Customer Comments

These are all unsolicited customer testimonials that we've received through the years, mostly through our website's Contact Us page.

"I have just about all of your banjo videos and two of your bass videos. I have been playing banjo for three and a half years. When I had been playing out of books for nine months I met a player in a jam session I had been watching, he loaned me More Advanced Earl. I learned 'Groundspeed' in one week up to speed. That was my first Scruggs tune. Until then all I knew was 'Cripple Creek', 'Wabash Cannonball', and 'Roll In My Sweet Baby's Arms'. No backup or vamping. So I started buying your videos. I learned a lot quicker than tab. Plus I learned to vamp and get in and out of a break in time. I put the DVDs on loop and play along with the song until I have it right, and loop works great on trouble spots in the song. I have my own group now. We play two nights eack week, sometimes more. Just at restaurants for food and tips, but you gotta start somewhere. I give the banjo lessons at the local music store, and private lessons at home. I just show them what you've showed me and it works! Most of them have bought your videos, under my reccomendation of course. Thank you for a great video, I wouldnt have made it without them!" -Ben, July, 2008

"I was given the DVD 'Intermediate Bass' as a gift after having started playing about 4 months ago. I can not tell you how much I have learned in a very short time. Your presentation is impecable: clear, concise and coherent and very easy to understand! Thanks bunches!" Kate, Novice Bass Player, July, 2008

"I am 31 years old and have never played an instrument other than the RECORDER in middle school! For my 31st birthday my husband purchased me a banjo, along with a Murphy Method DVD and I cannot believe how easy it's been to learn using her method! So, really it's just a thank you, a big thank you!" -Christina, April, 2009

"When I first started your DVDs I think I tried to learn too much at a time and I think that's when people begin to think they have to write things down to remember it all. Then, after I had finished the first DVD, I found out that if I worked on 3 or 4 notes at a time ONLY it worked really well. Thank you for loving all the beginner banjo pickers. We love you - you have changed our lives - there will be a special place in Heaven for those of you who a beginner teachers. God bless you!" -Barbara, August, 2009

"Murphy, Red, Casey, et al, you all are the BEST! I'm loving the banjo and am just now branching out into my first mandolin. The Murphy Method works great on banjo, so, it's got to work with the mandolin!" -Harry, September, 2009

"I bought your beginning mandolin DVD from Red at his workshop last November but was so frustrated at that time that I didn't really work with it. I pulled it out when I got home from the festival on Monday and learned more than in over a year of mandolin lessons from a local instructor. This instructor is a super mandolin player but the sheet music he gave me is very complicated with so many filler notes that although I can play the songs at what's probably a really slow speed and no rhythm (no shuffle licks - smile) I can't hear the actual melodies (Bile Em Cabbage, Old Joe Clark, Cripple Creek, Soldier's Joy, etc.) I would have bought your intermediate mandolin DVD from Red last weekend but I thought I had it so now I plan to buy it online on your website. Thanks for a super instructional method." -jkb, May, 2008

"Dear Murphy,I purchased Beginning Banjo volume 1 in June and am finally getting around to using the dvd. I've had a 5 string for years and never was able to make much headway. Since I started with the rolls and 'Banjo in the Hollow' from your DVD I was amazed at how much easier I was able to see improvement. I want to say thanks for all the hard work and dedication that you have put into this DVD. Having reciently retired I look foward to many hours of enjoyment and improvement of the skills required for the banjo." -Joe, December, 2004

"I just wanted to take a minute to say Thank You for your great DVDs. I was taking lessons and trying to learn from tab. Well that wasn't going well and I was honestly thinking about selling my banjo and learning something else, I read about your video series and decided to try them. Each DVD was actually alot cheaper than a single lesson, and I am here to tell you I now have both your beginner DVDs and your Jam session standards DVD. I have learned more and enjoyed it more than all my lessons put together. Your method makes it easy for anybody to learn and actually be playing songs in half the time I expected. Thanks! You literally saved my dream of learning to play the banjo." -Rusty, January, 2005

"I ordered advanced Earl and Melodic banjo....I just want to thank and encourage you! You have a wonderful product which is taught with the patience of Job. Your smiling faces reflect the sounds and character of the five-string banjo and each time I watch, I end up grinning ear to ear at your obvious love of this music...."Alright, there you have it"...keep up the good work ol' Earl is smiling down." -Maurie, November, 2005

"I just want to let you know how thankful I am for finding your Beginning Banjo DVD. My 12 year old son seems to have an ear for music, but due to some learning disabilities, has failed at learning to play instruments through note reading. After 2 years of piano misery, he did not even want to touch an instrument. He finally expressed an interest in banjo, and I was DETERMINED not to put him through yet another failure. Thank goodness for your excellent lessons! He is so excited and joyful about learning to play banjo, and I can hardly get him to put it down! You have this mother's heartfelt thanks!!!!" -Wanda, December, 2004

"To those of you who work so hard to produce these videos, THANK YOU. I had reached a brick wall using tab, when somone suggested I give you a try. What a joy! It is exactly what I needed, and I just ordered the next 2. You have made sure learning the banjo remains more fun than frustration. Thanks again!" -Ann, December, 2007

"I recently received your DVD and want to thank you for putting together a training program that really works! I am a novice banjo player (at the tender age of 46) and have been struggling to learn to play for several months now. However, after watching your DVD and learning to play Banjo in the Hollow, it dawned on me that I finally "got it"! All of the struggling between left hand positioning, right hand picking, learning tab - then being told not to depend on tab - has disappeared and I have finally began to "play". I've learned Cripple Creek now which is very exciting to me and will continue to play it over and over again until my timiming and speed are where they need to be. (My poor family.) Anyway, thank you again for your step by step, easy to learn approach. I think that people that play and teach bluegrass banjo sometimes forget how difficult it can be for the true beginner that doesn't have any previous music background." -Toni, May, 2007

"Murphy....Thanks for the great work you folks do. You have added a major highlight to my life. I used banjo tab for two years and could hardly retain anything. Your method forces memory and makes playing as easy as driving a car. I kept my tab books to start camp fires, they burn great!!. Thanks again!" -Jesse, August, 2007