Archive for the ‘Instructors’ Category

Murphy Method Banjo Camp this Weekend

Thursday, October 27th, 2011

Red Henry

Folks, the Murphy Method Beginning Banjo Camp is this weekend! We’ll have students coming in from all over the country to learn from Murphy and Casey. This is our first camp specifically for beginners, so both Murphy and Casey will be teaching, demonstrating, and encouraging new banjo players for three days.

And what use, you may ask, will Murphy’s husband be while all this is going on? He (that is, me, myself and I) will be chasing the family’s newest banjo picker around the house. He’s Casey’s son, named Dalton Henry, age 8 weeks yesterday:

Morning Cheer

–and how does a person that young get to be a banjo picker? That’s easy: he’s already heard more banjo notes than more people. For 9 months. At close range, too. The kid can’t help playing a banjo.

Red

P.S. — Oh, I’ll get over to the camp each evening, too, to help Murphy with jam sessions and sing-alongs… with all those OTHER beginning banjo players.

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Posted in By Red, Camps, Instructors | 2 Comments »

WOW! — is all I can say!

Tuesday, November 16th, 2010

Red Henry

Response to yesterday’s Murphy Method e-mail Newsletter has been terrific. Lots of people have ordered Casey’s custom DVD, “Christmas Tunes on the Banjo”, which teaches many popular numbers. We’ve also had many orders for this month’s half-price DVD, “Great Banjo Tunes”. Thank you all!

We’ve also had a lot of interest in our very first Murphy Method Banjo Camp, scheduled for late March. We often get inquiries saying “Where can I attend a banjo camp?”, and now Murphy and Casey, two of the best banjo teachers anywhere, will be giving a camp right here in Winchester, Va. There are still some student slots remaining, so if interested, take a look at the details here.
. . . . .

On another subject entirely, last night I did an extensive interview with a researcher who may write a book about Randy Wood, the pioneer (and still currently-active) bluegrass instrument builder who began making superb mandolins, banjos, and guitars way back in the 1960s. Since I have Randy’s very first mandolin as well as #3 (a Bill Monroe mandolin, which Murphy bought from Bill’s estate sale in 2001 and gave me), I like Randy’s instruments a lot and was able to share many stories from 35 and 40 years ago, about Randy’s pioneer work in making great instruments for bluegrass pickers to play.

Everybody keep picking!

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Posted in By Red, Camps, DVDs, Instructors | No Comments »

Becoming an Independent Banjo Player (Flying and Picking #10)

Friday, April 9th, 2010

Red Henry

Red Henry


Murphy, in an old Banjo Newsletter column, talked at length about how people want to become Independent Banjo Players. They want to be able to get in a group and play tunes, play backup, and pass the breaks around to others just like “independent” pickers do, who don’t need a teacher’s guidance to participate. And they need to be able to do all this while standing up!

I thought about this yesterday while I was on a solo cross-country flight. As you learn to be an independent pilot, you learn to fly the plane and land it, communicate with other pilots in the air, and to navigate from one place to another– and eventually, you do all this without an instructor’s help. So I took off yesterday morning by myself and flew about 75 miles to an airport I’d never seen before (Somerset County, Pa.), landed there, took off again, and found my way right back and landed here at Winchester. When I got back here, I felt like I was learning to be an Independent Pilot. Could I have done this without a lot of training from my instructor? Of course not. But is it good to feel like an Independent Pilot? Oh, yes.

It also feels good when you learn to be an Independent Banjo Player. You know that you can stand up in a group, play the tunes, do backup when someone else is playing, take breaks and pass them off when you’re through playing yourself, and start and finish the tune at the same time as everybody else. Can you learn this all at once? No. And like everything else, it takes some folks longer to learn than others. But when you reach your goal, it feels good. You know you’re an Independent Banjo Player.

Red

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Posted in banjo, By Red, Improvising, Instructors, jamming | 2 Comments »

Article on Marshall Wilborn

Tuesday, February 9th, 2010
Casey Henry

Casey Henry

I just found this article from Strings Magazine on our intrepid bass instructor Marshall Wilborn titled “Late Learner Wins Coveted Bluegrass Award.” It quotes the iconic “Ready, Marshall?” “Ready, Murphy!” exchange that takes place on our Beginning and Intermediate Bass DVDs. It’s not dated, but it appears to be from late last year.

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Posted in Instructors | 1 Comment »

Jan. 13th– Solo Day!

Friday, January 15th, 2010
Red, Jan. 13th

Red, Jan. 13th

Well, folks, this doesn’t have a lot to do with banjo playing, but I wanted to make a personal posting. This Wednesday, January 13th, 2010, I soloed in a small plane. This is the first (and biggest) hurdle every pilot has to achieve on their way to earning a pilot’s license.

In the last few days I’ve found that there are quite a few professional pilots and instructors, active or retired, who play banjo. To them, newbie students are a known quantity because they have done it all before, but even the most seasoned pilot remembers his or her first solo.

Yes, I did this once before. And more. You may remember my old USAF photo that I somewhat ostentatiously posted a few days ago. But that was about a hundred years ago, and this is new. And it counts.

Some details: I made three takeoffs and three landings (a convenient ratio) in a slightly rusty Cessna 172P, N51056, here at Winchester Regional Airport in Virginia. The three landings were all different (as every landing is) and they improved as I went along. The third landing was pretty smooth, if I say so myself.

There’s a lot more work and flying to do before earn my Private license, but I’ve gotten past Step One! More later as I go along–

Red

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Posted in By Red, Instructors, lessons, pictures, Practice | 1 Comment »

Lynn Morris on the Bluegrass Blog

Thursday, October 29th, 2009

Our friends over at the Bluegrass Blog have posted a lovely conversation with Lynn Morris, who teaches our Clawhammer Banjo Volume 1 and Volume 2.  It catches up with what she’s doing these days, a question we get asked often. So if you’ve been wondering that yourself, click here and read the article.

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Posted in Instructors, women in bluegrass | 1 Comment »