As for a forum, elements of that could start right here and now thru your comments to each new entry. Your comments would leventually lead to changes and improvements to meet demands and needs. Just start thinking of the MM Blog as the MM Hangout (your new hangout).

Oh, and folks don’t forget to work out with and /or review the “IMPROVISING: THE FIRST STAGE” DVD.

You may certainly do so, but please be sure there is a link back to this site. Thanks!

Casey Henry

Casey

I understand what you saying when you write ” but we’re only three people, none of whom is terribly web conversant. ”

Setting up a Forum is not for the faint of heart but it is not overly complicated either if you are up for a challenge and there are a lot of experts out there willing to offer free help and advice to get your Forum up and running.

The link below will take you to phpbb version 3 perhaps the best open source forum software on the world wide web today and what’s so great about it is you can tailor it to your own website design and better still, it’s absolutely FREE.

The software comes with excellent documentation, but if you are not too comfortable with PHP, MySql, Apache and online servers, I feel sure you will have close friends who are a wiz with computers and can help you to set it up. It may seem very complicated at first but like learning to play the banjo with a little trial and error and a lot of perseverance you’ll get there in the end.

The whole concept of a Forum is for the users to help each other, in your case Murphy’s student’s would share their learning experience with the next generation of students with you guys on hand to add expert advice from time to time but not to the point where it dominates your life.

The phpbb site has it own Help Forum with experts around the world on hand to give advice and in my experience of using it I found that any calls for help I made were on average replied to within five or ten minutes day or night… I know that may seem hard to believe but it is true.

I took me about two weeks to set up a forum from scratch. I got bogged down trying to learn PHP, MySql and Apache so I downloded the forum software and had a look at how it was structured, I then began to tailor it to suit my needs and added a few security mods to keep the spam bots from taking over > this is important to note < as spam bots have a tendency to leave behind links to unsavory websites..

That said here’s the link http://www.phpbb.com/

Alternately you might care to ask Eric Schlange the Banjo Hangout Webmaster for some advice on how to go about setting up a Forum
eric@banjohangout.org

Happy Blogging

Best Regards Tam

Picking a Fender FB 58 and PROUD to describe myself as a Student of the Murphy Method

Thanks for that good suggestion. We’ve always had that in mind to do, but we’re only three people, none of whom is terribly web conversant. At the moment it’s all we can do to keep adding content to this new blog, in addition to sending out DVDs, teaching at camps, and making new DVDs. A TMM forum is definitely in the plans for the future, I just can’t say when!

Students should feel free to email us with questions (themurphymethod@gmail.com or through our website) and we try to post some common ones on the “Ask Murphy” page of the website.

Happy PIcking!
Casey

It’s great to see more of your students taking the plunge and venturing to post messages on your blog.

I’d like to suggest that you consider setting up a help forum where students of the Murphy Method can interact and share their learning experiences with the occasional guidance from your good self.

The one thing I have noticed about the Banjo Hangout is that those banjo players who use tab tend to steal a thread (i.e. Change the subject) when a question has been asked about the MM as a result the subject matter often gets buried under a whole batch of ‘I use the Murphy Method’ comments. A war of words so to speak.

A Forum devoted to the Murphy Method would also give you feedback on how well or not you are getting your message over to your DVD student’s.

It would also served as a vessel for gathering ideas and information to help you decide what tunes and lessons to teach in the future…

Best Regards Tam

Picking a Fender FB 58 and PROUD to describe myself as a Student of the Murphy Method

Sometimes I just can’t figure out a lick I hear, and tab can help.

Also if I happen to forget how to play a portion of a song it’s a lot faster to take a quick look at the tab than it is to go back over that part of a dvd.

If people are having the problems you stated they are using tab the wrong way.

You need to listen to the song and apply the breaks in the tab and then play the song, not just the notes. In fact I’ll often substitute my own breaks.

So what I’m saying is that if you use tab as a sort of road map to a song you don’t know and actually listen to what the breaks sound like you will eventually be able to recognize them when you hear them.

I still have a real hard time finding the right breaks for a song that I’m trying to come up with my own arrangement with, but I don’t think it’s because I’ve used tab, it’s because I haven’t worked at improvising enough yet.