Date: Friday, Aug 18th, 2023 - Sunday, Aug 20th, 2023
Time: Fri: 3pm - 5:30pm / Sat & Sun: 1pm - 3:30pm
Location: Virtual
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Ideas and Arranging Techniques for Intermediate Fingerpickers
Passing on the Tradition of Blues and Traditional Song Accompaniment
This class could be called “making the best with what you’ve got.” Happy shows intermediate players how even a simple a song can be arranged and played in a way that makes it interesting and compelling for the listener. Happy will teach material from his vast repertoire of traditional folk, blues and country songs, with even one or two contemporary ones thrown in. These will incorporate alternate-bass fingerpicking, bass runs, chord substitutions, double-stop harmonies, dropped D tuning, blues improvisation and other essential musical devices. Prerequisites: You should be adept at basic chord changes and be generally comfortable with your instrument. Fingerpicking experience is a required and will enable you to profit from this learning experience.
About Happy Traum
During the past forty years, Happy Traum’s interest in traditional and contemporary music has brought him recognition as a performer, writer, editor, folklorist, teacher and recording artist. He has performed throughout the U.S. and abroad, 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. Perhaps Happy’s most important and lasting musical contribution has been Homespun Tapes, which he and his wife Jane founded in 1967. They have a catalog of approximately 400 different music instruction lessons on audio cassette, CD and DVD, 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.