We’ve posted a new sample clip from our Clawhammer Banjo Volume 2 DVD, taught by Lynn Morris. In this lesson, Lynn gives a very detailed explanation of the double-thumbing clawhammer technique.
Archive for July, 2009
Clip from Clawhammer Banjo Vol. 2
Friday, July 10th, 2009Misfit Jam
Thursday, July 9th, 2009
Murphy Henry
(Just wanted you to know that in order to write this, I had to tear myself away from the TV which was showing a special on the GAC channel featuring Little Jimmy Dickens, who is 87. As I left, he was telling stories about his friendship with Hank Williams. Senior, of course!)
We were a little light at the jam tonight but had a wonderful time nevertheless with Bob Van, Susan, Mark, and Ellen. Since we were a small crowd, I thought we’d start off with a song that Ellen has fallen in love with, “Wagon Wheel,” by Old Crow Medicine Show. The chords are simple (G, C, D and E minor) and Mark, her husband, has already worked up a banjo break. And, as you may remember from earlier blogs, I love Old Crow Medicine Show. Ellen had thoughtfully printed out several copies of the words, so with the melody fresh in my mind from listening to it right before the jam, I was able to power through.
Susan and Bob had never heard “Wagon Wheel” but I told them this was The Bluegrass Way To Learn A New Song: someone says I’d like to try this song and then they start singing! They might tell you the key, and you might ask if there are any “off” chords (like E minor), but that’s pretty much it. So that was our first song. Ellen then said she was completely happy and didn’t care if we played anything else!
However we did play “anything else” which consisted of:
Banjo In The Hollow (in unison)
Blue Ridge Cabin Home
Lonesome Road Blues
Old Joe Clark
I Saw The Light
John Hardy
Susan had recently learned “Fireball Mail” so she played that and I croaked out a few verses. I particularly love the line “like a hound wagging his tail, bet she’s late, late, late the Fireball Mail.”
We closed out with “Foggy Mountain Breakdown,” during which Mark’s fifth-string peg came loose which caused his string to pop out of the fifth-string nut which train-wrecked the song. Knowing we couldn’t quit on that note, I handed him Dalton’s Gibson and we started again. Mark did a good job of playing an unfamiliar banjo.
So you can see that things were somewhat on the quiet side since our self-proclaimed “Bluegrass Master” was absent. I think he’s trying to avoid paying me the dollar he owes me. Rest assured, I’ll get it!
Brown, Raines, Bradley in today’s Wall Street Journal
Wednesday, July 8th, 2009
Casey Henry
I just found this article from today’s Wall Street Journal about Alison Brown, Missy Raines, and Dale Ann Bradley (who have all recently released CDs on Brown’s Compass Records) and the “sisterhood” between women who play bluegrass. There are audio samples from each of their albums. Despite the fact that they spell Garry West’s name wrong, it’s a very nice little article and press coverage for bluegrass in the Wall Street Journal is always a good thing!
A Tale of Two Jams
Tuesday, July 7th, 2009
We had a couple of jam sessions near here last week, and the contrasts between the two were something to write about. Now, one of the contrasts was in the number of people. In the local jam on Thursday night, there were six guitars. (Okay, maybe seven.) When you’re in a local jam with that many guitar players, you have six or seven ideas of where the rhythm is. You might even have six or seven ideas of what a particular song’s chords are! And few of the guitar players gave a thought to playing more quietly during singing or lead playing. The group was always pretty loud.
What do you do if you’re playing in a jam like that? Well, for one thing, you don’t try to make the rhythm into something it isn’t. You aren’t going to have a tight Jimmy-Martin-style rhythm in the group no matter what you do, so if you’re playing one of those numerous guitars, just PLAY ALONG. Don’t play loudly (the singers are drowned out already).
If you’re playing a mandolin, play plain backup. Put your mandolin “chop” as close to exactly in between the bass’s notes as you can. That gives the guitar players something to guide on, at least. If you’re playing banjo, play simple backup or play it softly (or both), and when the time comes for you to play lead, don’t try to throw in a lot of fancy playing– just lead the way with clear, solid banjo playing.
And what happens when you get into a different kind of jam, where there are fewer players but they really know how to play? This was the situation on Friday night. There were two guitar players, and they both played lead and rhythm, but they stayed out of each others’ way musically. They just played good solid rhythm, not very loud, when the other was playing lead.
We had two mandolin players too. Cousin David was playing the other mandolin. His mandolin would sell today for more than mine (my house, not my mandolin). But in spite of that he isn’t uppity about it, and we played mandolins together very well. We had Murphy playing banjo, so that instrument was well taken care of, and we had a bass player and a fiddle player from time to time. Everybody laid out when someone else was singing or playing lead, and everyone played good, solid lead when it came to be his or her turn. We hadn’t all played together (or even seen each other) in a long time, but the picking went great, and it was a lot easier to play this way than if we’d all been playing loudly all the time.
So what is the moral of this story? As Murphy said once in a story long ago, “No morals here.” But the next time you’re in a jam session, THINK about what you’re doing when other people are singing or playing, and quieten down when others need to be heard. The music will be better, and a lot more fun!
More About My Amazing iPod
Monday, July 6th, 2009
A quick recap so you’ll understand the story: Recently, Marty, one of my banjo students, gave me an iPod loaded with over 900 songs. (As he put it, “Some of the songs are there because I really like them and some because I thought you would and some are just there.”) I am listening to them in alphabetical order, to make sure I don’t miss any, and Marty is getting a kick out of what he calls my “obsessive compulsive” behavior.
Below are several of our recent email exchanges which eventually have something to do with banjo playing. The Cheryl mentioned is Marty’s wife who in another guise as Lynnette Kent writes romance novels! I’ve read three so far and have really enjoyed them. (Especially When Sparks Fly, the one about the firefighter!)
Dear Marty,
I made it thru a lot of the D’s on the iPod. But somehow the damn thing got on “scramble,” so I had to listen to some songs OUT OF ORDER!!!! But I did hear “Jerusalem’s Choir” and just loved it!
The one I LOATHED was “Do You Love As Good As You Look” by the Bellemy Brothers. I thought it was completely tasteless and demeaning to women and was surprised to find it on your iPod. Undoubtedly an oversight on your part. (I’m assuming that I can speak frankly? I did try to tone it down. Next time I’ll tell you how I really feel.<G>)
Dear Murphy,
Okay, I made up for “Do You Love As Good As You Look” with “Did I Shave My Legs For This.” How come you didn’t comment on “Trashy Women” by Confederate Railroad? <G> In my defense, Cheryl really likes that song. (I think it is sung tongue in cheek.) Kane’s River was a heck of a group to my ear so I am glad you liked “Jerusalem’s Choir.” Julie Elkins [his other banjo teacher] has a great voice and unlike me, she’s got timing down.
Dear Marty,
Yeah, I did like “Did I Shave My Legs for This.” Thanks for that. And of course I haven’t gotten to “Trashy Women” because it’s in the T’s! I’m intrigued that Cheryl likes “Do You Love….” I agree that it’s (probably) tongue in cheek but still was too over the line for little ole moi….
Dear Murphy,
Actually I meant that she likes “Trashy Women,” not “Do You Love …” and when I mentioned your objections her response was obviously, “Well, Martin, don’t you see the difference?” To which I replied, “Cheryl, I just want to vamp properly on the offbeat.”
And that, dear readers, is simply classic!
Two New DVDs Now Available
Friday, July 3rd, 2009Folks, we’re happy to announce that we have TWO great Murphy Method videos now available on DVD. The first one is “Great Banjo Tunes” (the old video was called “Advanced Banjo”), and it lives up to its name. These are the great lessons included on it:
Great Banjo Tunes cover
The Gold Rush
Shenandoah Breakdown
Bill Cheatham
Dixie Breakdown
Kansas City Railroad Blues (taught by Casey)
Limehouse Blues
–as you can see, these are some of the very most popular numbers that come up in jam sessions around the whole country! As always, the tunes are taught note-by-note by ear, the Murphy Method way. We’ve had a lot of requests for this DVD, and now it is here!
. . . . .
Bluegrass Rhythm Guitar Vol 2 cover
Our second new DVD is called “Bluegrass Rhythm Guitar Volume 2″ (the old videotape was titled “Basic Bluegrass Runs Vol.2″). We’ve also had many, many requests to make this available on DVD, and we’ve begun sending them out already. This follows on our very popular Volume 1, which we released last year.
Both of these new DVDs are IN STOCK and READY TO SHIP! Just order through our website for prompt shipping and good picking!
Misfit Jam
Thursday, July 2nd, 2009There was quite a bit of excitement at the jam tonight as Logan, 16, challenged me concerning the chords to a couple of songs. He proclaimed that “Worried Man” and “I Saw The Light” had the same chords. I said they didn’t. He said they did. I said I didn’t know exactly what the chords were without counting them out, but I knew they weren’t the same. He said he knew they were the same because……………he was the Bluegrass Master! The rest of us just looked at him with astonishment. The Bluegrass Master? (He had just come back from a week-long summer camp and I think he was feeling his oats!)
I said, “You wanna put some money on it?” He did want to. We confirmed the exact nature of the bet—that he said the chords were exactly the same—and I said, “Can I get a witness?” Ellen was kind enough to witness and she reiterated “exactly the same.” We bet one dollar. (All the time that this exchange is going on, Bob Van Metre, who has fallen into this trap many times himself, was trying to shut Logan up and even offered him a handkerchief to stuff in his mouth! I’m surprised he didn’t get out a roll of duck tape!)
So at the end of the jam, I said, “Alright, let’s see about these chords.” And I got out a pencil and paper to keep track of them as I played them on the guitar. But, no, Logan would not allow that. “You say never to write anything down. You won’t let us write anything down.”
I conceded the point and counted the chords aloud to each song while Mark kept track. As I pretty well knew, the chords were NOT exactly the same. (Even though they were darn close!) Now came the interesting part.
Logan: But you can play the same banjo break to both of them.
Murphy: I know you can but that wasn’t the bet.
Logan: Yes, it was!
Murphy: No, it wasn’t. You said the chords were—and I quote—“exactly the same.”
Logan: But the same licks work for each song, so the chords have to be the same.
Murphy: Yes, they do, but the chords aren’t the same.
Logan: You didn’t count them right!
Murphy: Yes, I did.
Logan: No, you didn’t.
Murphy: I can understand why your mom gets [ticked] at you sometimes!
Logan: Well, how did you know the chords weren’t the same?
Murphy: Because I am the Bluegrass Master!
Kaboom! End of story!
Students present: Ellen, Mark, Bob Mc, Bob Van, and, of course, Logan.
Songs played:
Banjo in the Hollow/Cripple Creek/Boil Them Cabbage: all done in unison for our warmup
Blue Ridge Cabin Home
Old Joe Clark
Worried Man (to which Logan played the break for “I Saw The Light” which set up the whole controversy!)
John Hardy
Roll in My Sweet Baby’s Arms
And for the finale, Shucking the Corn, played really fast by Logan, from whom I am still waiting on my dollar. “When will they ever learn, when will they ever learn?”
Butch Baldassari Tribute CD
Wednesday, July 1st, 2009One of the CDs I came home with after my weeks at Kaufman Kamp was the new tribute to Butch Baldassari: The Road Home. Butch, who passed away in January after a valiant battle with cancer, worked with, inspired, helped out, befriended, taught, and set an example for many, many musicians over the years. His friend Brian “Doc” Hull helped assemble the tracks on this wonderful CD from artists such as Ricky Skaggs, Tim O’Brien, Sam Bush, David Grisman, Roland White, Butch’s own Nashville Mandolin Ensemble, and many more.
The Road Home: A Tribute to Butch Baldassari
Not only is it inspiring to see how many wonderful musicians donated their music, but the music itself is great! At least two tracks were written specifically for Butch: Don Stiernberg’s “Western Red” and the Nashville Mandolin Ensemble’s “Butch’s Bounce Back.” The rest, be they original or traditional, make a lovely musical program that you’ll find yourself returning to again and again.
More Student Response
Wednesday, July 1st, 2009Here is another comment we received through our website:
I would just like to thank you so much for the way Marshall and Murphy did the bass dvd. I have purchased 3 and after the first one I started Jamming at the local American Legion and now I am in a bluegrass/country band and having the time of my life. Who would have thought at 60 I would lean something new and start a new era in my life. I am going to order the Ukulele VHS because I work with cancer children and I want to take music to them and the Bass is too hard to play by itself. So, we’ll see if I can handle that. Thank you sooo much.
We love hearing from our students. If you have your own story of success, feel free to send it our way!