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Jam Camp A Total Success

Sunday, September 27th, 2009
Casey Henry

Casey Henry

The FiddleStar/Murphy Method Jam Camp wraps up today and I thought I’d share some pictures from the weekend. We had eleven students—six in the beginning/intermediate jam group (led by myself) and five in the intermediate/advanced jam group (led by Megan). Six men, five women. We covered a LOT of material and played a LOT of music during the day, while nights were variously occupied by venturing out to a local jam at Loudhouse Coffee, to the Station Inn to Adam Steffey’s CD release party, and to the Grand Ole Opry to hear Megan play with Pam Tillis.

Speaking for my own group, we improvised a lot and covered playing in some of the less-common keys (D, and E in particular) in addition to the usual G, A, and B. We talked about using the 2-chord in songs (which would be A if you’re playing in the key of G), and we worked with the 6-2-5 chord progression (like in “Salty Dog” and “Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down”).

Casey teaching the morning jam class.

Casey teaching the morning jam class.

Casey teaching the afternoon ear-training workshop.

Casey teaching the afternoon ear-training workshop.

The big event on Friday was the band scramble. We randomly divide the campers into bands and they get to work up a song and a joke to perform for everyone else. This year it was three very small bands and Megan and myself, along with Rex (our English mandolin-player friend) acted as judges.

Maria (Megan's mom), Megan, Casey, Rex.

Maria (Megan's mom), Megan, Casey, Rex.

And the three bands were:

The Kitchenettes: Shelle, Steve, Martha. Winners for "Best Original Interpretation of Traditional Material"

The Kitchenettes: Shelle, Steve, Martha. Winners for "Best Original Interpretation of Traditional Material"

The Henry Finch Band: Jeff, Ginny, Bev, Carl. Winners for "Best Use of Non-Traditional Gener Roles" when Jeff sang tenor to Bev.

The Henry Finch Band: Jeff, Ginny, Bev, Carl. Winners for "Best Use of Non-Traditional Gender Roles" when Jeff sang tenor to Bev.

The Ridgetop Ramblers: Steve, Frank, Dennis. Winners for "Largest Number of Turtles Sacrificed to Make Pick-Guards"

The Ridgetop Ramblers: Steve, Frank, Dennis. Winners for "Largest Number of Turtles Sacrificed to Make Pick-Guards"

Everyone went home winners and collected fabulous prizes. Everyone was also in agreement that it was the most stressful event of the whole weekend, but I think (I hope) everyone had fun, because having fun is the whole point!

Camp is already on the books for September 23-26, 2010, so mark your calendars and start making your plans!

(Thanks to Ginny Foard for many of these pictures! Also Maria, and Steve.)

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“Banjo Camp” Book

Wednesday, August 19th, 2009
Casey Henry

Casey Henry

The book titled Banjo Camp! Learning, Picking, & Jamming with Bluegrass and Old-Time Greats has been out for about a year. It’s a soft-cover, full color, 152 page publication that includes a CD. The reason I’m mentioning it now is that I just got around to buying a copy. The other reason is that I’m in it! You can find me on page 38, which is in the section talking about Kaufman Kamp, where I’ve taught for the last six years.

The general idea behind the book (which I admit I haven’t read all of yet) is “banjo camp between two paper covers.” It combines instruction, visits to various banjo camps around the country, student testimonials, plenty of pictures, and music and examples on the CD at the end. In my three paragraphs I talk about slow jams and their value to students at all levels.

Sample from "Banjo Camp!" book.

Sample from "Banjo Camp!" book.

The author, Zhenya Gene Senyak, writes from the perspective of a typical banjo camp student—adults who picked up the instrument later in life and now have the time and money to come to events like camps to develop their playing. The book contains lots of information, but mostly it’s just fun to read something by and about other who are interested in the same thing we’re all interested in: learning to play the banjo!

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Augusta Heritage

Thursday, July 30th, 2009
Murphy Henry

Murphy Henry

Well, here I am, once again teaching banjo during Bluegrass Week at Augusta Heritage in Elkins, West Viriginia. As you know, Casey is also here and we are sharing a room in one of the college dorms. Here is a picture of my side of the room. Along with a picture of our food stash.

Murphy and Casey's room at Augusta

Murphy and Casey's room at Augusta

I have a wonderful intermediate banjo class of seven students, all adults. Six men, one woman. The first day we also had 17-year-old Jake in with us, but when we found out he had learned from tab (and could actually play!) we kicked him out! In truth, he was way too advanced for us so I sent him up to Tony Trischka’s class. (Along with a note that he was a tab reader!)

Slight digression: At the staff meeting Sunday night, the instructors were told that the college would Xerox a certain amount of tablature for the teachers, ten pages per student. Tony immediately asked if he could have my tab allowance! Naturally, I said yes, but I made him kiss my ring first!

On Monday night Tony did a History of the Banjo presentation, solo, at the Elkins Art Center where I was startled to see a lifesized poster of my son Chris playing his mandolin! It was positioned facing the

Murphy and Casey's food stash.

Murphy and Casey's food stash.

audience so while I was watching Tony, Chris was watching me! Slightly surreal! Tony was gracious enough to ask me what he should start his show with, so I suggested his original tune “New York Chimes” (a wordplay on New York Times) which I love. The whole show was wonderful, including Tony’s story about calling Pete Seeger on the phone to ask a question about how to play “Coal Creek March” and talking to Pete while he was in the bathtub! The mind boggles….

But you might be wanting to know what we are doing in class. Monday we began working on improvising! We started with “Blue Ridge Cabin Home” (of course), playing the entire tune with forward and backward rolls. This then became our “lousy level” (Casey’s term from John Hartford) to which we could then return when the other stuff we added (pulloff, slide, tag, etc) became too difficult. Or if we just forgot what we were doing! Tuesday we put on the capo at the second fret, to play in A, and did the same thing with “Bury Me Beneath The Willow,” adding a rather difficult C lick (the double square roll). Today it was back to BRCH, only this time we were doing it in the key of C—without a capo. When we finished with that, I sensed brain fatigue so we filled out the rest of the class time by picking. Each student suggested a song so we did:

Washed in the Blood
Little Maggie
I Saw the Light
Old Joe Clark
Lonesome Road Blues
Circle

There were a few trains wrecks along the way, but all in all I think we done good! Everyone in the class is very brave and jumps right in and does the best they can. And we are getting plenty of practice vamping!

After class every afternoon me and my fiddle (or, if you prefer, my fiddle and I) have been joining the throng of students on the giant wrap-around porch of Halliehurst Mansion for Casey’s Slow Jam. Casey came up with the brilliant idea of jamming each day in a specific key, so no time is lost fooling around with capos. Monday it was G, Tuesday it was A, and today, Wednesday, will be C. Which my class is now well-acquainted with (to use more bluegrass grammar!). Casey and I are both looking forward to the Key of C which is where we are more comfortable singing, G and A being too low. Although we were getting some nice duet harmony yesterday on “Amazing Grace” and “Mountain Dew.”

As I wind down this blog, it is pouring rain outside, so I am skipping the after lunch concert in favor of a small nap. I’m pretty sure I will drift off with the sounds of today’s lesson in my mind. “There’s a well-beaten path on that old mountain side….” In the Key of C, of course!

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Scenes From Elkins

Wednesday, July 29th, 2009
Casey Henry

Casey Henry

Here it is—day three of Bluegrass Week at Augusta. Murphy is here teaching the intermediate banjo class and I’m here as staff musician. So far I’ve sat in with Chris Stuart and Janet Beazley’s vocal class to sing the third part in a trio, played rhythm guitar for Murphy’s class, helped out with some beginning fiddle instruction, and lead two slow jams on the porch of Halliehurst Mansion, a beautiful old house that at the heart of campus. (Others might say that the Icehouse pub is the heart of campus. I suppose it depends on your point of view.) I also went to the Monday night contra dance:

Augusta's Dance Pavillion

Augusta's Dance Pavillion

Years ago at this camp I fell in love with clogging and contra dancing. Walking down to the pavilion last night I was filled with a particular sense of excitement that I hadn’t experienced since last time I was here, walking down to the first dance of the week. (In the above photo you can see our intrepid vocal instructors Chris and Janet waltzing—they’re the couple closest to the band.)

Monday night Murphy and I went to the Randolph County Community Arts Center to see Tony Trischka present a show/talk/demonstration on the history of the banjo. He was amazing, as he always is. He ended with a John Hartford tune called “Foggy Mountain Landscape,” which he described as having a difficulty level of “10″. Now, when Tony Trischka rates a song’s difficulty level as “10″ you know that it’s serious business.

Tony Trischka at the Randolph County Center for the Arts

Tony Trischka at the Randolph County Community Arts Center

In this case the tune featured the use of the Keith tuner on the second string. He also de-tuned the first string FREEHAND! And not only did he tune it down and then back up, but he tuned it down to three different notes, and then back up, stopping at all the same notes on the way up!! We were all pretty well flabbergasted.

Also at the Arts Center is a traveling exhibit from the Smithsonian Institution called New Harmonies: Celebrating American Roots Music. Strangely, and completely coincidentally, this exhibit contains a larger-than-life cutout of my brother Chris Henry. So of course Murphy had to get her picture taken with it:

Murphy Henry posing with Chris Henry cutout.

Murphy Henry posing with Chris Henry cutout.

It is impossible to recount all the highlights here at Davis and Elkins College but I will add that today’s afternoon concerts by Laurie Lewis and Tom Rozum, and by Janet Beazley and Chris Stuart were a pure pleasure to listen to. And as I write this I’m listening to a jam outside my building that includes Herschel Sizemore, the Gibson Brothers, and my former bandmate Tyler Grant, where they are playing “Rebecca,” a popular tune written by Herschel himself. It doesn’t get any better than this.

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News Flash: Murphy Teaching At Augusta!!

Friday, July 24th, 2009

This just in–Murphy will be teaching the intermediate banjo class at the Augusta Heritage workshops next week (August 26-31) in Elkins, WV. The original instructor, Charlie Cushman, had to cancel at the last minute, so Murphy is stepping up to the plate. It has been YEARS since Murphy has taught here, and there are STILL SPOTS AVAILABLE if you are a spur-of-the-moment type person. Call 304.637.1209 for more info.

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Live From Kaufman Kamp

Wednesday, June 17th, 2009

Casey HenryHello from muggy Maryville, Tennessee! I’m teaching this week at Kaufman Kamp and have stolen a moment in between watching the evening concert and overseeing the post-concert open-mic to write a few words here. Bossman Steve Kaufman always keeps me hoppin’ during my time at Kamp. This week I’m teaching fiddle, a little clogging, assisting with the clawhammer banjo class, leading slow jams and keeping an eye on the aforementioned late-night open mic.

Every night various instructors perform a concert for the students and the locals who are brave enough to infiltrate camp for a few hours. Tonight, as always, was just great. The picture below is from Keith Yoder’s performance. He asked legendary bluegrass fiddler Bobby Hicks to play “Big Mon” with him. Now, Bobby was the fiddler on Bill Monroe’s original cut of the tune, back in the 1950s, and you just don’t get to see that every day. Mark Cosgrove, who played guitar on the tune, said he just about hyperventillated at getting to play “Big Mon” with Bobby.

Bobby Hicks, Adam Masters, Steve Kaufman, Keith Yoder, Mark Cosgrove (hidden: Bob Rostollan on bass)

Bobby Hicks, Adam Masters, Steve Kaufman, Keith Yoder, Mark Cosgrove (hidden: Bob Rostollan on bass)

Clawhammer banjo teacher Evie Ladin took the stage next, for a captivating twenty minutes performed completely solo. She dances, she sings, she plays the banjo. She even hambones (though I think a less regional term for it is body percussion). Evie plays with a California-based old-time group called the Stairwell Sisters.

Evie Ladin kicking up her heels.

Evie Ladin kicking up her heels.

...and playing the banjo. Though not at the same time!

...and playing the banjo. Though not at the same time!

My portion of the concert comes tomorrow night, and I’ll report back on how that goes. In the meantime I’ve got a slow jam to lead, fiddle, mandolin, and banjo to teach and a very few hours to sleep!

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Banjo Camp North

Wednesday, May 20th, 2009

Casey HenryA fabulous time was had by all at last weekend’s Banjo Camp North. I had the pleasure of teaching there for the second year in a row, and, knowing in advance what to expect, I brought foam to put on the hard camp bed. That made everything better!

Other instructors there for the weekend were Tony Trischka, Bill Keith, Janet Davis, Bruce Stockwell, Mac Benford, Lorraine Hammond, Rich Stillman (a fellow Kel Kroydon endorser), and many, many more. There are many stories to share, but I’ll pull out just a couple (so as not to spoil my next Banjo Newsletter article for you).

Saturday at the camp there was some free time before dinner, so Tom Mirisola of the American Made Banjo Company asked me and Rich Stillman to come to his booth to do a little impromptu jamming. We had a brief little session playing our KK banjos. One of our mail-order students, Robbin, was there with her purple KK banjo (the only purple one in the world!). She bravely jumped right into the fray and took a break on “Salt Creek.” I immediately recognized it as the one off of Beginning Banjo Volume 2! I love to see the Murphy Method put into action and I was proud that she pulled off such a great break!

Tony Trischka was there for the first day and half of camp, and although I didn’t get to attend any of his workshops (since I was teaching myself), he is always delightful to be around. I was especially flattered that he complimented me on my tune Real Women Drive Trucks, mentioning my unusual use of the Keith tuners. When I released that CD back in 2000, Mike Seeger wrote me a letter saying that the use of the tuners was new to him as well. I still have that letter on my bulletin board over my desk.

Here’s one picture from camp: Casey Henry, Tony Trischka, Kelly Stockwell

Casey, Tony, and Kelly

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Off to Camp

Friday, May 15th, 2009

Casey HenryToday is the first day of Banjo Camp North 2009 in Groton, Mass. This is my second year teaching at this event. This camp is one where lots of different workshops are offered simultaneously and students can choose which to attend. I’m teaching on subjects such as “Vamping and Beginning Backup,” “Playing Up The Neck for Beginners,” “Playing in Waltz Time,” “What to do in a Jam Session,” and “Scruggs-style Backup.” Camps like this are the perfect place to work out material for future DVD releases. I’ll be trying out some material in the Scruggs-style backup class that may make it onto our next banjo video. I’ll have a full report next week.

I have to say, events like this make me wish I had an iphone (12 days and counting…) so I wouldn’t have to lug my whole computer up there in order to check my email every day!

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First Banjo Workshop of the Year

Wednesday, March 18th, 2009

Casey HenryYesterday I got back from an extended weekend trip up to Delaware, Virginia, and Maryland, primarily to teach a workshop at the Wilmington Winter Bluegrass Festival. It was a three-hour-long session on Saturday. Since anybody at the festival could come, we had a wide range of abilities—from beginner to advanced intermediate. That’s always a hard split to negotiate. Almost by default you have to teach to the middle, so the material is going to be too fast for the beginners (something I always feel terribly about), but the more advanced players may already know it (something I also feel bad for).

But I think (I hope!) most of the attendees went home with something that they can use, something that stuck in their brains. I mostly used material that is found on our new Easy Songs for Banjo DVD, showing the students the high break to “Blue Ridge Cabin Home,” and a back-up roll to go with the same song. Then we took that break and moved it to the key of C (without a capo). Then, in the last hour, we worked with “Amazing Grace.” I showed them the two breaks on the DVD and then, in an inspired moment, I realized that you can take those breaks and move them around to almost any key, since they are based on the four-finger vamp chords and use no open strings. So we moved the break to A, B, and F, and people mostly got it.

I got some positive feedback about the workshop afterwards, but one beginner did come and tell me he was lost after the fist five minutes. Hopefully he’ll get the DVD and be able to go through the material more slowly.

This is just the first workshop of the season, and it got me excited for the next one, which is Banjo Camp North, with Kaufman Kamp to follow. They’ll be here before you know it!

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September Banjo Camp

Friday, August 1st, 2008

CaseyAs we promised in a previous post, here are the details about the banjo camp The Murphy Method is sponsoring September 25-28, 2008, in Ridgetop, Tenn. (just north of Nashville). Since this is the first time we have actually been involved in the organization of a camp, it is the first time we can really promise that the entire banjo curriculum will be taught 100% The Murphy Method way. Casey will be teaching the banjo class. Depending on the levels of the students who sign up we could cover topics from vamping, hearing chord changes, playing with other people, and learning a couple simple tunes all the way up to improvising and how to be a better jammer.

All instruments are offered—fiddle (Megan Lynch), mandolin (Andy Ball), guitar (Stephen Mougin), bass (Mike Anglin)—and those instructors are all great teachers, though not specifically Murphy Method teachers.

It’s a small camp, with a maximum enrollment of twenty students, so sign up early if you want to reserve your place. Since it takes place the weekend before the International Bluegrass Music Association convention in Nashville, we have a special deal that if you want to keep your on-site lodging through the convention week you can do so at no extra charge. That could be a big money-saver if you’ve been thinking about making the trip to the convention.

The camp will be held at Megan’s spacious house in the woods. Evenings will be occupied with bonfires, cookouts, s’mores, jamming, and playing cornhole (it’s not what you think!). Friday night there will be an instructor concert at Norm’s River Roadhouse in Nashville. Sunday morning will be a brunch-jam with as many of our pro-bluegrass-musician friends as we can round up. It will be an amazingly fun time…so come!

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