The Happy Traum Guitar Method: Basic Arranging Techniques DVD 1

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.