Tips For Learning By Ear From A Lesson Video By Casey Henry

Go here for a downloadable/printable PDF of these tips. Before sitting down to learn a song, listen to it a minimum of five times. (It is typically played through at the beginning and the end of the lesson.) Listening to it every day for a week is even better. You should aim to be able…

Which Videos Concern Roly Polys?

I woke up this morning to this question in my inbox: Hey guys! Could you please confirm which video(s) concern "roly polys”? Thank you in advance, I figured more than one person might be wondering this very thing, so here is the rundown: The main roly poly video is Kickstart Your Jamming. That is for…

“Pretty Good For A Girl” on Banjo Cafe’s Summer Reading List

We've just crossed into summer, so we thought it would be an appropriate time to direct you to this Summer Reading List over on Banjo Cafe. Murphy's book "Pretty Good For A Girl" graces it, along with three other banjo-centric books, and one about the Louvin Brothers. Check it out! 5 Summer Must-Reads for Banjo…

Murphy’s Distinguished Achievement Award

How time does fly! The three months since our last post here have been filled with camps, swimming, a new mandolin DVD release, the IBMA convention, and one huge award for Murphy. The IBMA honored her with a Distinguished Achievement Award recognizing her groundbreaking work writing the history of women playing bluegrass: Pretty Good For A…

Tip Jar Jam: Keep Your Hand On The Gospel Plow

I've been trying to write this blog about the Wednesday night jam--which turned out to be all women--for two days, but it's just not happening. As Jim Croce sings, "Every time I try to tell you, the words just come out wrong..." [Confession: I thought that was an Elton John song. Google set me straight!] …

Custom Lesson Update

Here are the recent additions to my (now quite long) list of custom banjo lessons. As always they can be ordered directly from my website. The Battle Belongs To The Lord (B) Watch clip. - Gospel song in a minor key, with rolls to sing along with. Granddad The Preacher (B) Watch clip. - A Joe Mullins…

Custom Lesson Update

I have a bunch of new custom lesson I've added to my list and here they are: Big Country (Bela Fleck) (A) Watch clip. - This is a great tune of Bela's. Definitely advanced, but on the scale of all of Bela's tunes, not that hard. Cattle In The Cane (A) Watch clip. - This is a fiddle tune,…

The Patuxent Banjo Project

This article originally appeared in the pages of Banjo Newsletter magazine in December 2013. They kindly gave permission for us to reprint it here. Buy the CD here! When I heard about the forthcoming CD project from Patuxent Music featuring Washington D.C./Baltimore/Northern Virginia-area banjo players I got super excited. The list of participants includes both…

Two New Videos from Augusta Heritage Bluegrass Week

Murphy and Casey appeared at the after-lunch roundup during Bluegrass Week at the Augusta Heritage Center in Elkins, WV, July 29, 2014. "Lonesome Road Blues" was the first tune ever recorded by a woman playing Scruggs-style banjo. That woman as Roni Stoneman. Tuesday evening during Bluegrass Week all the female instructors played a set at…

Custom Lesson Update

Here are the new songs I've added to my list of lessons in the last month or so: Bookends (Simon and Garfunkel) (A) Watch clip. - This is a little something different. Beautiful little melody. Carrie Brown (I) Watch clip. - Del McCoury and Steve Earle recorded this on their CD "The Mountain" Garry Owen (I) Watch…