About Us
Put your hands in the hands of the teachers--led by Murphy Henry--who made “learning to play by ear” a practical alternative to tab.
The Murphy Method is a way of teaching bluegrass music BY EAR. We use no tablature in our teaching because we believe tablature is a crutch that interferes with learning to play bluegrass. We explain each song note by note, so that it is easy and quick to learn. As you learn these tunes, you are also developing your ear, so that learning actually gets easier as you go along!
One reason our Method is so successful is that we work with you slowly, one step at a time. First you will be learning the easy songs, which will provide a solid foundation. Then you will move onto harder songs, which won’t seem so hard because you will have already learned the basics.
Many of our students tell us that the Murphy Method is the fastest, easiest, most enjoyable way to learn that they have ever tried. And the facts speak for themselves: our students are learning to play!
We have a wonderful group of instructors: Murphy Henry teaches banjo, guitar, mandolin, and fiddle; Lynn Morris, the leader of the award-winning Lynn Morris Band, teaches clawhammer banjo; Marshall Wilborn, the International Bluegrass Music Association's 2009 Bass Player of the year, teaches bass; Jim Wood, a Tennessee State Championship Fiddle player, teaches our beginning, intermediate, and advanced fiddle videos; and David McLaughlin, of the Johnson Mountain Boys, teaches our advanced mandolin video cleverly entitled David McLaughlin Mandolin Video. Mark Panfil, a great dobro player and experienced music teacher from New York, teaches our Beginning Dobro DVD. Our daughter Casey Henry teaches on several banjo DVDs and our son Christopher Henry, teaches the Bill Monroe Style Mandolin and Jump Into Jamming. IBMA Banjo Player of the Year Ned Luberecki teaches Start With The Melody, and two-time IBMA Banjo Player of the Year nominee Gina Furtado teaches A Little Something For Everyone.
We now offer lessons at every level of instruction. If you are picking up an instrument for the first time, you have come to the right place. Our beginning videos are truly "beginner friendly." If you are a tablature dropout, you will be pleasantly surprised at how quickly you can learn by ear, the Murphy Method way. If you're "just not sure" about this learning by ear, we think you will be amazed at how easy it is. And if you are looking for new challenges in your playing, our advanced videos should suit you fine. We welcome you to the Murphy Method family. Join us today and learn how to play. We know how to teach!!
Call us at 1-540-533-9785 if you have ANY questions or if you'd like to place an order. We would say "operators are standing by," but, hey, it's just us!
Bios
Murphy Henry, co-founder (with her husband Red) of The Murphy Method, teaches banjo, guitar, mandolin, fiddle, bass, and ukulele. She's been teaching almost as long as she has been playing.
Murphy grew up singing in church and taking piano lessons. She learned how to play guitar during the folk boom, and soon taught her sisters to play, so that she'd have someone to play with. In college (University of Georgia) she played at coffeehouses with just her guitar until, on the recommendation of Florida folksinger Gamble Rogers, she went to her first bluegrass festival and decided that she wanted to play bluegrass.
She learned how to play bass so that she could take a job with Betty Fisher and the Dixie Bluegrass Band. But she quickly realized that the bass player doesn't get nearly the attention that the banjo player does, so she settled on the banjo as the instrument for her. She met future-husband Red at a bluegrass festival and not long after she graduated from UGA (with a degree in food science--of all things!) they married and started their own band--Red and Murphy and Co.
Based in Gainesville, Fla., from the mid-seventies until 1986, Red and Murphy played on the southeastern festival circuit, as well as a lot of Florida bars and clubs. They produced seven albums and two children: Casey, in 1978, and Christopher, in 1981. Murphy taught banjo in Gainesville and when they traveled fans often lamented that they were not close enough to Murphy to take lessons in person. She had the idea of putting her lessons on cassette, so that folks far away could learn the same way her live students did. What started out as a modest six-cassette Beginners Banjo Series slowly grew into what you see here: a boatload of DVDs and digital downloads for all the bluegrass instruments!
The Murphy Method has been based in Winchester, Va., for the past 37 years, with Red and Murphy still running the business with some major help in all things from Casey and loads of technical help from Christopher. Red records and edits all our lessons, duplicates our DVDs, ships orders, and talks to customers on the phone. Yes! You can still reach us by phone! Murphy develops new lessons to record, gives in-person lessons in Winchester, and now also offers Zoom or Skype lessons.
In 2013 Murphy published her first book Pretty Good for a Girl: Women in Bluegrass with the University of Illinois Press. In 2015 she received the Distinguished Achievement Award from the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) for her “pioneering accomplishments” in the bluegrass world.
Murphy has taught at banjo camps all over the country including Augusta Heritage Bluegrass Week (Elkins, WV), Midwest Banjo Camp (Michigan), American Banjo Camp (near Seattle), Steve Kaufman Camp (Maryville, Tenn.), Maryland Banjo Academy, Tennessee Banjo Institute, California Bluegrass Association Music Camp (Grass Valley) and Banjo Camp North (Massachusetts).
She and Casey run two yearly Murphy Method Banjo Camps: Intermediate Banjo Camp in March or April, and our Women’s Banjo Camp in July.
Murphy stills leads her Tip Jar Jam every Thursday night in Winchester, and co-leads, with Dan McCoig, the Wednesday Night Jam at the First Presbyterian Church in Winchester (which gives her a chance to play fiddle). She also still writes her monthly General Store column for Bluegrass Unlimited.
Murphy is currently working on a biography of Maybelle Carter, which she hopes to publish in 2027, which will be the 100th anniversary of the Carter Family’s first recording session in Bristol, Virginia!
And last but not least, she currently plays fiddle (woo hoo!) in her student band the Bluegrass Posse.
Red Henry appears onscreen in our Learning to Hear Chord Changes DVD, but you're probably more familiar with him as the voice at the other end of the telephone if you call us to place an order.
Red--Murphy's husband, chief recording engineer for the Murphy Method, and veteran bluegrass performer--felt the influence of musical giants at an early age. Playing bluegrass during his college days, he fell under the spell of such legendary Florida greats as Gamble Rogers, Will McLean, Chubby Anthony, and Dale Crider. Red never recovered! To this day he still performs on several instruments, but his primary interest is the mandolin.
Bill Monroe, with his knack for getting to the point, once said to Red, “You’re a mandolin picker!” Red’s intense style is something that Monroe appreciated. A magazine review once called Red “one of the most prolific interpreters of Monroe-style mandolin picking,” but Red also writes tunes which push bluegrass boundaries while preserving the energy of Monroe’s music.
In 1970 Gamble Rogers suggested to Red that he work up his first stories. Once Red made a start, he added to his repertory year by year. Those who have heard him tell stories on stage will recall his favorite protagonist, Clermont Hosford, whose misadventures and philosophical pronouncements are as legendary as his name.
Much of Red’s career has been spent with the Red and Murphy bluegrass band, led by Red and his wife, the talented banjoist, singer, and songwriter Murphy Henry. From 1975 to 1986 the band performed music full time, touring extensively in Florida, Georgia, and elsewhere across the country.
In 1981 Red and Murphy built a recording studio, equipped it with vintage equipment which Red restored, and began releasing Murphy's banjo lessons on cassette tape. Year by year they have added to their Murphy Method offerings, and now offer 42 music-instruction DVDs, all recorded in their own studio.
In addition to the Murphy Method tapes, Red and Murphy have produced seven record albums and four CDs on their own record label, including Red’s three CDs, Bluegrass Mandolin and Other Trouble (2000), Red and Chris (2004), and Helton Creek (2007).
You can find Red's website here: https://redhenry1948.wordpress.com/
Casey Henry teaches banjo on several of our DVDs, and can be seen playing rhythm guitar on many others.
Casey was born in Florida, and moved to Winchester, Virginia, at age eight.
Raised in a family of musicians, Casey's first instrument was ukulele. She quickly moved on to piano, then flute, which she played in her middle and high school bands. At age 12 she started getting interested in bluegrass and took up the bass fiddle, joining her parents' band at 14. The next year the course of her life was irrevocably changed when she started playing banjo.
Following in her mother's footsteps, Casey studied the playing of Earl Scruggs with a passion, often driving long distances and camping in her beloved pickup truck at bluegrass festivals. She played in a succession of local and regional bands throughout high school and college. Upon graduation from the University of Virginia she recorded her first CD, "Real Women Drive Trucks," and then moved to Nashville to pursue a career in music.
There Casey worked with The Dixie Bee-Liners, June Carter Cash, the Jim Hurst Band, Pat Flynn, Lizzie Long, and Uncle Earl. She played a two-year stint with Tennessee Heartstrings before forming her own band with her brother Chris, Casey and Chris and the Two-Stringers. The Two-Stringers recorded a CD, "Get Along Girl," before disbanding in August of 2007.
She and her mom, Murphy Henry, run two Murphy Method banjo camps per year in Winchester. She has also taught at Banjo Camp North, Steve Kaufman's Acoustic Kamp, Augusta Heritage Workshops Bluegrass Week, American Banjo Camp, Suwannee Banjo Camp, and Midwest Banjo Camp. She worked extensively as a freelance writer and has been published in in Banjo Newsletter, Bluegrass Unlimited, Bluegrass Now, Women in Bluegrass Newsletter, and Pickers in a Jam, the newsletter of the Banjo in the Hollow Club.
Since 2011 she has lived in Winchester, Virginia, raising her two kids and teaching banjo.
You can find more info about Casey on her website: caseyhenry.net.
Christopher Henry is a musician/singer, composer/arranger, producer/engineer, teacher/learner, currently residing in Frederick County, VA, near Winchester. Chris teaches our Bill Monroe-Style Mandolin DVD, and appears on numerous others playing rhythm guitar. Around the age of ten he started learning to play and began performing with his parents, Red and Murphy Henry. He started teaching a few years later. Chris composed his first tunes almost as soon as he learned to play, with his early melody "Leatherjackets" appearing on the first family band record.
Chris has performed in over a dozen ensembles at venues from small house concerts to large folk festivals and The Grand Old Opry. Following a move to Nashville he played with such bands as David Peterson and 1946, Audie Blaylock and Redline, the Lynn Morris Band, and Shawn Camp. For two years he and his sister had a band called Casey and Chris and the Two-Stringers, which released one CD, Get Along Girl. He has appeared on selected dates with Danny Barnes. He currently tours with bluegrass legend Peter Rowan.
Chris's solo album is titled Monroe Approved. Released in 2006, it features many of Chris's wonderful original tunes, including the much requested "Listen to the Lonesome Train" (a.k.a. "Boxcar Door"). Joining Chris are some of the top musicians in bluegrass today: Ronnie McCoury, Jason Carter, Mike Bub, Alan O'Bryant, Charlie Cushman, and Casey and Red Henry.
In the last ten years Chris has produced over ten albums in genres from bluegrass to rock, folk, and even rap/hip-hop. He has taught students from the ages of seven to seventy, and has enjoyed presenting many educational workshops. Chris currently teaches private lessons on a regular or drop-in basis, produces and records albums, and performs on the mandolin and guitar. He can be reached at 615-495-6835 or christopher (at) noyamountainmusic.com.
