guitar in minutes. You'll learn all the basic chords and important picking and strumming techniques, and will be singing and playing more than a dozen songs-right from the first lesson!
Happy Traum, one of the world's most experienced guitar teachers, has carefully designed this hands-on, step-by-step method for all age groups. He helps you achieve manual dexterity and coordination while developing your musical knowledge through a series of carefully chosen songs. With invaluable ear training exercises and the basics of chord theory, you'll learn to play most songs you hear, even if you have no prior musical experience or the ability to read music.
These four CDs will provide hours of fun and musical adventure, and are guaranteed to be the easiest and most pleasant way you will find to learn to play guitar. By the end of this course you will know over 70 songs and be able to play in most keys using a variety of picking and strumming techniques. Best of all, you'll have the tools to go on to more advanced studies in any style of playing you like.
Here are just a few of the wonderful songs you will be singing and playing almost immediately: "He's Got The Whole World In His Hands," "Scarborough Fair," "St. James Infirmary," "Will The Circle Be Unbroken," "Stewball," "Midnight Special," "House Of The Rising Sun," "Greensleeves," "Go Tell Aunt Rhody," "Man Of Constant Sorrow" and many more.
*remastered version of the six-cassette series "Guitar For Beginners."
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.