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Murphy Henry is surely among the foundational members of the banjo instructional community. Since she lived in northern Florida, Murphy has taught both private and group lessons, and hosted banjo camps designed to teach others the joy of the five string banjo. Since moving to northern Virginia some years ago, Henry has founded her own [...]
Murphy Henry has been creating instructional video for bluegrass players for so long with her Murphy Method, that she's had to circle back around and re-shoot some of the early lessons to keep up with the expectations of contemporary students. Since she lived in Florida in the 1980s, Murphy has been teaching bluegrass without the [...]
Long known for their successful banjo instructional efforts, The Murphy Method has announced their first ever mandolin camp this year, set to run September 23-25 in Winchester, VA. The company is the brainchild of Murphy Henry, a banjo teacher who started producing audio tapes some years ago to help teach her students memorize new solos [...]
For years, Murphy Henry has been teaching banjo pickers all over the world, in private lessons, at camps and workshops, and with her Murphy Method lesson videos and DVDs. Throughout her focus has been to encourage students to memorize material by listening and repeating, as opposed to reading printed music. Her roughly two dozen DVD [...]
William and Marteka Lake are, as young uns, unusual in that they have received a lot of press already. They are creating quite a storm among social media followers also. Geoff Stelling, a very big fan of the duo, said as much in a Stelling Banjo Works advertisement published in Bluegrass Unlimited, and they were [...]
We banjo players have endured unkind banjo jokes for as long as we've been playing. Always derogatory, often at the expense of our intelligence, appearance or job prospects, these jabs sting the refined five stringer to the core. With Murphy and Casey Henry's Women's Banjo Camp now in its second year, will there be a [...]
IBMA's World of Bluegrass gives folks many chances to meet and learn from others in the industry, both from experts on panels and just chances to mix, mingle and swap stories with other musicians, broadcasters, mangers, and festival promoters. I attended a few of the seminars where I learned things, and got new ideas to chew [...]
For those of you who might be in a hurry, here’s the abridged version right up front: Pretty Good For A Girl, Murphy Hicks Henry's epic history of women in bluegrass music, is a magnificent and important work, and if you have any interest in the history and evolution of bluegrass, you should go buy [...]
Murphy Henry has announced that scholarship assistance is available for her first-ever Women's Banjo Camp, scheduled to run July 19-21 at the Courtyard Marriott in Winchester, VA. Instruction will be provided by Henry and her daughter, Casey. Free tuition is being offered for one young female banjo picker between the ages of 8-22. The successful applicant [...]
Pretty Good for a Girl is the rather grudging term often used in the past to damn with faint praise a female who is inclined to excel in some way. Murphy Hicks Henry, the author, has the good humour to use this phrase as the title for her book subtitled, Women in Bluegrass. Pretty Good [...]
