Easy Songs for Banjo - So now you’re wanting to venture past the basic banjo tunes. You want to learn the more popular, well-known songs. People are asking if you can play “that song from the Beverly Hillbillies.” Now you can! These arrangements make it easy. They also introduce you to some important new chords: A, B, and E. Singing and chording included.

Old Home Place, Nine Pound Hammer, Salty Dog, Ballad of Jed Clampett, Amazing Grace, and a high break to the standard bluegrass G-C-D-G chord progression (used in Blue Ridge Cabin Home)

DVD or Digital Download

$29.95

 

Notes

The break to the G-C-D-G chord progression can be used for MANY different bluegrass songs, in addition to Blue Ridge Cabin Home: Great Speckled Bird, Sophronie (the chorus), Don't Give Your Heart To A Rambler, Fallen Leaves, I'm Using My Bible For A Roadmap (the verse), Wild Side of Life, It Wasn't God Who Made Honkey Tonk Angels, I'm Coming Back But I Don't Know When, There's a Bluebird Singing In The Blueridge Mountains, I'll Be On That Good Road Someday, Nobody's Business, Someday We'll Meet Again Sweethers, and Gone, Gone, Gone. If you think of any others, please let us know!

Reviews

Bluegrass Unlimited, Nov. 2009: The Murphy Method is the common sense method of learning, used by many folks who don’t want to be hindered by learning too much music theory, but want to be able to play an instrument. In days gone by, young people watched their elders play and imitated them, often when no one was around. In this case, we are looking at banjo. Casey Henry is an accomplished banjo player and, as it turns out, a very good teacher. There is no tablature used here. Learning is by example and, so, we are patiently shown how each tune is played at speed and then painstakingly slowed down, lick by lick.

Murphy Henry, whom the method is named after, supports her daughter on guitar and vocals, so both leads and backup playing can be demonstrated. The lessons are well-organized and well thought-out, providing clear shots of both hands and an empirical example of how the banjo interacts with the guitar and vocals. This meshing of banjo and guitar lines is at the heart of traditional bluegrass music.

The focus is on five songs, all of them standards: “Old Home Place,” “Nine Pound Hammer,” “Salty Dog,” “Amazing Grace,” and “Ballad Of Jed Clampett.” Not only will you learn to play clean, concise versions of these tunes, you will be given patient examples that you can return to, until you get each lick. There is an assumption made that the viewer can already play the basic rolls, knows most of the basic licks, and can string them together. There is a chapter, “CGD Songs” that will help with all of this.

If you want to learn to play banjo, but tablature makes you break out in cold sweats, this DVD will open a lot of doors for you, especially, if you don’t want to get bogged down in that labyrinth called music theory. The Henrys will teach you what you need to know without burying you in gobbledygook. RCB (View original. The review is at the bottom of the page.)

$29.95