The Murphy Method Blog

I’m happy to have a couple of emails from students to share with you today, along with my replies.

The first is from a brand new student:

I learned about the Murphy Method while visiting with Casey after the concert at the Dosey Doe Coffee House in Houston, Texas. I ordered the Beginning Banjo DVD that night. I have been taking banjo lessons for two months and not seeing a lot of improvement (maybe I’m impatient). While waiting for the DVD to arrive I have been playing along with instructional sample on the website. I have accomplished  more with this method in one hour than I have in two months of lessons. Thanks….

Dear New Student:

You are not impatient. A student should expect to see some improvement over two months. My guess is that your teacher was using tablature and that you weren’t getting anywhere on account of that, although there could have been other reasons. I continue to be amazed that more teachers don’t at least try the “learn by ear” method, although I have been preaching the gospel of learning by ear for over two decades. (I often feel like John the Baptist, a “voice crying in the wilderness.”) So, welcome to the Murphy Method family. Follow the DVDs, do what I tell you, and you’ll begin to see improvement right away.

Good luck!

And now, from an old student, Patty:

Hi Murphy,

I may have mentioned I’m working on Sally Goodin. Your version is really great. I’ve gotten compliments in jams and its so fun to play. I’m just amazed at how you figured all this out and mastered the art of teaching it. [Flattery will get your everywhere, Patty!]

This is a hard song to play in jams, unless of course, everyone is familiar with it! The timing is so critical… and hard to get! So, the pool of people who can play it is pretty small! And this is a song that really needs to be played with others!!

I’ve found that keeping the words in my head helps a lot. But I’ve also found that coming into a break from backup is really, really hard! I’ve recently begun to add two pickup notes (1st and 5th strings) before playing the 2nd string (lyric = “had”). It’s working well when I play with a recording. Haven’t tried it with real people yet!

So, I’m wondering if you’ve learned anything new since you made the video that may be helpful to me.

Hi Patty,

Glad you’re working on Sally! Yes, coming into the break from backup IS hard, especially if you’re not sure when the other person is going to throw it to you! And that never seems to be clear in a jam, so you have to be on the alert all the time!

The fill in notes are a good idea. You also might practice coming in off a tag lick, and leaving off the last pinch of the tag to give yourself time to set up for the second string. That would also give you time to put in the pickup notes that actually start the song (5, 2) and you could play it just like you do to start with.

But, as always, WHATEVER WORKS! The more you play it in a jam and try to come in, the more your hand will work something out! Also, in a pinch, you can start with the LOW break and work yourself up to the high break.

Good luck!

Murphy

Hey, thanks Murphy. Great ideas here. I used the low break to come in, as it is so much easier! I hadn’t thought about using the tag. I’ll give that a shot to see how it feels. I love your “whatever works” attitude! It holds a greater weight coming from “The Teacher”! It frees up “The Student” to be creative and experiment with their own ideas. I’m sure your students appreciate that, as I certainly have:)

Patty

Tags: sally goodwin, student comments

This entry was posted on Monday, November 16th, 2009 at 11:58 am and is filed under By Murphy, General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.