The Murphy Method Blog

Casey Henry

We’ve had lots of great comments from the students who came to our inaugural Murphy Method Banjo Camp. I thought I’d chime in with some of what I learned while putting on our first banjo camp venture.

1. Banjo players drink a LOT of coffee. I got a little behind on the coffee making, especially when the class went on a break earlier than I thought they were going to. I learned I needed to have both the coffeepot full of a fresh batch as well as the thermos pitcher full of the steaming black brew in order to stay ahead of the caffeinated masses.

2. Think about the chairs! Chairs were honestly one thing that we did not think for one second about, yet they were the one thing that every single person commented on. The chairs at the Nancy Shepherd House were of the hard, straight-back variety and not a soul found them to be comfortable. At all. We could have said that we were just trying to make sure students didn’t doze off in the afternoon sessions, but the truth is it just didn’t occur to us. Next time we’ll have better chairs!

3. Students didn’t seem to mind driving from their hotel to the class location every day. I was worried that they wouldn’t like being lodged in a different place from where we taught, but everyone seemed totally okay with that.

4. Fifteen students is the absolute maximum number that we can fit into the basement room at the NSH. It turned out to be a good thing that we had a couple cancellations that brought the number down from seventeen. Still and yet, more than one person commented on the crowdedness (though I prefer to think of it as “coziness”!). So, for our next camps we’re going to move the instruction to a larger room a few blocks away, both to make everyone more comfortable, and so that we can take more students.

5. Many students asked that we split the group in two to better deal with the range of levels. To some extent, this is a problem that every camp and workshop has. No matter how you advertise or explain what the level of the teaching is going to be, students come who are at all different playing levels. I was much occupied with preparing lunches and afternoon snacks, so I couldn’t teach very much (although I did do one workshop on playing fiddle backup and everyone seemed to enjoy that). Next time we’ll hire someone to serve the meals so that I can take some of the students. This will also enable us to accept more attendees and offer even more individualized instruction.

Overall, I think the camp went as smoothly as it possibly could have. We’ll make some improvements for next time but I think it’s safe to call MMBC#1 a success!

We’d like to have a place where our campers can share their experiences at camp, so we invite all fifteen of you attendees (plus companions) to write in the comments section below about what you’re doing, the good or bad jams you’ve had, and just what it’s like being at a camp with ALL Murphy Method students. Murphy and I are having a great time, we hope y’all are, too!  —Casey

Murphy Henry

It is now 11:00 a.m. on Friday March 25. Banjo camp officially starts at 1:30. I thought I’d tell you quickly what’s going on at our house as we prepare.

Have I practiced my banjo today? No way! I’ve been too busy! What I have done this morning since getting up at 7 a.m.?

Driven into town to get new tires for my car. Waited there an hour and a half. (Shout out to Pep Boys. They did a good job. I did have an appointment.)
Did some last minute grocery shopping for Casey who is busy preparing meals for the camp.

Bought water softener salt and lugged that 50 pound bag into the house and deposited it, a scoop at a time, into the water softener.

Unclogged a toilet.
And blogged! I now will shower, eat lunch, and possibly change my banjo strings. Oh, just remembered I have to gather up product (DVDs, CDs,) to take to camp. The strings may remain unchanged! We’ll see.

Hope to report back more as things unfold. Wish you were here!

Update 2:00 p.m. – Camp is officially underway! Murphy is teaching downstairs at the Nancy Shepherd House Inn in the room known as the Tater Hill Tavern (which is not technically a tavern since there is no liquor license) and I can hear laughter wafting up the stairs. Innkeeper David McLaughlin is practicing his own style of clawhammer banjo playing in one of the parlors, and I’m at the dining room table checking email for the first time today while water for iced tea is on the stove in the kitchen. Here’s my guess: the banjo strings remained unchanged. I know mine didn’t get changed! —Casey

Casey Henry

Y’all may or may not know that our Murphy Method Banjo Camp is coming up this weekend. It starts Friday afternoon and runs ‘til Sunday at lunch, but a few students are filtering into Winchester, Va., on Thursday so that they’ll be settled and ready to go on Friday. Murphy is doing most of the teaching. I’m cooking lunch for everyone on Saturday and Sunday and doing a lot of jam-leading and general organizing.

We’re happy to have Geoff Stelling coming to do a banjo set-up workshop on Saturday afternoon, and he’s sticking around to play bass with us on our Saturday night concert for the students.

I’m about to start getting ready to drive to Virginia for camp, carrying a lot of cooking stuff, in addition to my instruments, camera (to capture the momentous occasion of our first camp!), souveniers for the students, and a sense of adventure for doing this job that I’ve never done before (being in charge of a camp, that is!).

As I’m preparing I thought I’d write about how you students might be/should be preparaing to come to this camp, or any camp really.

1. Change your strings. Do it now, in plenty of time to let them stretch out and settle in.
2. Make sure you have your tuner, strap, picks, spare battery for the tuner (or a spare tuner), spare strings, and a capo (and a spare capo) all in your case.
3. Make sure you have a recorder and spare batteries. You don’t want all the brillant stuff Murphy says to disappear into the ether. You want to capture it so you can go back and practice it later!
4. Perhaps make a list of the songs that you play. You’re going to be jamming and when jamming you need to be able to think up songs that you play. If you take a long time to remember what you know, all the momentum of the jam goes away. Be ready to contribute!
5. Make sure you know how to kick off all your songs and know what key your songs are in. Especially if you sing. Having to stop a song and start over in a different key is always awkward.
6. Dust off your own sense of adventure and decide to jump in and gamely try whatever Murphy asks of you, whether it be improvising, playing in the keys of C or D, or playing while standing up!

Just four days ‘til camp kicks off. I can’t wait!!