banjo

Murphy Henry

Murphy Henry

Wow! We had 12 people at the jam last night: Betty, Kathy G, Ben, Kasey, Steph, Diane, Gregg, David, Chuck (sitting on the floor!), Rhys, Drew, Amber, and Jason. This broke down into 3 guitars, 7 banjos, 1 fiddle, and 1 mandolin. Ben swapped his banjo for the bass early on and with me pounding my Martin we managed to keep folks in line!

We were sorely missing our buddy Bob Van who has landed his butt in the hospital. In his honor we set up his picking chair and put a roll of duct tape in it. The duct tape is in honor of Bobby always saying something like, "I hope we don't play Salt Creek." Which forces me to say, "Why don't we play Salt Creek!" At which point he growls, "Where's the duct tape?" meaning he needs to have his mouth taped shut so he won't say anything else stupid! We will keep your chair and duct tape there, Bobby, until you get back. We love your ornery old hide!

We started off gently with our "party pieces," Banjo In The Hollow, Cripple Creek, I Saw The Light, and Blue Ridge Cabin Home, all in G. And thanks to Chuck for being our "G" singer! Then we moved on up to C, for some womyn singing: I'll Fly Away (Kathy), Two Dollar Bill (me), and Circle (Diane). Then I realized, once again, that I had cheated Kasey out of singing her song, I Saw The Light, which we'd already done. (Girl, you gotta get a new song!) But Diane reminded me that Kasey used to sing Rocky Top in C. At first I demurred, saying the chords were too hard for the whole group, but then I thought, "Why not let Kasey sing it as a 'show' piece?"  ...continue reading →

Casey Henry

Casey Henry

Here are the recent additions to my (now quite long) list of custom banjo lessons. As always they can be ordered directly from my website.

  • The Battle Belongs To The Lord (B) Watch clip. - Gospel song in a minor key, with rolls to sing along with.
  • Granddad The Preacher (B) Watch clip. - A Joe Mullins and the Radio Ramblers song. Easy turnaround for the break, along with the vamp chords.
  • Love Lifted Me (B) Watch clip. - This is a melody-only break (just notes, not very many rolls) to this old hymn.
  • Mama Blues (A) Watch clip. - Earl Scruggs's classic break off of the Live at Carnagie Hall album.
  • There Is A Time (A) Watch clip. - A Dillards classic. This teaches two of Doug's breaks.
  • They Call It Music (A) Watch clip. - A Gibson Brothers song in drop-C tuning.

[Betty Fisher, a Tip Jar Jam regular, was kind enough to blog about her recent jamming experience. Betty has been having some problems with bats in her house, hence the blog title. She is also a very, very good sport!]

My friend and neighbor Stephanie is a beginning guitar student of Murphy’s.  She and I have been threatening--or rather promising--to get together and jam as Murphy has suggested.  Finally on Sunday we were able to do that.

A shining example to all! Betty, left, and Steph, right, jamming.

A shining example to all! Betty, left, and Steph, right, jamming.

We sat out on Stephanie’s beautiful new stone patio in the shade with a nice breeze blowing.  Steph warned me that she had not practiced for a couple of weeks.  She had also let Murphy know that things would be on hold for a short while, then she would get back in gear with her lessons.   ...continue reading →

Casey Henry

Casey Henry

I have a bunch of new custom lesson I've added to my list and here they are:

  • Big Country (Bela Fleck) (A) Watch clip. - This is a great tune of Bela's. Definitely advanced, but on the scale of all of Bela's tunes, not that hard.
  • Cattle In The Cane (A) Watch clip. - This is a fiddle tune, and it really gave me a time working out an arrangement. There is NO way to play it scruggs style. It ended up being a mixture of melodic and single string.
  • Daisy A Day (B) Watch clip. - Easy strumming arrangement to sing along with.
  • Greensleeves (B) Watch clip. (Single note melody version.) - This tune is also on the Casey's Christmas Collection DVD, but that version is much harder than this. Here I just teach the meldoy, one note at a time. Also the guy who ordered it stiffed me, so I'd appreciate it if some of y'all ordered it...
  • Gum Tree Canoe (High Break) (I) Watch clip. - I already have the low break to this on the list. The high break is much harder, but really fun in a kind of ridiculous way. I'll include both breaks when you order this song.
  • In The Gravelyard (I) Watch clip. - A Blue Highway hit. This is Jason Burleson's kickoff break.
  • Rockwood Deer Chase (Don Stover) (A) Watch clip. - A really, really cool tune in D tuning. Jim Mills also recorded it.
  • You Are My Sunshine (I) Watch clip. - Nice, familiar tune that lays out well on the banjo. This is an intermediate arrangement.

You can order any or all of these on my website: caseyhenry.net

Casey Henry

Casey Henry

This article originally appeared in the pages of Banjo Newsletter magazine in December 2013. They kindly gave permission for us to reprint it here. Buy the CD here!

When I heard about the forthcoming CD project from Patuxent Music featuring Washington D.C./Baltimore/Northern Virginia-area banjo players I got super excited. The list of participants includes both legendary players and up-and-comers, bluegrass and old-time. Here, to whet your appetite, is a partial list: Tom Adams, Eddie Adcock, Paul Brown, Donnie Bryant, Bill Emerson, Cathy Fink, Joe Herrmann, Pete Kuykendall, Reed Martin, Doug McKelway, David McLaughlin, Mike Munford, Bill Runkel, Mark Schatz, Dick Smith, Roni Stoneman, Steven Wade, and Chris Warner.

I first heard of the project when my mom and I were both asked to participate. Co-produced by ace picker Mark Delaney (who plays with Danny Paisley and the Southern Grass) and Randy Barrett (president of the DC Bluegrass Union) the as-yet untitled project [now titled The Patuxent Banjo Project] will be released in the Spring 2014.  ...continue reading →

Murphy and Casey appeared at the after-lunch roundup during Bluegrass Week at the Augusta Heritage Center in Elkins, WV, July 29, 2014. "Lonesome Road Blues" was the first tune ever recorded by a woman playing Scruggs-style banjo. That woman as Roni Stoneman.

Tuesday evening during Bluegrass Week all the female instructors played a set at the evening concert. What a fun show! Here is "Banjo Pickin' Girl". Murphy and Casey Henry (banjos), Kathy Kallick (guitar), Mary Burdette (bass), Laurie Lewis and Tammy Rogers (fiddles), Sharon Gilchrist (mandolin).

Murphy Henry

Murphy Henry

Murphy blogs every month over on Banjo Hangout and we will be cross-posting these blogs so they'll be all here in one place. This was originally published Monday, December 02, 2013.

I have been writing about playing the banjo for 30 years but I have never written an article about practicing. Why not? Well, probably because I hate anybody telling me what to do and also because most of the practice suggestions I read struck me as bombastic BS--idealistic, ivory-tower imaginings that seemed useless to me or, at best, not practical for adult students with lives and families. I never followed any set pattern when I was learning, I just got up, got a cuppa, and started studying Earl at 16 rpm in my pajamas! I thought my students would figure out what worked best for them and follow their own "rules," which many of them do. But finally I have come to understand that not everybody is self-propelled and that some people desperately want and need guidelines. With that in mind, I will present my own extremely general and hopefully not too bombastic suggestions in hopes that maybe a few of these ideas prove useful.

As I pull these thoughts together I have tried to take into account real adults with real lives so...... ...continue reading →

Murphy Henry

Murphy Henry

Murphy blogs every month over on Banjo Hangout and we will be cross-posting these blogs so they'll be all here in one place. This was originally published Monday, September 30, 2013.

Now that we've got the "by ear" question out of the way (non-believers notwithstanding!) (it was last months' blog post...), let's look further into the method behind my madness (or vice versa!). It's not enough to simply learn by ear--you've got to have some "method and order" to your learning. And that's where the Murphy Method comes in. I've done your homework for you. I've been teaching banjo for over 40 years now and I have a pretty good idea of what works and what doesn't.

First of all, if you're new to the banjo, you need to start simple. And simple does not mean a dumbed-down version of Blackberry Blossom. (Don't get me started on Blackberry Blossom! Okay, I already got me started--we'll talk about that later.) The Big Three in the Murphy Method are Banjo in the Hollow, Cripple Creek, and Boil Them Cabbage Down. Why these three and not three others? Mainly because they are easy to play, sound good slow, and are well known in bluegrass circles. They are also "tried and true." I know they work because I see my students playing them! ...continue reading →

Casey Henry

Casey Henry

Here are the new songs I've added to my list of lessons in the last month or so:

  • Bookends (Simon and Garfunkel) (A) Watch clip. - This is a little something different. Beautiful little melody.
  • Carrie Brown (I) Watch clip. - Del McCoury and Steve Earle recorded this on their CD "The Mountain"
  • Garry Owen (I) Watch clip. - A celtic tune played single-string style.
  • More Than Enough (I) Watch clip. - Gospel tune from the band Blue Ridge.
  • To Morrow (I) Watch clip. - Kingston Trio folk song. This arrangement is the chords for singing along with, and a little intro/turnaround lick.

As always, these are available to order over on my website.

Murphy Henry

Murphy Henry

One of the comments prompted by my last blog: "Can you give me a quick explanation of the Roly Polys?"

Well, you know me. I can definitely give you an explanation, I'm just not sure it will be quick! (We will have a DVD that demonstrates everything you want to know about Roly Polys coming out this fall.)

Short explanation: The Roly Polys are a series of banjo rolls I developed to give beginning banjo players (specifically adults) the ability to play banjo breaks to three-chord singing songs ASAP.

Using the Roly Polys, a student can join in a jam and play breaks almost immediately. In order to use the Roly Polys, you have to either be able to hear your chords changes (G, C, D) or else be really good at "reading" the chords from the guitar player's hands. Either way will work!

So, without using tab (!!!), let me try to tell you more specifically about the Roly Polys. They are really the very first level of improvising--"Entry Level Improvising." ...continue reading →