Archive for the ‘jamming’ Category

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Pickin’ With The Family

Thursday, June 17th, 2010
Murphy Henry

Murphy Henry

This past weekend, Casey and Red and I attended the high school graduation of my niece Caroline Marshall Pate down near Charlotte, N.C. These teenage rites-of-passage have become a Big Deal in our extended family, so all four of my sisters and their offspring were there, along with all three brothers-in-law. Which, I do believe, was a first. This was also the first high school graduation that my parents have missed, so I was aware of a little sad place in my heart amongst all the celebrating. They are simply unable to travel anymore, so we were on our own. Scary.

Naturally, when this many of us get together, music is always a possibility, but since this was Caroline’s Big Day and my motto was “It’s all about Caroline,” I checked with my sister Nancy to see what she thought about the idea of a small family jam. She wisely said, “Let’s wait and see.”

After the ceremony, when we’d all gathered back at the Pate Place and were wolfing down pizza, shrimp, watermelon, and cake (Caroline’s faves) and catching up on niece Helena’s new boyfriend and niece Mac’s summer job, one of Caroline’s friends asked if we were going to play music. I checked in with Nancy saying, “Vicki asked” and again she wisely said, “After presents and cake.”

Opening presents was a bit poignant as, in the past, Mama has always given the grandkids a graduation quilt which they have all taken on to college. (Even Christopher.) Luckily, Mama had made a lot of quilts (usually from our old clothes!), so Caroline got hers. I enjoyed seeing her and her cousins pointing to bits of fabric and saying, “I’ve got that in my quilt, too!” Mama would have so enjoyed that.

As everyone was finishing off their cake, I started rounding up musicians and instruments because It Was Time. I grabbed a guitar, Red, a mandolin, Casey another guitar (she was working on her calluses for leading the slow jam at Kaufman Kamp!), and bro-in-law Mike Johnson (Argen’s husband and builder of my Gibson neck), a banjo. Friends and family gathered around in attentive audience formation.

We started off briskly with the Stanley Brothers’ “Shouting on the Hills of Glory” in G because I happened to think of it. And I knew Nancy could add the high baritone part above Red’s lead and my tenor. We were off and running! Other songs that surfaced during the course of the evening included:

Uncloudy Day
Leaning on the Everlasting Arms
More Handsome Men Than One (Casey)
M and M Blues (me, at a request from Caroline’s dad, Rad)
East Virginia Blues
When You and I Were Young Maggie (Nancy)
Cry From the Cross
Shine, Hallelujah, Shine
Brethren We Have Met To Worship
Do Lord
Mountain Dew
This Little Light of Mine

Nancy and daughters Caroline and Natalie, who harmonize beautifully together, sang “Angel Band” and “Washed in the Blood”. Then later in the proceedings Nancy took over on guitar to sing some of her original songs including “Georgia in the Middle of June” and “Pray For Rain”.

And if you notice a preponderance of gospel songs on the list, well, that’s because Caroline’s aunts were raised Baptist and grew up on the Broadman Hymnal. (I know you weren’t and didn’t, Marty, and I feel your pain.) So, we did many of these songs as “sing alongs,” which is, technically, not the Bluegrass Way, but which I am coming to love again. Also, my niece Mac, who just finished her second year at Yale, is deep into listening to the Hicks Sisters’ gospel project, With Sweet Accord, and has learned the words to most of the songs on the cassette. She was joining in with great gusto and her enthusiasm made me happy. I strongly suspect she will be taking up the banjo any day now!

But we had The Most Fun with the song “This Little Light of Mine”, which for us, dates back to the Primary Department in Sunday School where we learned it with hand motions. Your index finger is “the light” and you wave it around to “shine.” You also cup your other hand over your finger when you sing the verse “Hide it under a bushel, NO! I’m gonna let it shine.” And when you sing “Won’t let Satan blow it out” instead of saying the word “blow” you actually pucker your lips and expel a breath of air. All very exciting stuff to a six-year-old. And here we were, fifty years later, still getting on our “inner child.”

After those initial verses, sister Claire led us into the third with “Shine all over Waxhaw, I’m gonna let it shine.” (Waxhaw is where Caroline and family live. We usually sing “Clarkesville,” our old hometown.) Then I thought we were done with the song, but NO! Claire started in on “Shine all over Caroline, I’m gonna let it shine” and actually got up and moved over to “shine” her “light” on Caroline, who took it all in with much aplomb. And then I thought we were done. But, NO! Claire was on to, “Won’t let Caroline blow it out, I’m gonna let it shine,” which I thought was hysterical, and totally appropriate for an eighteen-year-old heading off for college in the fall with all the myriad temptations that will be waiting for her there. (I’m sure she’ll do fine, Nance. She’s been Raised Right.)

I see I have failed to mention my nephew Andrew, 14, (Laurie and David’s son) and his friend Tristan (visiting from Clarkesville who is my occasional mandolin student and who was completely in awe of Red’s playing). They were both Good Boys and pretty much stayed out of the way. They will no doubt Go Far. (And if you’re wondering about all these Random Capitalizations, I got the idea from Ferrol Sams’ fabulous book Run With the Horsemen, which is about growing up in rural Georgia in the forties. If you haven’t read this, Marty, it’s A Must. He’s a doctor, too.)

Red and I got up early the next morning to drive the six hours back to Winchester where I had an afternoon square dance to attend in Hagerstown, Maryland. And durned if we didn’t dance to “This Little Light of Mine”! How weird is that! I was dancing with one of the West Virginia callers, Rich Steadman, and we were singing to each other as we promenaded around the square. And then, in talking to Rich’s wife Lou (who was kind enough to let me Dance With Her Man), I found out Rich is from Maryville, Tenn., which is where I will be next week for Kaufman Kamp. Again, what a strange, unforeseen connection. Is the Universe speaking? I hope I’m listening!

And on that note I will close, get out of my pajamas and into my day clothes, and go pick up my car at the Toyota repair place. I wanted it to be in good shape for my drive to Kaufman Kamp and then onto the National Square Dance Convention in Louisville, Kentucky! See you in one place or the other!

Tags: ,
Posted in By Murphy, jamming | 3 Comments »

Florida Folk Festival — Day 4 — Sunday, May 30th

Tuesday, June 15th, 2010

Red Henry

Red Henry


Sunday was another long and musical day at White Springs. The morning dawned high and dry, with no sign of the deluge we’d had the previous evening. After begging some morning coffee (essential for survival), I tuned up my mandolin and guitar and contemplated the day. We had a set to play at the River Gazebo, specified to be primarily of Florida songs. We have quite a few of those in our band repertoire, so I started picking out a few. There were some I rejected. “Abraham Washington”? — maybe too grim for Sunday. “Gospel Snakes”? — Dale had performed that one on Saturday. But we had plenty more up our sleeves.

By “we” I mean Red and Chris Henry and our All-Star Band, which includes John Hedgecoth (banjo), Jenny Leigh (fiddle), and Barbara Johnson (bass), all three of whom are great pickers. In spite of only performing together a few times per year, we have plenty of material worked up and are always learning more– we managed to play two hour-long sets at Gamblefest without repeating anything– and we have a good time playing music together.

First thing on the day’s program was to back up our friend Dale Crider for his set on the Old Marble Stage. We all traipsed over there at the appropriate time, and Dale launched into his set.

Now, Dale’s mind works quickly and creatively. (I have already mentioned his “Mangrove Buccaneer” song posted by Ron Johnson at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18-Kt4UKmII , in which Dale’s cat-like powers of recovery are demonstrated.) But after Dale arrived a few minutes late for his own set on Friday, and was only prevented from singing one of his own songs which we’d already done by the kindness of a vocal audience member, he’d gotten skittish about repeating a song. Before singing one of his songs at the Old Marble Stage, he paused and asked the audience, “Have I already done this one?” — it’s a good thing he asked them instead of us. I leaned into my mike and said, “Dale KNOWS that if he’d already sung it, WE would stand right here and let him sing it AGAIN!” – but correctly reassured by the audience that he hadn’t done it yet, Dale sang “Mangrove Buccaneer” to end the set. Good job, Dale.

After a break back in the campground, it was time for us to go down to the River Gazebo and play. Before our set I chatted for a while with distinguished Florida folks Larry Mangum and Frank Thomas, and also met Nancy Crockford, an accomplished violinist who was interested in learning fiddle. I’ll send you a couple of our Murphy Method fiddle-instruction DVDs, Nancy. Then it was time for us to play.

Since Christopher and I like playing double-harmony mandolins together so much, we started out with a fine Bill Monroe tune called “Tallahassee”. Chris and Jenny contributed Florida songs of their own, and then John sang his “Florida Sunshine” tribute to White Springs in olden days. The crowd really liked all these but at that point we were running short on time, so we did a quick guitar-harmony rendition of Will McLean’s “Osceola’s Last Words” and finished out with an abbreviated double-mandolin version of “Rawhide” — not exactly a Florida song, I suppose, but to get five out of six isn’t bad.

Last on our day’s schedule was a set by Dale at the Gazebo, alternating songs with Jeannie Fitchen. We had a good time playing, and listening to Jeannie, and playing, and listening, until it was time for Frank Thomas to take center stage and lead us all in “Old Folks at Home”. What a good day, and what a great festival!

After the set John needed to get back to Nashville, but the rest of us loaded up our stuff and drove down to Dale’s place at Windsor, on the shores of Lake Newnan. The thunderstorms were threatening as we set out, and let go some gully-washing rains as we drove. On Monday, we’d be recording with Dale!

Next time: Day 5!

Tags: , , ,
Posted in By Red, DVDs, jamming, shows, Video clips | 2 Comments »

Florida Folk Festival — Day 3

Friday, June 11th, 2010
Red Henry

Red Henry

We last left you after a long (and mostly dry) Friday at the Florida Folk Festival. Saturday morning I awoke after a good night’s sleep of 6 hours, begged some coffee, and got ready for the day. Again on Saturday we were to back up Dale Crider on a set, this time at the Azalea Stage, and then play a set of our own at 3:00 on the historic (and fun) Old Marble Stage. I say “and fun” because it is. The Old Marble Stage tent is typically crowded with festival-goers who are a lot of fun to play music for.

I got my mandolin and guitar tuned up about the time the rest of the band woke up and showed up at the campground. By “the rest of the band” I mean that we are Red and Chris Henry and Their All-Star Band: Besides Chris and myself we have my uncle John Hedgecoth, who (among other items in his long resume) played banjo for a while with Bill Monroe; Jenny Leigh, a young and talented fiddler who can play many styles well; and Barbara Johnson, who needs no introduction to a Florida audience, on bass. It’s fun to play music with this group.

Chris, Jenny, Red, and John

Chris, Jenny, Red, and John

Along with playing our sets, Jenny was going to enter the Florida State Fiddle Contest, so she, along with Chris to back her up on guitar, went over to the big Dance Tent at the appropriate time. Meanwhile, John, Barbara, and I ambled over to the Azalea Stage to see what trouble we could make for Dale Crider during his show. We all took the stage and Dale was in fine form, preaching the Florida Environment Gospel and singing his songs. Our friend Ron Johnson was there, camera in hand, and immortalized two of Dale’s numbers on YouTube:

“Apalachicola Doin’ Time”

“Mangrove Buccaneer”

(…in the second of which, perspicacious listeners will note, Dale’s amazing cat-like powers of recovery are demonstrated.)

. . . . .

After Dale’s set I went back over to the Dance Tent, where Jenny was just about to play her tunes in the state fiddle contest. She played a couple of unbeatable tunes, and— you can guess it— she won the contest! So now we have a Florida Fiddle Champion in the band.

After some picking with our friends Barbara and Gary back at the campground, the time for our own set was coming up, so we all moseyed over to the Old Marble Stage. Enjoyed visiting briefly with Donna Green-Townsend and our old musical friends the Peyton Brothers, and then it was time for us to play. I figured we’d pull out all the stops, so we kicked off the show with a high-energy homemade instrumental, “Centerville Road.” Then Chris and I launched into an old Bill Monroe number, “Toy Heart.” Then Chris sang one of his excellent original numbers, “Walkin’ West to Memphis,” and the folks liked it a lot.

John was next, and he sang a special song he’d re-written from one of Bill Monroe’s songs, “My Florida Sunshine.” The chorus goes like this:

“Way down in the state of Florida, Florida,
where the old Suwannee River flows,
My Sweetheart is waiting for me, for me…
[dramatic musical pause],
‘way down where the orange tree grows.”

–and John had re-written the verses all about the White Springs festival in the old days! Cousin Thelma Boltin was in there. So were Dale Crider, Gamble Rogers, and Will McLean, and others who had played on that same stage long ago. The song was fun to sing.

Now it was time for a tune from Jenny, and she chose “Paddy on the Turnpike,” a real barn-burner. John, Chris, and I all took a turn with it, and we finished it up by playing it one time through together. Mercy, what a tune! And the audience caught the band’s excitement.

Christoper and I enjoy playing the mandolin together, so now we played a double-mandolin arrangement on “Pelham,” another of his originals. The tune has a lot of spirit, and the folks liked it. And then (at the risk of playing three instrumentals in a row) we ended the set with “Helton Creek,” the title cut from our latest CD. Everybody played great, and the listeners gave us a very nice response for which we’re all grateful.

What a set! Then it was time to rest. Or so we thought… we got back to the campground just in time for the deluge!

This was not just a thunderstorm. This was one Florida cloudburst after another, going on for a couple of hours! Right away there were puddles on the ground a couple of inches deep. We huddled under the awning which Gary had brought, and waited for the storm to stop. But the entertainment was not over yet! Just as the storm was starting John hurried to get something out of his van, and (for the first time in his life, which I believe, knowing what a methodical person he is) locked his keys inside. So as the storm was pouring water down in buckets I was on the cell-phone to AAA, and sure enough, after about an hour a locksmith came out from Lake City, found the campground and our site somehow, and as the rain was letting off he let John back into his car. Mercy.

The rain went on and on, and everybody was too wet to pick. I heard some music over in the direction of the Mayhaws’ big awning, but at that point I was too wiped out to go and cause any trouble. That was it for the night, but it had been a great day! — as usual at White Springs!

Red

Tags: ,
Posted in By Red, jamming, shows | 15 Comments »

White Springs, 2010 – Day 2

Tuesday, June 8th, 2010

Red Henry

Red Henry


When I last left you, we (Chris, Jenny, and I) had arrived late and tired at the Florida Folk Festival campground, and I collapsed to get some rest for the next day. Well, Friday dawned bright and promising, and I secured the morning essential (coffee) to start waking up. Pretty soon my mother Renee and her banjo-playing brother, my uncle John Hedgecoth, arrived from Tallahassee and we all picked for a while to warm up. By “we all” I mean myself, Chris, and Jenny, plus John and Barbara Johnson, our bass player.

We’d barely gotten started when someone noticed that our friend Dale was scheduled to play a set at noon on the Seminole Stage, which is at the other end of the festival– probably about a half-mile– from the campground. We wanted to back him up. So we loaded ourselves and our instruments into a variety of vehicles and set out for the Seminole Stage.

Now, when you deal with creative personalities you’re talking about people who sometimes don’t see the point of making sure you arrive everywhere exactly on schedule. This is the case with Dale, one of the most brilliantly creative people I know. So when we all arrived at the Seminole Stage, ready to back him up for his set, he was nowhere to be seen. What to do? Well, we’ve backed Dale up a lot. When the time came to start his set, we just got up in front of the crowd and started singing his songs! We kicked it off with Dale’s original song “Mangrove Buccaneer.” The crowd (full of people who knew Dale) loved it. And when we had played about half of the set, who should come running in, guitar in hand, but Dale himself! Christopher was in the middle of singing “Tate’s Hell,” a wonderful Florida song and one of Dale’s favorites, and Dale just took over the lead vocal from him to finish out with the last verse.

Dale sang several more, and it was time to finish the show. He had decided to end the set with “Mangrove Buccaneer” when one audience member (unfortunately) told him that we’d already sung it! It would have been so much fun if he’d gone ahead and done it again, unknowingly. But instead he finished up with his song “Apalachicola Doin’ Time” (freshly topical these days with the Gulf oil disaster on peoples’ minds), and we we back to the campground to rest and pick.

Our own set was at the same Seminole Stage at 3:30, so we loaded up again and made the trek. We had an excellent crowd, and played and sang many of our favorites, starting off with Chubby Anthony’s “Foothills of Home” and finishing out with the old gospel favorite “When the Roll is Called Up Yonder,” which I’m glad to say that many people sang along with. Then it was back to the campground and picking until the small hours.

Do you wonder why we do this? Well, who’d want to be anywhere else?

Red

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in By Red, jamming, shows | 3 Comments »

White Springs Festival Coming Up!

Tuesday, May 25th, 2010

Red Henry

Red Henry


Folks, it’s almost time for the Florida Folk Festival, held every year at the Stephen Foster State Park on Memorial Day weekend. Chris, Jenny, and I will be driving down there on Thursday (13 hours, but we’ll never match Casey’s travel percentage!), and we’ll have three days of performing music on the festival stages. Here’s our schedule:

Friday, May 28th: 3:30, at the Seminole Hut stage.

Saturday, May 29th: 3:00, at the Old Marble Stage.

Sunday, May 30th: 3:20, at the River Gazebo.

Of course we’ll have plenty of our CDs with us at our sets, and a selection of Murphy Method DVDs as well –and, naturally, there will be plenty of picking in the campground the rest of the time!

This festival runs eight or ten stages during the day, and a big show on the main stage at night. Activities include fiddle and banjo contests as well as contra-dances and craft shows. Look the festival up at http://www.floridastateparks.org/folkfest/Highlights.cfm , and take a look at the schedules! There’ll be a lot going on. Come by if you can, and say hello.

Red

Tags: , , ,
Posted in By Red, CDs, DVDs, jamming, shows | No Comments »

Speed Bumps (Flying and Picking #11)

Tuesday, May 11th, 2010

Red Henry

Red Henry


As you may recall if you’ve been a MM blog reader for some time, I’m taking flying lessons. Over and over, I find parallels between learning to fly and our students learning to play music.

In the last several weeks I’ve made a lot of progress in flying. I’ve flown solo to some airports over a hundred miles away and returned home easily. Flying solo, I’ve made some difficult landings in crosswinds and tailwinds, and had gotten pretty confident of my ability to get the plane on the ground safely in nearly any situation. But recently, the quality of my landings deteriorated for no reason that I could see. All of a sudden, just getting on the ground solo was a problem. Safety was not an issue– it’s very easy and safe to keep trying landings over and over until one is right and you land– but the landings were much more difficult. Practice didn’t help, as my landings got more and more awkward. So in search of some insight I took a flight with the chief instructor, and he gave me some new angles, exercises, and tips on landing the plane, and now my landings are back to normal.

Is this connected to learning to play? You bet. Whether you’re learning your first tune or your hundredth, you’ll have ups and downs in your learning. You’ll play a tune well one day, and suddenly be unable to get through it the next. You play in groups and jams with no problem, and then one day you find that your fingers don’t work right in front of other people. This is normal!

This happens to professional players too, but you usually can’t tell when they’re on stage. Some days (or weeks) we just can’t play as well as other times. Practice helps, but sometimes, like golfers and baseball pitchers, we can get into a slump, though the audience won’t usually notice it. Professionals just let it go, perhaps giving themselves a break by taking a few days off, because they know that the music will come back.

When you’re in a slump, try something new. If practice isn’t helping, you might even take a few days off from playing. If playing in your usual jam group doesn’t help, try taking a week off from the jam, or playing with some other folks for an evening instead. Listen to some banjo music that’s different from your usual fare. Relax and play along with our Slow Jam or Picking Up the Pace DVDs. Ask your instructor to just spend a lesson playing, trading breaks on your familiar tunes, instead of trying to learn any new tunes for a while. Everybody needs a break!

Red

Tags: , , ,
Posted in By Red, Improvising, jamming, Learning By Ear, lessons | 4 Comments »

No Hiding Place

Thursday, April 29th, 2010
Murphy Henry

Murphy Henry

Greetings from Florida! Our whole family is down here celebrating Red’s mom’s 85th birthday. Last night Casey cooked the most stupendous birthday supper for us, complete with an Italian Cream birthday cake. This morning she made poppy seed muffins. I could make this whole blog about the food that Casey has cooked, but instead will now turn my attention to telling you about the second jam with my newest group of Misfits.

You may recall that last time we had four students present: Zach, Judy, Randy, and Matt. This time Matt was sick (dare I say he was sick of learning “Boil Them Cabbage Down”?) but the others were present along with Kim and Bill on bass. Along with an audience of Zach’s parents, his aunt, and his little cousin.

Zach had had his lesson the hour before the jam and I took my requisite Nature break before we got started. This time when I returned to the room, the students were at least talking to each other. Or maybe it was just Kim, breaking the ice.

My goal at this jam was to get us through Foggy Mountain Breakdown. By now, everyone had learned it even though I’d just showed most of them the vamp chords a few days earlier. (I will have to say that my new idea to have the students actually memorize the vamp chords to these first songs is really working well. Wish I’d thought of that years ago.)

We started out with that tired and true favorite Banjo in the Hollow. (NOTE: did I just type “tired and true”?? Yes, I did! Hmmm, I guess, as my brother-in-law says, “Freud lives!” I meant, of course, tried and true!) Again, I had Zach kick off all the songs—rather than letting everyone have a turn–because, again, it adds some structure and consistency to the format. And he does such a good job. We followed that with Cripple Creek and Boil Them Cabbage. I wish I could report some fireworks or major meltdowns (just for the drama) but, from my point of view, everyone played very well. (I’m sure all of them would tell a different story!) No, they didn’t play perfectly, and yes, everyone missed a few vamp chords, and Randy did have to adjust the timing on his entrance to Cripple Creek (reverting back to his original version rather than the Earl Way he was trying to work in), but all in all everyone seemed to understand the gist of the songs and recover from their mistakes which is all I am ever looking for in a Misfit jam.

We skipped Cumberland Gap (which seems to always get short shrift) in order to get to Foggy Mountain Breakdown. After we played it slow, I turned Zach loose for a Very Fast Version which he managed to hold together until his third break when he rushed through that open fourth string note at the beginning of the D lick and ended up finishing before I did. I told him there was no prize for getting there first and he just grinned. He was playing his new Gold Star banjo and his playing has really taken a jump since he moved up from his starter instrument.

We had just enough time left to slide in I Saw The Light, which we did as an instrumental. So all in all, we got through five songs. And a great big Thank You to Bill, whose bass playing was a welcome addition.

I am so proud of all these students not only for the hard work they do on their own time, but for their willingness come to out and lay it all on the line (as the Kendalls sang in “The Pittsburgh Stealers”) in front of the other students. As the old gospel song says, “There’s no hiding place down here!”

And now it’s time for Casey and me (not I!) to take a beach walk. Wish you were here!

Tags:
Posted in By Murphy, jamming | 1 Comment »

Find that Common Ground

Wednesday, April 28th, 2010
Red Henry

Red Henry

As you may have been informed by now on this blog, we’re at the beach for a week. We made excellent arrangements for the Murphy Method orders to be taken care of back in Winchester, and here we are at the Florida seashore for several days. Life is hard.

Along with relaxing and getting enough sleep, one thing we do on vacation is pick. In the last two days we’re had several excellent picking sessions, the participants being (at various times and in different combinations) myself, Murphy, Casey, Christopher, my banjo-playing uncle John Hedgecoth, and Chris’s fiddle-playing girlfriend Jenny. The music’s been good, and it’s been a big help in getting in shape for shows we’re playing next weekend.

What songs do we play when we pick, and how do we go about it? Well, for one thing, since all the people here have known each other for a long time, we know quite a few of each others’ favorite songs and tunes, and we’re never at a loss for what to play. The material this week seems to be ranging from Bill Monroe, through lots of Chris’s original material (and mine too), to the Stanley Brothers. And we like the hard-core stuff. But just what does that mean?

Well, in the case of Bill Monroe material, it means that we’re not likely to play Uncle Pen or Love Come Home, but instead we’d play more intense, lesser-known things like Stoney Lonesome, On and On, and Brown County Breakdown. On the Stanley side, we’re not likely to play How Mountain Girls Can Love or Clinch Mountain Backstep (even though we really like those numbers), but instead we might pick Hard Times or sing Mother No Longer Awaits Me at Home. Maybe even Hey, Hey, Hey. Or even Please Papa, Don’t Whip Little Benny, one of the most cheerful numbers we know. It just depends on how far we want to get into the “deep catalog,” as they call it.

But what I was saying all this for was to point out that every jam session has its natural material. The people in each picking circle have a natural kind of bluegrass they like to play and are best at playing, and it’s very sensible and polite to find a “common ground” and play that kind of music when you’re with that group. You wouldn’t get into a newgrass session and try to sing hard-core three-chord numbers with complex harmonies, like Your Selfish Heart or I’m Waiting to Hear You Call Me Darling. You wouldn’t get into a beginning or intermediate-level session and try to play complex or obscure tunes, even if they are your favorites. Murphy Method students may play their favorite selections from our Slow Jam with Murphy and Casey or Picking Up the Pace DVDs. Suit your song-suggestions to the folks you’re with. The music will sound better, the musicians will be happier, and everybody will look forward to the next time! Find that Common Ground.

Posted in By Red, jamming | 1 Comment »

Passing off the Break in a Jam

Monday, April 26th, 2010
Casey Henry

Casey Henry

I have been holding an almost regular student jam at my house for a few months now. Most weeks we only have two people – Ginny and Jean – but on a couple of occasions we’ve had third person join us. Week before last it was Matt, who has been taking from me for years but who rarely gets to come and jam. When there are only two people, looking at the other person to pass the break becomes less important. I mean, where else is the break going to go? But as I watched the three of them play the first couple songs I realized that they needed a reminder to make some eye contact. They took the reminder to heart and looked at each other very conscientiously.

It occurred to me that what many students don’t realize when we tell them to look at the next person to pass off the break, is that you don’t have to wait until the END of your break to look at that person. You can make that eye contact at ANY point during your break (though probably sometime after the halfway point), just long enough to confirm that the next person is going to take over from you. Of course, this requires that the next jammer be paying attention to the person who is playing lead – if not looking at them directly then at least keeping track in their peripheral vision so that they can tell when they’re getting the hairy eyeball. Once that confirmation has been made the lead player can concentrate on finishing out their break, and the next person can concentrate on coming in right.

Tags:
Posted in By Casey, jamming | No Comments »

This Thing About Words

Thursday, April 22nd, 2010
Murphy Henry

Murphy Henry

I am in the midst of learning something and don’t quite know what to make of it. Maybe you can help me!

I have just begun to realize that some of my students don’t “hear” the words to songs. They don’t listen to the words while playing or vamping, and when I encourage them to do so, they have trouble retaining the words.

Now, I am a 100% words person myself. I even sometimes hear words to instrumentals! In the tune “Ashoken Farewell” I hear the words “You’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me” on the last line. And in Monroe’s “Road to Columbus,” at the beginning of the second half I hear “Come and sit by my side little darling…” I could go on. So memorizing words comes automatically to me.

So, my question to myself is: Can you play bluegrass (and I’m talking about jamming) without knowing the words to the songs? And by “knowing,” I don’t mean knowing all the verses to every song, but at least being able to recognize the chorus of the song when it comes up. Or is this just me imposing the way I do something on someone else?

I didn’t realize this was a problem until Susan and I were working on jamming skills and how to anticipate whether you might be asked to play a break or not. I was explaining to her that there are some songs that usually start off with the chorus (Going Down the Road Feeling Bad, Roll In My Sweet Baby’s Arms). In that case, the singer might give the nod for a break after that initial chorus OR she might choose to sing chorus/verse/chorus without a break. It happens all the time. And that in any singing song, the break always comes after a chorus. And it never comes after a verse. Unless the song is all verses and no chorus.

Well, Susan (who is a wonderful folk singer) couldn’t tell the difference between the chorus and the verses. Bluegrass is a new music to her, these are all new songs to her, and she hadn’t been paying attention to the words. After all, she had her hands full learning to play the breaks and doing the vamping. So the question came up in my mind: Is it necessary to ask you to learn the words to the choruses of all these songs you’ve never heard before?
It seems to me that it is. But, as I say, maybe that’s just me. After all, we all play instrumentals fine without hearing any words. But what happens when someone asks you to kick off a singing song you can’t quite remember? I always use the words to get me on track. Maybe it’s possible to recall a melody without the words. I simply don’t know.

Can I get some feedback from all y’all? What are your thoughts? Anybody else having trouble remembering words to songs? Anybody doing just fine without knowing the words? Talk to me, folks!

Tags: ,
Posted in By Murphy, jamming | 15 Comments »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »