From an anonymous banjo student who was trying to remember how to play the first position break to “Lonesome Road Blues” from our Improvising DVD.
Murphy: “That’s some good improvising you’re doing there….”
Student: “I’m not improvising, I’m just screwing up!”
(S/he finally remembered the break from the DVD, but, really, the improv was good!)
As I was reflecting on what to write about today, it occurred to me that several students of mine have gotten new banjos in the last year or so. One, I’m happy to say, bought my very own Casey Henry model banjo. Her old banjo was a Stelling Murphyflower. Now she’s the only person in the world who has both a Murphy banjo and a Casey banjo! I’m also in the process of selling my Stealth banjo, which I bought when I was in college. Someone was asking me about it, trying to decide if he wanted to buy mine or wanted a new one. I, in shamelessly trying to influence him to buy mine, gave him some things to think about which generally hold true for all used vs. new banjos.
#1. It’s cheaper. This is frequently the case, except when you’re talking about pre-war Gibson flatheads.
#2. It’s available now. When you order a banjo from a smaller maker, like Stelling, or Kel Kroydon, they make each one as it is ordered and it usually takes two or three months, unless you find a dealer who has some in stock.
#3. It’s good and broken in. Nothing can replace the settling in process of an instrument. A new banjo doesn’t sound as good as it’s going to right when it is put together. All the parts need time to settle and start vibrating together. As a general rule, the older an instrument is, if it has been well cared for, the better it will sound (relative to itself). Your pawn shop banjo is never going to get so old it starts sounding like a Granada, but I bet you it sounds better than it did the first day it rolled out of the factory!
#4. You can play it. I always recommend playing an instrument before you commit to buying it. Even if you don’t play very well yet, you can tell a lot by holding the instrument in your hands and plunking a few notes on it.
I know not everyone has a neighborhood banjo store where you can go and play lots of different banjos. But if you are thinking about investing in a quality instrument, it is well worth the trip to a place that stocks many banjos, or to a convention or festival like the IBMA Fan Fest, so that you can try them out. When you pick up the banjo that you are meant to have, you’ll know it!
Here in northern Virginia (northern with a small “n”, not Northern– none of Virginia is Northern), the Bluemont Concert Series presents a variety of excellent entertainment at outdoor shows each summer. In Winchester, the concerts are presented on the steps of the old Frederick County Courthouse, which was built long ago and has a nice green lawn in front where the audience can set up with their folding chairs or just blankets on the ground. A few days ago, the Friday-night performers were Robin & Linda Williams and Their Fine Group.
Robin (on guitar) and Linda (on banjo) are quite well-known nationally, and they had their more-or-less steady “Fine Group” together for this show, namely long-time, high-grade bluegrass performer Jimmy Gaudreau on mandolin, and fine musician and showman from way back Jim Watson, on bass. (Remember the Red Clay Ramblers?, yup, that Jim Watson.) Our old friend Gamble Rogers introduced us to Robin and Linda long ago, and we feel honored to know them.
I wasn’t playing music that evening, so I decided to go down and see Robin and Linda. (Murphy needed to travel to Georgia that weekend to look after her folks, so much to her regret, she couldn’t attend.) I planned to get to the show early, but between one thing and another—the “other” being that parking was hard to find in the middle of Winchester, because several hundred people had come downtown for the concert—I only got to the courthouse about eight minutes before the music was supposed to start. The band was on stage at the top of the courthouse steps, getting ready to play. But I wanted to say hello to them. I thought it would have been impolite not to.
The band was on the stage. What to do? That depends on how shy you are. So, not feeling especially shy at that moment, I just walked up one end of the big courthouse steps, trying not to be more conspicuous than necessary (being 6’4″ with red hair doesn’t help me be inconspicuous) to shake and howdy with everybody. Robin and Linda were feeling good and in fine form, as always. Then as I said hello to Jimmy, his mandolin caught my eye. He said he’d only had it for a few days—it was a Kentucky mandolin with a bright blue sunburst finish! He said it had been completely reworked inside and out, regraduated, new bracing installed, and refinished. The only thing still “stock” on it was the peghead overlay. He called it his Blue Kentucky Girl—pretty appropriate, I think.
I spent part of yesterday giving a banjo lesson to Mark, a fairly new student who has been with me since the end of May. Mark is about my age (the best age!) which is to say the kids are grown, leaving time for things like banjo lessons.
Mark is into his second week of working on “Cumberland Gap,” so we spent the entire lesson trading banjo breaks and vamps to CG so Mark could learn to move from the vamp to the lead. As we are playing, I am blogging in my head because many things are becoming apparent to me as Mark plays. The main one, as the title here indicates, is that learning the tunes is the easy part!
First of all, it struck me once again how hard it is to learn to play through your mistakes. Particularly in a song like CG which is not a familiar tune to most people and doesn’t have much of a melody to boot! And the thing I realized, from watching Mark’s reaction, is that mistakes are just so startling! I mean, he’d been playing the tune hundreds of times at home, and I am convinced that he was playing it correctly, so he was used to hearing the same string of notes over and over ad nauseum. So when he hits a wrong note, it’s just flat out weird. His ears aren’t used to hearing that note. So he reacts with surprise and that causes a tiny hesitation which causes him to lose not only his place in the song but his concentration. And all the other notes go flying out of his head and the song abruptly ends.
As I told Mark, this is one of the reasons our playing the tune together is so important. He needs to make every mistake possible so he can learn to recover from them. He needs to hear all the wrong notes he can hit so they won’t surprise him.
So that was the first thing that was going on: learning to play through the mistakes.
One of my students, Ginny, has lately been venturing out to some local jam sessions, in particular one at a place called Larry’s Garage. When she first started going to Larry’s, she just vamped along on the edges of the session, not taking any leads. This is the perfect way to ease into jamming. It gets you used to playing in a situation where there are lots of other people and distractions, yet you don’t have to worry about taking any solos.
Eventually, the folks asked her if she’d like to play a tune. For her first tune she chose “Home Sweet Home,” a song she’d been working on. That was her mistake: a song she’d been working on. When folks ask you if you’d like to play a song, choose the song that you know BEST. This may be “Banjo In The Hollow,” it may be “Cripple Creek,” and even if you think those songs are stupid (they aren’t) or too simple, it is always nicer to listen to a simple song played well than a more complicated one played shakily. Indeed, upon getting Ginny to play “Home Sweet Home” for me at her lesson the following week, I discovered that she was leaving out a section, and that probably contributed to her lack of success playing it with the group.
But she continued to go back to Larry’s after that first forray, and this week she had a more successful tale to tell. At least a couple weeks in a row she played “Cripple Creek” and successfully made it all the way through, hitting the ending and everything. Then she moved on to “Fireball Mail.” Last week she told me she had “lost it” during the high break. I asked her how she was practicing it: did she practice standing up, like the jam? No. So in our lesson we traded it back and forth, standing up.
This week she came in and proudly announced that she’d made it all the way through and put the ending on with complete success. She had even noticed that what the other people were playing around her wasn’t very interesting. I told her that not so very long ago she didn’t have the space in her brain to notice anything but what she was playing right that second. The fact that she’s comfortable enough in a jamming situation to notice what the other folks are playing is a great marker of progress.
She also said she’d been listening back to a lesson from March and she could tell that her playing had improved. Taping yourself is a great way to measure progress, as well as to hear what you really sound like from the front—a different way to experience your playing than while you’re actually playing. And a side benefit of taping all of your lessons (assuming you don’t tape over them!) is hearing what you sounded like months before. If you’re having doubts about your progress, as all students do, listen to what you sounded like six months ago. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
I really liked Patty S.’s comments in response to my Practice Tips #3 and #4. In particular, I loved her #4: Believe in muscle memory.
I actually witnessed Patty’s muscle memory operating outside her own awareness one time when she and Red and I were picking together. Patty had come East for some live, in-person banjo lessons after meeting me at a banjo camp in Port Townsend. When this incident happened, she’d only been picking about a year. (Is that right, Patty?) Anyhow, we were picking some tune up the neck, one that Patty hadn’t picked before (although she could play “Foggy Mt. Breakdown” and maybe “Lonesome Road Blues” up the neck). I was encouraging her, as always, to “just play SOMETHING,” it didn’t have to be pretty, or right, or just like Earl. Just something. Somehow Patty always understood that concept. (And she is very brave!)
Anyhow (again), all of a sudden her hands did a great lick—one that she’d clearly learned in another song and one that her hands had executed without her permission. It was the perfect lick for the song we were doing and Patty didn’t even realize that she’d done it. I, on the other hand, was freaking out (in a good way) because I knew what had happened. Her muscle memory had kicked in! Things were happening below the level of consciousness. Stephen King refers to this as the work of the “boys in the basement.” Perhaps in Patty’s case it was the “girls in the basement.” Whatever. Something was going on down there.
But the girls (or boys) in the basement can’t export their work unless you—the person with the actual hands—do your part. Your muscle memory is a pipeline to that basement. So, you’ve got to put in the practice time doing all those foundation songs over and over and over. You’ve got to commit these songs and these licks to your muscle memory. And the only way to do it is to practice. Practice till you’re sick of the songs, till you can’t stand them. Then practice some more!
Banjo players, in particular, will notice that in Beginning Banjo Vol. 1 and 2, certain licks keep coming up over and over. (This is also particularly noticeable in the Improvising DVD and in the High Breaks and Backup [soon to be released on DVD].) This is, hopefully, a more or less painless way get you to use these same licks over and over. Till they become automatic. Till they become stored in your muscle memory.
Unfortunately, there is no shortcut to storing licks in your muscle memory. Although I’ve always found that playing with other people does seem to speed up the process. Maybe it’s just that you can put in more time that way without realizing you are practicing!
I’ve had many experiences with muscle memory, but my strongest is this. Back in 1977, Red and I had a regular gig in Gainesville, Florida, at a place called Diamond Jim’s. During much of 1977, I was pregnant with Casey. (This may come as a surprise to some of you who still thought “Murphy” was a boy!) Since it was hard to hold the banjo during those last few months, I didn’t play much. Thus, when I got back on stage at Diamond Jim’s for the first time since Casey’s birth (January 1978), I was woefully out of practice. Not a big deal for three-chord bluegrass, but many of my original songs have numerous and tricky chords. And at the time I was singing most of them capoed up in B or C. So right in the middle of my own “Fast Picks and Hot Licks,” I realized, as I was singing, that I had no idea how to play the upcoming and chordally complex banjo break.
Fortunately, before I had a chance to panic, the break was upon me. And I literally stood there and watched my hands play something that my conscious mind had no control over. It was somewhat unnerving! Ever since then I have been a big believer in muscle memory! With enough practice, you will be a believer too!
P.S. Stephen King fans: Have you ever noticed how many references Stephen King has to banjo and bluegrass songs in his books? Particularly the early ones! I thought about sending him a Beginning Banjo DVD….!
I discovered a great band over Labor Day weekend: Straight Drive. Their banjo player is Terry McGill, who is awesome. As soon as I realized how awesome he was, I bought both of their CDs. Or, rather, tried to buy them, because he wouldn’t let me pay for them. You can hear some of Terry’s playing on his MySpace page or order the CDs at the band’s website. 
Terry and I have a mutual friend in Greg Garing. I discovered this when I heard “Far Over The Sea” on Straight Drive’s CD. I also sing that Greg Garing original, and I actually recorded it with him a few years back. It was never released as far as I know, but I found it tonight on Greg’s bluegrass MySpace page. (That’s me on the banjo.) I hope to record it myself someday.
Terry also plays on the Old Time Blue Grass Singers’s CD Threads, which is well worth ordering!
A couple videos from my time at Thomas Point Beach turned up on YouTube, courtesy of Nick Novia. This one has the song “Train on the Island” sung by April Hobart, who is a great singer. You can hear the new Casey Henry model in action. (The music starts about a minute in…) This one has us singing a silly kids song to please Dick Bowden’s adorable four-and-a-half year old granddaughter Gwen—”Animal Dance” I think. And, finally, this one has Andy Cartoun picking “Mastertone March” on my banjo. I’m on guitar.
We just got through playing a pleasant, informal performance with our friends David and Scott. It was quite a contrast to the usual stand-up gig, where we’d have a listening audience and play through a sound system (which we’d have to provide). Instead, the four of us were sitting together under an awning on a large deck, in the midst of a private party at a big lake-house. We were scheduled to play three sets like that. Simple to play? Yes, in a way, but the whole gig provided an illustration of how experienced musicians play together.
Murphy played banjo and Scott was playng guitar, and he and Murphy shared most of the lead singing. They sang songs covering quite a bit of ground, from Reno & Smiley to the Stanley Brothers to Bill Monroe, and a few old gospel songs as well.
David and I switched off on mandolin and fiddle. But I hadn’t played much fiddle in a few months. This meant, for one thing, that I needed to get back in practice on fiddle right there while playing it—I was a bit rusty at first, but I just played, and waited for my proficiency to come back. And by about the second set, it did. Did my rustiness matter? No, it didn’t, since few people in the crowd were really listening, and even those were not musical experts.
This brings up a good point: When you’re playing music in public, even if you don’t think you’re playing well on a particular day, JUST PLAY. Just KEEP GOING. Very few of the people listening will be able to tell that you’re out of practice or having a hard time playing, unless YOU signal it to them. And they don’t want to listen to someone who is obviously uncomfortable playing, either. So just enjoy what you’re doing, or act like it, and the listeners will never know your music isn’t as perfect as you’d like. JUST PLAY.
And also, when people aren’t paying much attention, don’t let it bother you. Don’t let the lack of applause get to you, especially if you’re in an easy performing situation, like ours. The people will like what you’re doing, and you’re not hired, in a case like this, to put on a show. You’re there to provide bluegrass music in the background. JUST PLAY.
Part way through the show, David and I decided to trade instruments. I handed him the fiddle, and before I could get out my mandolin, he handed me his own that he’d been playing—a 1923 F-5, with somebody’s signature on the label. This is fun.
So I just played the mandolin for a while, and then more fiddle, and all four of us had a good time (I certainly didn’t have to act that part!). We ended up the last set with Scott singing “When the Saints Go Marching In” (the old hymnbook version) and Murphy singing “Travellin’ That Highway Home”. And then we did indeed travel the highway home. I wish every gig I’d played was this easy!
Although many of my recent blogs have been centered around banjo playing, it occurred to me today (while I was playing my fiddle) that this is the one place where I can write freely about fiddle playing! When I was writing my Banjo Newsletter column, which Casey has now taken over, (except that I’ll be writing for the 35th anniversary issue in November), my columns about fiddling were generally greeted with either a great big yawn, a loud groan (“Not the fiddle again!”) or a rapid turning of the page. I understand. BNL is a banjo magazine.
But this blog is for all the members of the Murphy Method Community and that includes fiddlers! So let me give you a quick rundown of my ongoing struggle with the fiddle, just to let you know where I’m coming from. (This is the “It’s All About Me” part. Feel free to skip ahead to the advice at the end!)
I have been messing with the fiddle for decades. Sometimes I love it passionately and play almost everyday. Sometimes I sorely neglect it and don’t take it out of the case for weeks. (Or years!) But nevertheless, like the poor, it seems to be with me always.
My fiddle journey started in high school when I took violin lessons for a couple of years. Of course this involved reading music, which I could already do, although not very well, from my piano lessons. But that was more or less a dead end. Then as my BNL columns chronicle, I toyed with bluegrass fiddle off and on for years. I was not a smashing success.
But five or six years ago, I once again got sort of serious about the fiddle. But this time, I did it differently. Instead of trying to learn somebody else’s version of a bunch of fiddle tunes, I decided to just play what was already in my head. I thought, “I’ve been playing bluegrass now for thirty years. I know how a lot of these tunes sound. I’ll just play them the way I hear them, and that will have to be good enough. It’s okay if they are not authentic, it’s okay if they are not perfect. They will be my versions and that will suffice.”
That thought was extremely freeing to me and has stood me in good stead until this day. And it sure made playing the fiddle a lot more fun!
So here’s my advice to all you fiddlers: Don’t be afraid to try to play the songs you hear in your own head. Simple songs are probably best to start with. “Happy Birthday,” “Mary Had A Little Lamb,” “Are You Sleeping Brother John,” “You Are My Sunshine,” “This Land Is Your Land.” One of my beginning fiddle students recently started working on “Danny Boy” on her own and is doing very well. And don’t forget “Amazing Grace.”
I found out that many of the standard Christmas carols are easy to play on the fiddle. (Much easier than on the banjo!) Since my own students were doing so well with them, we recorded an entire DVD called Christmas Tunes for Fiddle But, hey, you can probably pick some of these out by ear yourownself. (You might start with “Joy To The World.”) The main thing is don’t be afraid to try. Go for it. If you can hear it, you can probably play it!
Casey has already talked about Practice Tip #1 (Come To Your Lesson!) and Practice Tip #2 (PRACTICE!).
Today I’ll briefly mention Practice Tip #3 and #4.
Practice Tip #3: Always play the song or tune as it is “written”. That is, if the form of the song (as Jim Wood calls it) is AABB (first part played twice, second part played twice) then practice it that way! Do not under any circumstances practice it as one first part and one second part. Why would you do that? To save time?
Several of my students (unnamed to protect the guilty!) have been doing this lately and I’ve had to rap them on the knuckles. (Metaphorically speaking, of course.) I can always tell if they’ve practiced it the “short way” because when they play it for me they have a tendency to leave out one of the parts—without even thinking about it. What has happened is that the short cut has become a bad habit—a habit that has to be unlearned! So, might as well learn it right the first time.
Practice Tip #4: Be sure to practice your old tunes! Yes, every week! (And you know who I’m talking to!) It’s great to spend large amounts of time on your new tune, but when you neglect your old tunes you are eroding your foundation. And, as my students have found out, I have a gift for asking them to play the very tunes they’ve not practiced. And it’s not that I am trying to trip them up—I promise. It’s just that I think everyone should always be able to play “Banjo in the Hollow,” “Foggy Mountain Breakdown,” and “Roll in My Sweet Baby’s Arms” once they have learned them. I mean, these are Basic Banjo Tunes. So as Emma Smith wrote and Larry Sparks and Lynn Morris both sing so eloquently, “Don’t neglect the rose in your garden!” Banjo translation: Don’t neglect “Banjo in the Hollow” while working on “Cumberland Gap”! Don’t neglect “Roll in My Sweet Baby’s Arms” while working on “Blue Ridge Cabin Home”! And don’t neglect “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” for anything!
I’ll post more practice tips as they come to mind! We also welcome your own personal tips!