(Line from a Jimmy Martin song.)
So, Steve and I are having our bi-monthly hour-long banjo lesson. We are in the Murphy Method studio where Casey and Red and I have just finished shooting the new DVD, More Easy Tunes For Banjo. We have cleaned up most of the DVD paraphernalia (chairs, lights, drop cloth, tuners, instruments), but we have left the black backdrop down, since it takes two of us to roll it up.
Steve makes some remark about the DVD shoot. I say, “Yeah, we used to use that black cloth there for a background. I think that’s what’s on our Beginning Banjo DVDs. Then we noticed that my hair seemed to disappear against all that black, and we didn’t know how to light it so that wouldn’t happen, so we switched to the blue background you now see in most of the DVDs.” (Including the Slow Jams and the newest one.)
Steve immediately says, “I guess you could go back to the black background now because the grey would show up pretty well.”
Me:
(Visualize open mouth and nothing coming out!)
Steve: “I shouldn’t have said that. I thought about not saying it….”
Me: “No, it was a perfect set up. You had to say it.”
And there were no hard feelings. I didn’t even make him play “Banjo in the Hollow” one hundred times for punishment! In fact we had a very good lesson. Steve is working now on the Improvising DVD and he is coming up with some really good breaks that don’t necessarily follow exactly what I taught on the DVD. I like that!
So I just chalk it up to one of the joys of being a banjo player and teacher for 35 years….Or as one of my former students said to me (and I reported in Banjo Newsletter), “You’ve been playing banjo longer than I’ve been alive.” Selah.
Ouch — those wise-acre young-uns can sure be tough on us old grey folks! The flesh may be going south, but as long as the fingers still work, I say a black background is better than no background at all………….
Just thought of a new name for the band that all you Henry’s can be in: Chris, Casey, and Their Excellent Parents! Passing the torch to our children does have it’s ups and downs, but one of the ups for you folks HAS to be seeing your kids carrying on the family music tradition in such competent ways. Very Thrilling, actually!
It should have been Henrys, not Henry’s. Again, poor mechanics.