Casey Henry
Holy cow, day twenty! We’ve really been out for twenty days? It seems like a hundred. Just kidding. It seems like thirty.
News Flash: this afternoon (November 18th) around 5:00 Eastern time The Bee-Liners and (I think) Sierra Hull’s band will be live on the radio–WDVX in Knoxville. You can listen online here, or tune in to the local FM frequency.
Last night was a truly exciting moment: Uncle Earl debuted the blog song on stage for our lucky Bowling Green crowd. And I got an MP3 version of the song, so everyone should be able to play it with no problem. Listen to the Murphy Method Blog Theme Song here. After they sang it I got several inquiries about the address of the blog, so a big welcome to any readers who were lured in by Uncle Earl’s siren song.
I realized yesterday that I really hadn’t had any pictures of Sierra Hull and her band on here, so I snapped one as were were hanging around, killing time backstage. Here’s what Sierra does for fun:
Sierra Hull, finding her true calling.
This next story is about what Jeremy and I do for fun. We were in the green room backstage, which happens to be under the stage. Sierra’s band was soundchecking and there was some foot pounding going on. Underneath the stage as we were, it sounded like someone using a sledge hammer. We decided walking around in the cool night air would be preferable. Jeremy found on his handy iPhone the Corsair Artisan Microdistillery, which was just next door to where we were (we took a roundabout route to get there, but we made it). The inside lights were on and the sign out front said “Distillery Gift Shop,” so we took a chance and went in. The pungent smell of fermenting grain met us at the door. We didn’t really see anyone, so we looked at the shirts, glasses, bottles of spirits they had there.
Brady, hard at work on a batch of Pumpkin Spice Moonshine.
A couple minutes later a guy notices us, says they are actually closed, and introduces himself as Ben, one of the owners. We get into conversation and he tells us about their operation, which is less than two years old. Even though they’re closed, he offers to do us a little tasting. We take him up on the offer. He first pours us their Rye whiskey, which is great. The Yazoo Brewing Company in Nashville made the mash for it, and it apparently really clogged up their machines so they’ll never do it again. You better believe that Jeremy and I walked out of there with the last two bottles of that batch.
Then Ben poured their vanilla vodka for us. This was far and away my favorite. It tasted like drinking vanilla extract (made with organic fair-trade vanilla beans). I took a bottle of that home as well.
We moved onto Gin, which is not my favorite, but theirs was wonderful. Jeremy tasted the absinthe and liked it enough to buy a bottle. I’m not a licorice fan, so I just smelled its distinctive aroma and that was enough for me.
I would have liked to taste the Pumpkin Spice Moonshine that was running out of the still right at the that moment, but it wasn’t ready for the public. Finding Corsair Artisan Distillery was by far the best impromptu side trip of the tour. We felt lucky to have happened upon them, and were so grateful that even though they were closed Ben took the time to introduce us to his wonderful products! They will make the rest of the tour much more fun!
Today we’re hitting the road to Knoxville, Tenn., where we play at the Square Room.
Comments From Students
Monday, November 16th, 2009Murphy Henry
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
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