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New Custom Lessons Available

Thursday, August 26th, 2010

Casey Henry

I wanted to give y’all an update on the new additions to the custom lesson catalog.

Just today I’ve recorded a lesson on the high break to “Fireball Mail.” I think this one used to be on the old TMM cassettes; I think that’s where I learned it. But it never made it onto video. Now it’s available again!

Last week I completed lessons on “Banjo Pickin’ Girl” in the key of C (which is where I sing it), and “Me and My Old Banjo” — the Osborne Brothers classic.

Other recent additions include “Dooley” (a Dillards original). The break I teach is not exactly what Doug Dillard played but is definitely inspired by it. And “Pig in a Pen,” the Stanley Brothers song that many people are familiar with because Ricky Skaggs recorded it.

They are all normally priced at $30 each, but from now until tomorrow at midnight (that’s Friday, August 27th at 11:59 p.m.) they’re all half price. Just email me if you’re interested!

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Posted in By Casey, banjo, lessons | 2 Comments »

Reuben’s Surprise

Wednesday, August 25th, 2010

Casey Henry

Last weekend the Dixie Bee-Liners played at the Gettysburg Bluegrass Festival in Pennsylvania. It’s only a couple of hours from my parents’ house, so I drove up the day before and spent the night with them. We were minus our fiddler for this gig, because her Army-officer boyfriend was home on leave from Afghanistan for two weeks, so we instead had a dobro player in the form of Matt Ledbetter, who has played with the band before and already knew most of the material.  We did, however, need to practice all the songs on the set list so we met early in the day for a run-through.

Stuffed into a room at the Red Carpet Inn in Chambersburg we breezed through our standards: “Crooked Road,” “Bugs in the Basement,” “Ball and Chain,” “Yellow-Haired Girl”. The only different songs were, of course, the dobro tunes. Matt played “Fireball,” a tune that I love. J.D. Crowe played it when I saw him at the Ryman last month and when I took my break I tried to play my absolute Croweiest.

Matt also played “Reuben,” which is typically a no-brainer. In D tuning it uses the same-old rolls you use all the time in standard tuning. However. We started off the second set with “Reuben” and the next song was “Walls of Time” also in D, but one that I play in regular tuning out of D position. Clearly there would be no time to re-tune. That meant I had to play “Reuben” also in standard tuning out of D position. That makes it COMPLETELY different! The rolls are entirely different and, may I say, just a little challenging. Thank goodness, then, that the tune came in the second set so I had about ten hours to think about it and practice it before debuting this new arrangement on stage.

I did not, of course, spend the entire ten hours practicing it. We had to play our first set, after all, and there were friends to visit (the Steep Canyon Rangers, the Seldom Scene), and a workshop to do, and supper to eat (many thanks to Mary Jo and Charlie Leet, Mike and Gay Henderson, et al, for the high-class fare!).  I did devote a few minutes to it, though, on three separate occasions throughout the day and had a respectable break worked up by the time we hit the stage at 11:30 p.m. – long after my bedtime.

So that is my challenge to you this week. Take a song and play it in an entirely new way. That may just mean capoing up and playing it in a new key. Or taking a song you play in G and trying to play it in C position, or in D tuning (that would really be a challenge!).  Or trying a high break to a song that you’ve never played up the neck. It will make you see that tune in a whole different light!

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Posted in By Casey, banjo, shows | 1 Comment »

Banjo Lesson Ideas

Monday, August 9th, 2010

Casey Henry

I ran across this article last night (through a link posted on Twitter) about people spending less and being happier. It’s an interesting subject to be because I always find that when I get caught up in the cycle of buy, buy, buy it never makes me feel as satisfied as I think it will. I try to practice “calculated consumption” rather than “conspicuous consumption” and I always feel better when I do.

The article says that new studies show that “people are happier when they spend money on experiences instead of material objects.” I’m all in favor of that. Until I pause and consider that The Murphy Method sells material objects (DVDs) and it would be bad if people stopped buying them.

But that’s not all we sell. We sell knowledge. We sell the experience of learning an instrument. We can teach you how to develop a skill, which is not at all the same as conspicuous consumption.

In that vein I was thinking about how we could do more of that: sell knowledge more effectively. With one of my students who moved away from Nashville I’m doing long-distance lessons like this: every week she learns a new song off of our DVDs (she’s working through Improvising right now). She records herself playing it and emails it to me. I listen and comment and give her an assignment for the next week. That way she has the motivation to keep learning (nothing like having to play for a teacher!) and she has me nagging her to find other people to play with.

Would that sort of thing interest more people? A banjo-lesson subscription service where you pay a flat fee every month, learn songs off of our DVDs, and maintain a weekly email correspondence with the teacher (that would be me) recording yourself playing your tunes so that I can comment and correct. You would have to be computer-savvy enough to be able to email an audio file, and to open one up and play it when you received one back from me. These audio file exchanges could be augmented with webcam lessons if you have the necessary equipment (that would be a webcam…).

If you’re at all interested email me (or comment below). If there seems to be widespread interest we may figure out how to add it to the regular TMM website.

Posted in By Casey, banjo, lessons | 8 Comments »

“How often should I change my strings?”

Friday, July 30th, 2010

Red Henry

Well, how often should you change them? I hear this question pretty frequently. The answer is, that it’s up to you. How helpful is that?

Well, the reason is that everybody’s strings need changing at different times. Some reasons are because (1) there are so many kinds of strings and they age differently; (2) people all play differently and their strings wear out (or corrode) faster or slower as a result; and (3) in different parts of the country (or the world) strings are just going to need changing more often.

So, what do you look for in deciding whether to change them? One thing can be obvious: buildup of corrosion or gunk on the string. This really happens a lot in warm, humid climates. If the buildup can’t be removed with a little steel wool, then it’d definitely time to change strings! (When I was starting out, this happened on my mandolin strings every few days.)

Another sign is when the strings get hard to tune. Often it’s because they’re not sliding smoothly through the string-nut (that’s the little white thing with slots at the bottom of the peghead). If you put on new strings, and when you’re at it, put a little graphite — pencil-lead dust will do– in the bottoms of the little nut-slots, then the tuning should get a lot better.

Another sign of elderly strings might be that they don’t play in tune. If you’re pretty sure that your bridge is in the right place, but your banjo is still “noting out” more than usual up the neck, then new strings might be what you need.

One more sign of old strings may not be as obvious. If the instrument (banjo or otherwise) just doesn’t sound right, the strings may have gotten too old to sound good at all. When does this happen? Well, this is the most extreme case of old strings, since it may take several months or a year for the strings to get this old.

Some players take extreme steps to keep new strings on their instruments, especially if they break a lot of strings. Back when we were playing a lot of festivals, I used to change the strings on both mandolins and both guitars every morning before we played our first set. That was a lot of work, but it helped keep the string-breakage to a minimum. Others take a different approach. I’ve heard that Bill Monroe changed his mandolin strings once a year, at New Year’s, and from then on just changed them as they broke (which they did, pretty often).

Now, this all applies to the fretted instruments. Fiddle strings seem to fall into a different category. I’ve known fiddle players who changed their strings every few months, but as for myself, if the fiddle gets new strings every five years, that’s a lot. I suspect that the strings on my fiddle now have been on it for longer than that!

So the answer to the question is, that it’s up to you yourself to decide when to change strings. There are a lot of reasons for changing them (better tone, volume, and tuning), and there are plenty of reasons for just leaving them on there (less hassle with awkward work, and less risk of getting your banjo or mandolin bridge out of place in the string-changing process, among other things). But if you go in for a lesson and your teacher takes one look at your strings and turns as green as they are, then it’s time.

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Posted in Accessories, By Red, Uncategorized, banjo, guitar | No Comments »

Yet Another You Tube Video

Monday, July 26th, 2010

Casey Henry

I filmed these tunes as part of a video oral history project on women who play traditional music, which is being made by a woman named Dyann Arthur. It’s called the Music Box Project. She is interviewing women all around the country. Although she’d talked to several clawhammer players, I was the first Scruggs-style player she had included. She has an interview scheduled with Murphy later on this summer. This is the title tune from my CD, “Real Women Drive Trucks.” I wish that I had been able to get my banjo into more perfect tune, but I had to drop it into D tuning that morning, and it really needs at least a day to acclimate before it starts sounding right.

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Posted in By Casey, Video clips, banjo | 3 Comments »

Backtracking: Part 2

Thursday, July 15th, 2010

Murphy Henry

Now we come to Bob Mc’s adventures in backtracking. Bob came to me about four years ago with absolutely no musical background. We’ve often remarked to each other that he started “below zero.” But tenacity he has. In spades.

After four years, Bob has lots of tunes that he can play well: All of Beginning Banjo Vol. 1, Old Joe Clark, the high break to Foggy Mt. Breakdown, and Lonesome Road Blues from Vol. 2, all of Misfits, all the Improvising songs, plus Roll in My Sweet Baby’s Arms, I’ll Fly Away, and When the Roll is Called up Yonder. That’s a lot of songs.

Now, as I told him at his Tuesday lesson, if he were taking banjo lessons from just about anybody else, he would be a Star Student. Would get an A Plus. Why? Because he can actually play the tunes.

But Bob is having problems hearing the chord changes to the songs. And because of that he has trouble with vamping, trouble with coming in for his break in a jam, and trouble recovering when he makes mistakes in his own playing.

And since my goal is to turn out students who can jam, Bob and I have been actively seeking a solution for this difficulty for years. I can’t tell you how much work we have done on vamping. I’ve had him try to do it by ear, I’ve had him try to do it by counting, I’ve had him memorize chord patterns. Frankly I thought if we just played the songs enough, he would just “get it.” It would all fall into place. The light bulb would come on. There would be joy in Mudville.

Alas, no joy. Because there was big part of problem that I wasn’t understanding.

Over and over I’ve told him Bob that when he’s vamping he he should be hearing the tune in his own head. But it’s taken me until recently to realize that he can’t keep the tune in his head when he’s away from the music. That was a bit of a shocker to me. I have no idea how he’s done as well as he has without being able to keep some version of the tune in his mind.

Finally on Tuesday, grasping at straws, I asked him if he knew the song Skip to My Lou. Yes, he seemed to recall it from grade school. There now, I thought, is a simple tune that he surely will be able to keep in his head. So I sat there and played guitar and sang the chorus over and over while he vamped. He picked up the chords fairly quickly, although that last measure gave him a bit of a problem. I asked him to then tell me what the chord pattern was. He was able to do that. We talked about how the last chord had to be G, since we were playing in the key of G. He wanted to know if that were true for all keys. I said yes. That was a revelation to him. He’d never thought of that before. He was extremely happy to been given that piece of information. It was like he had found another piece to this endless puzzle he is trying to put together.

I told him to sing the song, hum the song, think about the song all the way home. And to try to remember it in his head every day this week. And to try to vamp to the song he heard in his head. And, if he couldn’t recall it, to get out the Learning to Hear Chord Changes DVD and listen to it to refresh his memory. And if he dreams about it, so much the better!

I think we may be on to something. I can only hope so. I’ve got big plans for Bob and Skip to My Lou. I figure that we can start simple and then build up a repertoire of songs he can hear in his head. It may not be easy, but I do think it will work. There will be joy in Mudville!

P.S. I welcome suggestions from any of you who have dealt with this problem in your own playing.

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Posted in By Murphy, banjo | 8 Comments »

Backtracking

Thursday, July 8th, 2010

Murphy Henry

Today comes the tale of two students who are going the extra mile with their playing. No, they are not playing faster, practicing longer, or moving rapidly through new tunes. As the title of the blog clearly states, they are backtracking. And what do I mean by this? They are putting in the time to fix some things about their playing that, as we say here in the Valley, “need fixed.” Things that I’ve turned a more-or-less-but-not-quite blind eye to in the past. Partly I thought these things would fix themselves (it does happen) and partly I thought the things we were working on were more important.

One of the things Judy is working on is trying not to watch her right hand when she is picking. (She’s been taking about 15 months now.) This is one of the things that usually fades away on its own as students feel more comfortable with playing. After all, there is no need to watch your right hand. The strings don’t move and the spacing stays the same. The thumb always picks the fifth and the middle always picks the first. After a few months, your hand actually does know where it is going. Muscle memory and all. But it can be a hard habit to break. [Note to Total Beginners: It’s OKAY to watch your right hand when you’re starting out. In fact, it’s essential. You’ve got to become accustomed to the spacing before you can look away. Don’t be putting the cart before the horse!]

Judy can play “Banjo in the Hollow” without looking at her right hand (I do encourage her to look at her left hand), but the others…well…..not so much. So we’ve decided to take it one tune at a time, backing off on speed and playing really slowly until she can focus instead on her left hand. (I look at my left hand all the time.)

The other thing she is working on is the C lick in “I Saw The Light.” (I wouldn’t let my dear Savior…) She calls it the “pretzel” lick. It never has been quite a clean as she or I would like, but again, I thought it would clear up in time. After all, her Cumberland Gap up-the-neck G chord fixed itself eventually. So we are, again, s-l-o-w-i-n-g the lick down and basically re-learning it. Cleanly and clearly this time. I told her just to work on it two notes at time if necessary. Then add two more notes. Then play those four notes. And so on down the line.

This actually echoes an article in this month’s Banjo Newsletter with the Brobdinagian title “Lessons in Neuroplasticity.” I probably would have skipped it but my eye landed on the phrase “The Sad Tale of Hasty Hank” which was much more interesting to me. (I am so Reader’s Digest! And saying that so dates me!) Anyhow, short version, Hank never slows anything down to practice problems in his playing, while “Prodigious and Patient Pete” (that Good Boy!) “decides he must get those two measures right, whatever it takes.” And “each time he does so, he plays them slow enough to play them mistake free.” The point is, he is retraining his brain. And the article provides scientific evidence—with monkeys, even—to back it up. (They were not, however, playing banjo!)

So I showed the article to Judy. Hey, if it’s in print, written by an M.D., it has to be true, right? Mainly, I agreed with it, with or without monkey evidence.

So now I’m out of space to tell you about Bob. Lucky you, Bob. Don’t worry. I’ll spill the beans next week. Keep practicing “Old Joe Clark.” Stay tuned, folks.

Posted in By Mark Panfil, banjo | 1 Comment »

Back to the Grind

Monday, June 28th, 2010
Casey Henry

Casey Henry

After a mere day and a half to recover from Kaufman Kamp, it’s back to work at the dentist’s office for me. (I only work there one day a week, yet often that feels like too much.) I enjoyed a wonderful dinner last night at Kelley and Ned Luberecki’s house, in the company of Sally, Chris, and Joanna Jones, and Jon Weisberger. We enjoyed their new screened-in patio and their box of farm food from the Community Supported Agriculture farm that they’re a member of.

I realize that this post has absolutely nothing to do with banjo playing, so I offer this: over on Banjo Hangout there is a thread going that mentions our new Beyond Vamping DVD, if you would like to add any comments: http://www.banjohangout.org/topic/181472

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Posted in By Casey, banjo | 4 Comments »

Expectations

Thursday, May 13th, 2010
Murphy Henry

Murphy Henry

Here is comment that I hear a lot:

“I kind of thought a banjo clinic would incorporate a lot of playing the banjo.”

Well, yes, in my perfect world all banjo clinics would involve lots of playing the banjo! But we don’t live there…at least not yet! So I do my little part (and I am sure Bill Monroe is watching…see below for explanation) by making all my classes “hands on.” My first words are usually, “Get out your banjos.” And my second words are, “Now, the first thing we have to do is tune the banjo…” (!)

But most teachers don’t teach that way, so, when you go to a banjo clinic or a banjo camp, you’ve got to realistically look at what you can expect. And nine times out of ten (by my scientific survey!) you are going to be in a class where an instructor talks to you about banjo playing and hands out tab. Now, you can either rant and rail about this and be all mad about what you’re not getting, or you can listen to what you are getting and try to learn something. No way are you going to be able to absorb everything that is thrown at you, so you might try to latch onto one or two particular ideas that seem important to you. Or just sit back and let it all wash over you and then later on you can figure out what stuck.

Admittedly, it’s especially hard if the teacher is talking way above your level of understanding. (And that’s one thing that still makes me really mad, and I don’t have any helpful suggestions about that.) But just by sitting there you are still immersing yourself in all things banjo and that’s gotta be good. You can also be pro-active in a talking class and ask some of those questions that are burning a hole in your pocket (to mix metaphors).

In defense of all the “talking” teachers, I will say it took me a LONG time to figure out how to teach a whole roomful of students who all play at different levels. But I love teaching and love figuring out stuff like that. Besides, when I am teaching a song note-by-note to ten or twenty people, I am in Complete Control and the Center of Attention and that, of course, is my Happy Place!

Besides if everyone taught “hands on” in the course of a day, your brain would explode. There is no way you could absorb that much information. Usually the one or two songs I teach in a week-long camp are plenty for most students to handle. So grab what you can in the classes and try really hard to involve yourself in the jamming. Even if you’re just vamping. That’s where the real learning happens!

Explanation: Obscure reference to a line in Bill Monroe’s “Little Georgia Rose”: “I watched her do her little part.”

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Posted in By Murphy, Camps, banjo | 1 Comment »

A Little Bragging

Wednesday, May 12th, 2010
Casey Henry

Casey Henry

For today’s post I want to do a little bit of bragging on my student Kyle, whom I’ve mentioned here before. He took lessons from me for about eight years and he’s the only student I’ve had who I can really say I’ve graduated. He’s a junior in high school (I think…maybe a senior? I’ve lost track.) and has been playing with a group called Youngtown for around a year. The group is made up of mostly other students who take lessons at the Main Stage Music and Dance Studio. They play some gigs and have recently recorded a self-titled CD (which I would link to, but I can’t find a place you can get it online).

Youngtown: Kyle Lee, Logan Yandell, Mac Macguire, Michael Stockton, Lindsey Batts, Pokey Chunn

Youngtown: Kyle Lee, Logan Yandell, Mac Macguire, Michael Stockton, Lindsey Batts, Pokey Chunn

They have a couple videos up on YouTube: video #1. video #2. And what I like best about watching these is that Kyle plays licks that I didn’t even teach him! That shows me that I succeeded in teaching him how to learn on his own, so he doesn’t need me any more. (Which is ultimately my goal with all my students.)

Getting in a band, even more than just jamming with other people, is the best thing any student can do for their playing, once they reach a certain level of proficiency, and I know that it helped me. My very first band (other than the family band, in which I was not the banjo player) was a gospel group called the Singing C.O.P.S. that played mostly at local churches, for free, but they forced me to learn things I wouldn’t have otherwise—like playing a lot out of C and D positions.

One of the first times I realized that Kyle was really “getting it” was when he told me that at one of their band practices they played “Head Over Heels,” which we had learned in G position (naturally, since that’s where Earl played it). But the singer, Lindsey, sang it in D! So he had to transpose his break on the spot into D position. Which he did! They recorded it on the new CD: Head Over Heels. (Kyle’s break comes at 0:32).

And for good measure I’ll post the banjo tune from the CD (posted with permission of course…), Shenandoah Breakdown. It’s odd and kind of awesome to hear my licks coming out of someone else’s fingers!

I am so proud of Kyle for turning into an actual banjo player, rather than just a banjo student. In the CD liner notes he thanks his grandpa, and I’ll add my thanks to that because Bob bought Kyle his first banjo and brought him to every lesson for eight years. It takes a village to raise a banjo player!

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Posted in By Casey, banjo | 3 Comments »

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