The Murphy Method Blog

Just when I think I understand a lot about how students practice, I realize that something important has slipped by me. This week I was surprised to find out that many of my students are playing their songs through only one time. One time only. And then moving on to another song. No, no, no, no, no!

After you have learned the notes to the song and can play the whole thing S-L-O-W-L-Y you need to play the song over and over many times without stopping in between. What is many times? Two times is the minimum. Three or four times is much better. And remember: no stopping in between. When you get to the end of the song, go right back into it.

There are many reasons for this. One is simply to build up stamina—in fingers and in mind—by playing for extended periods of time. If you play “Banjo in the Hollow” one time, you are playing for what? Maybe 60 seconds? Maybe 90 seconds if you’re going really slow? That’s not even time enough to get situated, to get comfortable. You can hardly start to hear what the song sounds like! Repeated playings will allow you to start listening to what you are doing. It will also give you more opportunities to play through your mistakes, to keep on going.

But an even bigger reason is that if you play the song repeatedly you have a chance of finding the “groove.” That’s the magical place where the song starts to flow, where you can let your mind relax and let your fingers do the walking. And the talking. Where, again, you can start listening to what you are playing. And not just to the notes, to see if you are getting them right. But you can start listening to the MUSIC in what you are playing.

By the way, playing along with the DVD, even the Slow Jam DVDs, is not what I’m talking about here. Playing with the DVDs has its place, but the type of practice I’m talking about here is done on your own or with your own personal guitar player. (I used to pay my son Chris to play along with me on guitar when I was learning fiddle!)

Playing a song three or four times in a row is not a hard thing to do and I can almost guarantee that it will improve your playing in a hurry!

Today, for the first time, we offer a post from one of our Murphy Method instructors, Mark Panfil. He teaches our Dobro DVD. Mark is a great teacher of all things music and we’ll be hearing more from him in the future. He’ll be at the upcoming IBMA convention starting on Thursday and you can probably catch him at the Murphy Method booth.

Hello to the happy, hungry readers that may be looking for some ways to cope with practice. I’d love to offer some tips that I’ve collected over the last forty years of banjo, dobro, piano and harmonica playing.

Find the learning style that makes you most comfortable. You can’t put in hours if you’re not comfortable.

When I was young, I played harmonica every time I walked somewhere. To school, back home, around the neighborhood. I never tired of it. As I got older, I began to practice piano. I had to sit and stare at paper. Soon my neck hurt, my back too. 45 minutes really hurt. As time went on, I played gigs. Two or three even four hours never hurt and I figured out it was because I played without paper and moved often.

For years, I walked around my house practicing dobro. I still find it to be one of the most relaxing ways to spend and evening. One thing even makes it better. I wear ear phones with a CD on to play along with. Get used to one CD at a time. I wore out each of the Bluegrass Album Band CD’s. I changed from one to the next every couple years.

If you’re watching a DVD, Memorize the parts of the songs so you can walk away from the TV. Use one of these neat MP3 players that has a voice recorder. Place it near the TV when the song is being demonstrated then listen on headphones as you stand or walk.

You know, your TV can be your best practice friend even when it’s not on a Murphy lesson. If you are watching a show, you can practice a dobro or banjo pattern. Play it on your leg with your finger picks on or better yet, on the dobro or the banjo with a cloth under the strings. As the show becomes slow in parts, you will practice the picking pattern. As commercials come up, again you can practice. You will need to play these patterns without thinking about them eventually anyways. Research shows, short practice times that occur often are more effective than long periods where fatigue sets in.

Add a comment about a learning style that works for you.

Thanks, Mark

I really liked Patty S.’s comments in response to my Practice Tips #3 and #4. In particular, I loved her #4: Believe in muscle memory.

I actually witnessed Patty’s muscle memory operating outside her own awareness one time when she and Red and I were picking together. Patty had come East for some live, in-person banjo lessons after meeting me at a banjo camp in Port Townsend. When this incident happened, she’d only been picking about a year. (Is that right, Patty?) Anyhow, we were picking some tune up the neck, one that Patty hadn’t picked before (although she could play “Foggy Mt. Breakdown” and maybe “Lonesome Road Blues” up the neck). I was encouraging her, as always, to “just play SOMETHING,” it didn’t have to be pretty, or right, or just like Earl. Just something. Somehow Patty always understood that concept. (And she is very brave!)

Anyhow (again), all of a sudden her hands did a great lick—one that she’d clearly learned in another song and one that her hands had executed without her permission. It was the perfect lick for the song we were doing and Patty didn’t even realize that she’d done it. I, on the other hand, was freaking out (in a good way) because I knew what had happened. Her muscle memory had kicked in! Things were happening below the level of consciousness. Stephen King refers to this as the work of the “boys in the basement.” Perhaps in Patty’s case it was the “girls in the basement.” Whatever. Something was going on down there.

But the girls (or boys) in the basement can’t export their work unless you—the person with the actual hands—do your part. Your muscle memory is a pipeline to that basement. So, you’ve got to put in the practice time doing all those foundation songs over and over and over. You’ve got to commit these songs and these licks to your muscle memory. And the only way to do it is to practice. Practice till you’re sick of the songs, till you can’t stand them. Then practice some more!

Banjo players, in particular, will notice that in Beginning Banjo Vol. 1 and 2, certain licks keep coming up over and over. (This is also particularly noticeable in the Improvising DVD and in the High Breaks and Backup [soon to be released on DVD].) This is, hopefully, a more or less painless way get you to use these same licks over and over. Till they become automatic. Till they become stored in your muscle memory.

Unfortunately, there is no shortcut to storing licks in your muscle memory. Although I’ve always found that playing with other people does seem to speed up the process. Maybe it’s just that you can put in more time that way without realizing you are practicing!

I’ve had many experiences with muscle memory, but my strongest is this. Back in 1977, Red and I had a regular gig in Gainesville, Florida, at a place called Diamond Jim’s. During much of 1977, I was pregnant with Casey. (This may come as a surprise to some of you who still thought “Murphy” was a boy!) Since it was hard to hold the banjo during those last few months, I didn’t play much. Thus, when I got back on stage at Diamond Jim’s for the first time since Casey’s birth (January 1978), I was woefully out of practice. Not a big deal for three-chord bluegrass, but many of my original songs have numerous and tricky chords. And at the time I was singing most of them capoed up in B or C. So right in the middle of my own “Fast Picks and Hot Licks,” I realized, as I was singing, that I had no idea how to play the upcoming and chordally complex banjo break.

Fortunately, before I had a chance to panic, the break was upon me. And I literally stood there and watched my hands play something that my conscious mind had no control over. It was somewhat unnerving! Ever since then I have been a big believer in muscle memory! With enough practice, you will be a believer too!

P.S. Stephen King fans: Have you ever noticed how many references Stephen King has to banjo and bluegrass songs in his books? Particularly the early ones! I thought about sending him a Beginning Banjo DVD….!

Casey has already talked about Practice Tip #1 (Come To Your Lesson!) and Practice Tip #2 (PRACTICE!).

Today I’ll briefly mention Practice Tip #3 and #4.

Practice Tip #3: Always play the song or tune as it is “written”. That is, if the form of the song (as Jim Wood calls it) is AABB (first part played twice, second part played twice) then practice it that way! Do not under any circumstances practice it as one first part and one second part. Why would you do that? To save time?

Several of my students (unnamed to protect the guilty!) have been doing this lately and I’ve had to rap them on the knuckles. (Metaphorically speaking, of course.) I can always tell if they’ve practiced it the “short way” because when they play it for me they have a tendency to leave out one of the parts—without even thinking about it. What has happened is that the short cut has become a bad habit—a habit that has to be unlearned! So, might as well learn it right the first time.

Practice Tip #4: Be sure to practice your old tunes! Yes, every week! (And you know who I’m talking to!) It’s great to spend large amounts of time on your new tune, but when you neglect your old tunes you are eroding your foundation. And, as my students have found out, I have a gift for asking them to play the very tunes they’ve not practiced. And it’s not that I am trying to trip them up—I promise. It’s just that I think everyone should always be able to play “Banjo in the Hollow,” “Foggy Mountain Breakdown,” and “Roll in My Sweet Baby’s Arms” once they have learned them. I mean, these are Basic Banjo Tunes. So as Emma Smith wrote and Larry Sparks and Lynn Morris both sing so eloquently, “Don’t neglect the rose in your garden!” Banjo translation: Don’t neglect “Banjo in the Hollow” while working on “Cumberland Gap”! Don’t neglect “Roll in My Sweet Baby’s Arms” while working on “Blue Ridge Cabin Home”! And don’t neglect “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” for anything!

I’ll post more practice tips as they come to mind! We also welcome your own personal tips!