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More Jamming

Thursday, February 17th, 2011

Murphy Henry

Janet and I went to the Martinsburg, W.Va., jam again last Sunday and this time it was a completely different kind of session. Fewer players, fewer folks in the audience. In fact, when we got there at 4 p.m., there were no musicians milling around getting ready to play. No open cases, no tuners. Zac was there but he didn’t have his banjo out. There might have been 10 or 15 listeners sitting in the old church pews there in the train station, facing the empty space where the pickers usually stand.

So, being the shy, retiring wallflower that I am, I uncased my banjo and told Janet and Zac to get their “money making machines” out. (That’s what Bob Forrester said that his dad Howdy called his fiddle! It might actually have made some money for him since he played with both Bill Monroe and Roy Acuff.) Instruments now in hand, we gave ‘em a little Lonesome Road Blues and followed that with Foggy Mountain Breakdown. With only three players, this event seemed more like a concert than a jam and I was playing to the audience. With that in mind, I sang Circle next, in the key of C, which meant that Zac had to capo up five frets. I told Janet, however, to play it open (C, F, G), so she could practice her F chord!

Then, thank goodness, we were joined by Dennis on the fiddle and Curt on the guitar. Now we were five. And, as I found out, Dennis and Curt both sang so the singing load was spread among us three. I also spotted Bobby, the teenage boy who had played banjo two weeks ago, so I asked him to come join us, saying we needed another banjo! We were now six and that’s the size we stayed for the whole jam. With fewer people, I could definitely hear better this week (and Janet said she could too) but we were spread pretty far apart and the room was still boomy, so it wasn’t easy.
In addition to the songs mentioned above, here’s what we played.

Blue Ridge Cabin Home

Mama Don’t Allow

I Haven’t Seen Mary in Years

Boil Them Cabbage Down

Blue Virginia Blue

Shenandoah Breakdown

East Virginia Blues

Wildwood Flower and Jimmy Brown the Newsboy

Banjo Signal

Faded Love

Darling Nellie Gray

Iron Curtain (can’t get away from it, Bobby!)

Dear Old Dixie

Roll in My Sweet Baby’s Arms

Old Joe Clark

Each of these songs pretty much has a story to go with it, but that would make this blog way too long. So I will confine myself to just a few.

I was standing right beside Zac and when we were gearing up to do Old Joe Clark, I saw that he hadn’t put his capo on. I said, “We’re doing it in A. Put your capo on at the second fret.” He said, “I’m just gonna vamp.” I said, “Oh no you’re not! Put your capo on.” He said, “I can’t remember how to play it.” I said, “Yes, you can. I’m your teacher and you have to do what I say! Put your capo on and you can play along with me till you get it back in your fingers.” Being the Good Boy that he is, he didn’t give me any more lip, but capoed up, and sure enough, the tune came back to him and after playing along with me, he took a break himself and did fine. As I knew he would.

But I was proudest of Zac for this: With no prodding or coaxing, he said, “I’ll sing Roll In My Sweet Baby’s Arms.” I said, “What key?” He said, “G.” And then he kicked it off and sang 3 or 4 verses, nodding to each player when it was time for the breaks. Wow! Zac didn’t come into the world of bluegrass knowing how to sing. He’s teaching himself in the best way possible—by learning the words to the songs and getting up and singing them. And I am so proud of you, Zac! (And let me give a shout out to Zac’s dad, Todd, who is doing the same thing—as he learns to play guitar!)

One of the more interesting songs we did was Darling Nellie Gray. Originally a sheet-music singing song from the 1920s (or earlier), it is usually done in the bluegrass world as an  medium-paced instrumental in G. (It has the same melody as Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane.) One of the listeners asked for Faded Love, and Dennis decided to do Darling Nellie Gray instead. But he played it very slowly—in D, where Faded Love is played—and, honestly, it sounded a lot like Faded Love!!! I’d never done it that way before so I had to create new break—in D—right on the spot, which was fun. Later on we did Faded Love, and Bobby did a wonderful break on the banjo. It was so good I had Janet’s husband, Kenney, make a note of it. He wrote, “Bobby completely wiped out Murphy on Faded Love.” (Not that banjo playing is competitive!) Bobby does a lot of Reno licks, and when I complimented him on his break I asked him if he did any Reno instrumentals and that’s how we arrived at Banjo Signal. He did a fine job on that one, too.

After a couple of hours I was ready to call it quits. We did Dear Old Dixie for our closing tune and I put my banjo away. But no! Dennis wanted to play Orange Blossom Special, so out it came again so I could do the “dun-dun-dun-duns” in E. (Capoed two, played in D position. And thank you, Ralph Stanley for those!) He played an excellent version and then we were really done.

Of course, since I was hanging out with square dancers (Darla and her friend Nina May were there too) we had to go out to eat afterwards! It’s just what we do. We dance, then we eat. We usually go to Denny’s, or IHOP, or Waffle House or even Cracker Barrel. And what do all these fine dining establishments have in common? NO BEER. So this time, I suggested Ruby Tuesdays where I got me a very tall, cold beer while we rehashed the jam session. It was a delightful end to a fun day. Food, friends, fellowship. Banjos, beer, bluegrass. It doesn’t get much better than this!

Posted in By Murphy, jamming | 12 Comments »

And now for a quick photo-op…

Friday, February 4th, 2011

I just wanted to share a picture with all of you. This was taken when Chris and I went over to a Frank Wakefield concert at Garrett Park, Maryland, several weeks ago. I had no idea this photo existed until a day or two ago, when I found it on Frank’s Facebook page. Click on the pic:

…as you can see, we were having quite a time. Or, to “talk backwards” and put it in Wakefield-ese, Frank and “Leeroy” and “White” didn’t play no music. We didn’t have no fun. And you can’t see it right in this picture!

Red

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Posted in By Red, Improvising, jamming, shows | 4 Comments »

Picky, Picky, Picky

Friday, February 4th, 2011

Red Henry

It looks as if this is a good week to talk about picking. That was a really good session Murphy had up in Martinsburg. And now I have a couple of old-time jams scheduled for the next two nights, both within 45 minutes of the house.

As Murphy has suggested over and over on our videos, one of the best things you can do, to help you learn to play, is to get out and play with other people. There is really nothing like it. Once you progress to the point where you can at least stand at the back of the group and play rhythm or vamp, you’re in for a lot of great practice that’s easy and fun. And it really doesn’t matter what exact kind of music the session is playing. They may play bluegrass, or they may play older country music. They may play gospel music or folk music, or they may play music that’s all over the place. Or, they may play traditional (old-time) music, like my two sessions this weekend. Whatever they’re playing, it’s still a great place to learn.

Now, I have heard it said that “There’s bluegrass everywhere.” Well, I admit that there is bluegrass in a lot of places, but it’s definitely not everywhere. I once spent a year at an Air Force base near Del Rio, Texas, and that whole year I never found anybody to pick with within a three-hour drive. It took a lot of energy to practice that year. I REALLY wish something had been available then like our Slow Jam with Murphy and Casey or Picking Up the Pace DVDs. If you’re in a situation like that (or even if you aren’t), consider those slow-jam DVDs, because they’re easy to pick with and you can use them anywhere.

I’m off to pick, and I hope you are too. Give my regards to Broadway!

Red

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Posted in By Red, DVDs, jamming, Practice | 1 Comment »

Jamming: Not For the Faint of Heart

Thursday, February 3rd, 2011

Murphy Henry

I was recently at a Sunday evening jam session in Martinsburg, W. Va., that is being put on by the newly-formed Eastern Panhandle Bluegrass Association. I wanted to check it out and to take my guitar student (and square dancing buddy) Janet so she could get a taste of jamming. I knew she would do fine because she knows all her chords and has a good ear and a solid strum. I also knew I would be right beside her to help with things like telling her where to put the capo to play in B.

The jam is being held through the end of March at the Train Station 226 East Martin Street. And while I encourage you to check it out, I will point out that this jam is, as the title says, not for the faint of heart! Nor for the timid. And not really for beginners. It’s not that they are doing really hard songs, either. The selections were mostly three-chord bluegrass, familiar songs to people who have been playing a long time! (I’m sure you knew them all, Bobby!)
Here’s a song list I came up with after the fact:

I Wonder Where You Are Tonight

Darling Think Of What You’ve Done

Mary Ann

Iron Curtain

Faded Love

Lonesome Road Blues

Dear Old Dixie

Old Joe Clark

Red Rocking Chair

John Hardy (done as a vocal!)

Little Georgia Rose

Sweet Blue Eyed Darling

Traveling the Highway Home

Where The Soul of Man Never Dies

White Dove

Will The Circle Be Unbroken (sung by me)

As soon as I kicked off the first song I was reminded, once again, how difficult it can be for students to jam. We talk about it like it’s a piece of cake, like there’s nothing to it, like you can just take whatever you’ve learned and step right up to the plate and play. Or at least vamp or chord. But I don’t think so!
For instance, the first song we did, I Wonder Where You Are Tonight, was in the key of F! And the guy who sang it was not trying to be hard to get along with. He’s an older gentleman and his voice has gotten lower over the years, and he can’t sing in G anymore. As someone who has been playing bluegrass a long time, he just expects everyone in a jam to be able to play in F! (I quickly said to  Janet, “Capo at the third fret and play in D. Use D, G, and A.” She understood!)

[Small diversion: I just have to tell you that this guy was  playing a left-handed guitar. And I didn’t think anything about it till he said, conversationally, “Know anybody who has any left-handed guitars? I’ve got a bunch of right-handed Martins I’d like to trade.” Then he raised his left hand and I saw that he’d lost three of his fingers down to the second knuckle. He said, “I used to play right-handed.” Till he got tangled up in a saw a couple of years ago. But he wanted to continue playing so much that he taught himself to make the chords with his right hand, and do the strum by using a thumb pick on his injured left hand. Can you imagine retraining yourself like this? And this man was probably in his 70s. Sweet guy. He did a lot of the lead singing and at one point called for “Half-Eaten Calf.” “Kick it off,” he said to me. “I don’t know that one,” I said. He just grinned at me and sang softly, “There’s a half-eaten calf on that old mountain side....” “OH,” I said. “Blue Ridge Cabin Home. That one I can kick off!” And I did. Too funny!]

Okay. Back to my story. The second thing that I noticed was that it was very hard to hear. There were a lot of jammers—maybe as many as 20—and we were standing in a very large room with a high ceiling and brick walls. At the start, the “inner” circle consisted of three banjos, one mandolin, one bass, and at least four guitars. The outer circle (people playing but not taking designated breaks) included a fourth banjo player, a couple of fiddle players, a harmonica player, and some other guitarists. A strong fiddler joined the “chosen few” a little later, as did a young twenty-something guitar player who also sang lead. I could play because I knew the songs to begin with and I knew how to listen to the bass for the beat. But if you didn’t know the songs….wow! It would have been almost impossible to join in.

Everyone was very welcoming, some of the people knew me, which is always nice and I got the nod for a break on almost every tune. Of course, I didn’t waste any time establishing my credentials as a player, and kicked off that first song in F like it wasn’t any problem. (It wasn’t….just a slight rethinking of how to get the melody….) As it turned out, the core players in the jam were all members of the Back Creek Valley Boys and the mandolin player was the de facto leader of the jam which made things flow more smoothly. One of the banjo players was a young teenage boy who seemed very shy. He could play very well, but didn’t put himself forward at all. Consequently, he didn’t get breaks on all the tunes. After I had gained a toehold myself (!) I tried to make sure he got to play by tapping the lead singer on the shoulder and saying, “Give him a break.” (I’m sure the boy would done fine without my interference in this matter, but it made me feel helpful! And—must I say it?—in control!) Toward the end of the jam, I walked over to him and asked him to suggest a banjo tune. He didn’t come up with anything but someone near him suggested Dear Old Dixie so we played that and he did an excellent job. Hard tune, that one.

I finally left the jam when yet another banjo player arrived on the scene. That was just one too many banjos for me, so, as Snagglepuss said, I made an “Exit. Stage left!” (Remember him? The cartoon tiger?)

Will I go back? Absolutely! Do I recommend your checking it out? Ditto. But if you want to play, arm yourself with lots of courage, put on your thickest skin, and be ready to get whatever you can out of the jam. You will at the very least hear a bunch of new songs, and meet some really nice folks.

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Posted in By Murphy, jamming | 3 Comments »

Are You Listening?

Friday, January 21st, 2011

Red Henry

Since I pick with people when I get the chance, and I’ve also taught a good many music lessons in my life, I’ve developed an attitude about listening and learning. It’s this: If you can’t or don’t listen, you can’t play. At least, you can’t play right. You have to know what a tune sounds like before you can play it. And tab won’t show you what a tune sounds like– you can only learn that from listening. Sound obvious? It’s not obvious at all to a lot of folks.

Murphy expresses this in a way when she says, “Listen, listen, listen, and play, play, play!” What does it mean? It means that you can’t learn to play a tune right unless you’ve heard it, and preferably, heard it a lot. This is why tab won’t help you to play a tune right, because tab can’t show you what a tune actually sounds like. West-Coast banjo wizard Pat Cloud said in a recent Banjo Newsletter interview that he wishes his students would listen to a tune a hundred times before they looked at the tab. Well-known player Pete Wernick stated, also in BNL, that since students have to get away from tab eventually, it’s better if they don’t use it in the first place.

What does this have to do with you, the Murphy Method student? Only that you need to listen. Listen to the music you want to learn. Listen to the music on CD over and over, whether it’s on Earl’s records, or Murphy’s, or Casey’s, or whoever else’s recordings, but get that sound in your head before you expect to learn the tune! Once you know what the tune sounds like, you’re ready to start playing it! And you’ll learn a whole lot faster, too.

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Posted in banjo, By Red, jamming, Learning By Ear, Practice | 2 Comments »

A Hottie Reunion

Monday, January 10th, 2011

Casey Henry

You may remember in the past I’ve written about the group of women I jam with sometimes. We call ourselves At Least We’re Hot because although we may be somewhat short on skill and polish on our respective instruments, we’re not short in the looks department (if we do say so ourselves…and we do!). And of course for efficiency’s sake we shorten it to the Hotties. So when we got together on Saturday for the first time in a year and a half, we called it the Hottie Reunion.

The reason it’s been so long is that our mandolin player moved to Atlanta. She is one-third of our lead players, so losing her was a big deal. But she was in town for the weekend so our joyous reunion took place with all in attendance except Julie (our Scruggs-style banjo player) because it was her due date for baby #2.

As always we ate a bunch (Janice, our bass player and hostess had provided a variety of wonderful appetizers) and talked a bunch and finally got around to picking. I like our jam group because there is no pressure. None of us practice our instruments, so we never really get any better, but that’s okay. It’s more about just having fun and visiting. Music is the means, not the end in this case. So we could all relate when Connie (our clawhammer banjo player) told us what she had said when her husband asked her if she was going to practice in preparation for our get-together. She said, “No, because then my fingers would be sore!” It made perfect sense to us!

We started out, as we always do, with some two-chord songs, to ease into things: “Fireball Mail,” “Angelina Baker,” “Little Birdie.” Then we graduated to three-chord songs like “Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” “The Crawdad Song,” and “Wandering Boy.” As we got warmed up we did some of our big hits like “Blue Suede Shoes,” “Tear My Stillhouse Down,” and “Wild Iris” (a Kate Campbell song which Kelley, our guitar player, sings the fire out of). We ended, as usual, with “Banjo Pickin’ Girl.”

We all had such a good time that we scheduled another get-together for next month. I think all of us are super glad that it will work out for us to pick together again. Maybe we’ll even get Julie and her six-week-old baby to come out so we can ooh and aah and break in that kid’s banjo ears early!

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Posted in By Casey, jamming | 5 Comments »

Holiday Picking — Keeping in Shape

Tuesday, January 4th, 2011

Red Henry

Let’s talk about playing music this time of year (and, as bluegrass aficionados may note, cop a title from the Stanley Brothers). Winter often seems to be a pretty dead time for performance opportunities and even jam sessions. Energy levels are low. In this part of the country, the weather may also prohibit travel to some events we’d like to attend. But it’s important to Keep Picking, especially if you’re learning to play.

Even if you can’t get out to play with other people (or if, as in some parts of the country, the nearest pickers are out of reach), you can play a little each day. You might be surprised at how soon you can get really rusty if you aren’t playing– sometimes, four or five days can set you ‘way back. But even 15 or 20 minutes a day can keep your skills up to a tolerable level.

That photo above was taken in 1971, when I was in the Air Force at Del Rio, Texas for a year. That whole year I never found anybody to pick with there, but I tried to play a little every day I could. And I not only held onto what I could play to begin with, but made some progress as well.

Of course, it’s always easier to practice if you have other people to play with. But if you don’t, our Slow Jam and Picking Up the Pace DVDs are made just for you. You can also play along with Murphy at the end of nearly every lesson on our other DVDs. And I have heard of people even practicing with each other on the phone! However you do it, don’t forget your Holiday Picking.

Red

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Posted in By Red, jamming, Learning By Ear | 3 Comments »

A little old time jam session

Wednesday, December 15th, 2010

Red Henry

Now, you may justifiably ask, what kind of title is that? Here at the Murphy Method we play bluegrass, don’t we? But I do get into old time picking sessions sometimes, and last Friday we had one at Cousin David’s house.

Now, this wasn’t like the last session at Cousin David’s. No, indeed. That time, we had 17 or 18 pickers in the Tater Hill Tavern. This time it was different. How many pickers were there? Three.

Three musicians usually make a pretty thin jam session, but this time we had a good combination of people. Cousin David played the banjo, in his own unique old-time style. Our friend Jamie played fiddle at first, switching off later to banjo-ukulele (yes, such instruments are allowed in old-time music). I played mandolin mostly, but Cousin David had suggested that I bring my fiddle, and I picked that up for the last several numbers. And anchored by Cousin David’s supernatural sense of rhythm, we played for a couple of hours and had a good time. We PAID ATTENTION and PLAYED TOGETHER.

So what did we play? We played a few tunes that the bluegrass people know, such as Soldier’s Joy and Red-Haired Boy. We played some old-timey classics like Cowboy’s Dream and Old Mother Flanagan. And we also played some pretty obscure tunes, like Blake’s March and The Squirrel Hunters. And why am I talking about all this? Because the basics of a good jam are the same in all kinds of music. You can have a good session with only two or three pickers, or with 20, as long as everybody PAYS ATTENTION and PLAYS TOGETHER.

You might see people in jam sessions who aren’t paying attention to anyone but themselves. These people sometimes play too softly to be heard, not because they’re shy but because, I guess, they don’t care about being heard (so why are they there?), and others might be playing too loudly all the time. Either way, they’re not LISTENING to everybody else and PLAYING TOGETHER. Or, you’ll sometimes find people who try to crowd everybody else out of the center of the jam, or deliberately play so loud as to drown out other folks. What does that have to do with PLAYING TOGETHER? Nothing.

Most of the people reading this blog know what to do in a jam session, partly because many of you have been in jams directed by Murphy or Casey. You can also practice listening and playing at the same time with our Murphy Method Slow Jam and Picking Up the Pace DVDs. But no matter where you are or whom you’re picking with, always remember to LISTEN to the jam and PLAY TOGETHER!

Red

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Posted in By Red, jamming, Learning By Ear | 6 Comments »

A busy day, and good picking

Tuesday, December 7th, 2010

Red Henry

Friday was a good day. First, in the morning, I packed a lot of DVDs to send out for our Murphy Method telephone sale. Then, in the afternoon, we (Murphy, myself, Christopher, and Cousin David) played music at a party for some nice folks here in Winchester. People listened to us, we played lots of requests, and a good time was had by all.

In the evening Murphy went out to square dance, but for Christopher and myself, it was time for an old-time jam at Cousin David’s place, the Potato Hill Tavern. Chris and I arrived in the middle of the jam’s second tune, which means that we’d only missed about 15 or 20 minutes of the jam.

A tune and a half? 15 or 20 minutes? Well, you know, old-time jams are pretty different from bluegrass sessions. For one thing, everybody’s playing at once, and sometimes there are a lot of “everybody.” (In this case, “everybody” was 7 fiddle players, 4 banjo pickers, 4 mandolin pickers, and 3 guitar players, with people coming and going all the time.) For another thing, the old-time players really enjoy the tunes and play them for a long time, sometimes as long as 10 minutes or more. That may sound strange from a bluegrass standpoint, but it has advantages.

One advantage is that if you don’t know the tune (and there are hundreds of them) you can often learn it as you play, and then play it some more, for a long time, to get it into your head. Another thing is that when everybody’s playing together, it creates a whole different atmosphere from a bluegrass session. Instead of the spotlight focusing on people individually (and putting pressure on every individual to play well when their time comes and everybody else is looking at them), in an old-time session everybody can just relax and PLAY. Everybody pulls together, and it’s a group effort, and a strong sound.

The players often take turns suggesting tunes. Whenever this session threatened to hit a slow spell, I’d suggest one of my old-time favorites, not much known in bluegrass: “Cowboy’s Dream”, “Old Mother Flanagan”, and others. But most of the time I just sat there and played and enjoyed learning new tunes. Ten minutes at a time. It was good, and I went for about three hours before calling it a long day.

If you ever have a chance to participate in an old-time session, go and have yourself a good time in a different atmosphere. It’s a great chance to learn.

Now, back to our Murphy Method telephone sale! I’m packing DVDs as fast as I can!

Red

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New tunes, okay. How about your old tunes?

Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010

Red Henry

When you’re learning to play, or even after you’ve been playing for a long time, there’s a natural tendency to play your newest tunes. After all, they’re new and much more exciting than your OLD ones. But you can get bored if you only play the tunes you learned most recently, and your musical skills can suffer.

When you’re practicing, or even when you’re picking with other folks, remember to play your old tunes too. This does several good things. Among them: (1) You keep your fingers playing a wider variety of licks and melodies. (2) Your friends will enjoy the variety when you dig up a tune from the past. (3) You have the pleasure of re-discovering a great tune or song you’d almost forgotten.

But one of the best things about picking your old tunes, is that it keeps your brain working. If you play just half a dozen or so songs all the time, it’s easy to get into a musical rut and stay there for years. Instead, consciously go back and find tunes and songs you used to play. Keep learning new tunes too. Go through our Slow Jam DVDs and remember some songs you used to like. Your brain will like it, and your picking friends will thank you for it!

Red

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