Murphy Henry
Some of you may be following the thread over on Banjo Hangout about learning by tab versus learning by ear. I sent in a post yesterday offering my two cents worth (guess which side I’m on!) and I thought I might expand on some of those ideas here — although I realize I’m preaching to the choir.
As I said on BHO, when I started teaching banjo, back about 1975, I was using tab! I quit because it didn’t work. My students weren’t learning to play, and frankly, I was having to listen to some really bad music. Students were playing stuff like “Lonesome Road Blues” from the Scruggs Book and leaving out whole portions of the tune without realizing it. It was painful. And it left me nowhere to go as a teacher—do you just keep throwing songs at a student when they can’t play the earlier and easier ones?
So, as I always say, it was in desperation that I talked my first song “Old Joe Clark” onto a cassette. And the student learned it better than she’d ever learned anything before. It sounded like a tune! Eureka! Soon I was talking “Old Joe” onto cassettes for everyone and doing all the other tunes that way as well. The improvement was dramatic. By ear work; tab didn’t. You think that would be “nuff said.”
But no. After a while I realized (a slow process) that even if you were learning by ear, there is a big difference in learning tunes and playing the banjo. My students could learn tunes all day long and play them well—no problem. But this alone did not make them banjo players. As my book And There You Have It chronicles, I realized students had to learn to hear chord changes and they had to play with other people. Thus the Misfits Jam emerged, where, finally “my people” really began to learn to play.
Could they have done this with tab? I don’t think so.
In addition to that, I offer my own experience: while I did use tab (from the Scruggs Book) to learn a few songs, I think my experience with “Sally Goodwin” set me back for years—I couldn’t “hear” the timing, and played it “wrong” (although not out of time) for a long time. I remember playing it in front of the Flint Hill Flash one time and he was completely bewildered as to how I made it come out “right” in the end. I couldn’t tell him because I didn’t know! (I guess the silver lining to my “Sally Goodwin” experience is that I can now make it easy for students to learn it “right” on our Advanced Earl DVD. You’re welcome!) Then there were many others that I COULDN’T learn from the tab including “Ballad of Jed Clampett” and “Blue Ridge Cabin Home.” Not to mention those that made such little sense I didn’t even try them: “Careless Love” and “Little Maggie” come to mind.
So you can see I didn’t just dream up this “by ear” Method. I started it because it works! And thanks to all of you who have used the Murphy Method and who are out there spreading the word!
Comments From Students
Monday, November 16th, 2009Murphy Henry
I’m happy to have a couple of emails from students to share with you today, along with my replies.
The first is from a brand new student:
I learned about the Murphy Method while visiting with Casey after the concert at the Dosey Doe Coffee House in Houston, Texas. I ordered the Beginning Banjo DVD that night. I have been taking banjo lessons for two months and not seeing a lot of improvement (maybe I’m impatient). While waiting for the DVD to arrive I have been playing along with instructional sample on the website. I have accomplished more with this method in one hour than I have in two months of lessons. Thanks….
Dear New Student:
You are not impatient. A student should expect to see some improvement over two months. My guess is that your teacher was using tablature and that you weren’t getting anywhere on account of that, although there could have been other reasons. I continue to be amazed that more teachers don’t at least try the “learn by ear” method, although I have been preaching the gospel of learning by ear for over two decades. (I often feel like John the Baptist, a “voice crying in the wilderness.”) So, welcome to the Murphy Method family. Follow the DVDs, do what I tell you, and you’ll begin to see improvement right away.
Good luck!
And now, from an old student, Patty:
Hi Murphy,
I may have mentioned I’m working on Sally Goodin. Your version is really great. I’ve gotten compliments in jams and its so fun to play. I’m just amazed at how you figured all this out and mastered the art of teaching it. [Flattery will get your everywhere, Patty!]
This is a hard song to play in jams, unless of course, everyone is familiar with it! The timing is so critical… and hard to get! So, the pool of people who can play it is pretty small! And this is a song that really needs to be played with others!!
I’ve found that keeping the words in my head helps a lot. But I’ve also found that coming into a break from backup is really, really hard! I’ve recently begun to add two pickup notes (1st and 5th strings) before playing the 2nd string (lyric = “had”). It’s working well when I play with a recording. Haven’t tried it with real people yet!
So, I’m wondering if you’ve learned anything new since you made the video that may be helpful to me.
Hi Patty,
Glad you’re working on Sally! Yes, coming into the break from backup IS hard, especially if you’re not sure when the other person is going to throw it to you! And that never seems to be clear in a jam, so you have to be on the alert all the time!
The fill in notes are a good idea. You also might practice coming in off a tag lick, and leaving off the last pinch of the tag to give yourself time to set up for the second string. That would also give you time to put in the pickup notes that actually start the song (5, 2) and you could play it just like you do to start with.
But, as always, WHATEVER WORKS! The more you play it in a jam and try to come in, the more your hand will work something out! Also, in a pinch, you can start with the LOW break and work yourself up to the high break.
Good luck!
Murphy
Hey, thanks Murphy. Great ideas here. I used the low break to come in, as it is so much easier! I hadn’t thought about using the tag. I’ll give that a shot to see how it feels. I love your “whatever works” attitude! It holds a greater weight coming from “The Teacher”! It frees up “The Student” to be creative and experiment with their own ideas. I’m sure your students appreciate that, as I certainly have:)
Patty
Tags: sally goodwin, student comments
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