How to Learn Dobro Guitar
People can learn how to play basic lines and chords on a Dobro guitar and what equipment they need to create the classic bluegrass Dobro sound. A basic familiarity with guitars is required.
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Things You'll Need
- Six-string Dobro, other resonator guitar, or acoustic guitar
- Thumbpick (1)
- Fingerpicks (3)
- Dobro bar
- Dobro nut (if not using a resonator guitar with an extended nut)
Instructions
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About Dobros
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The term "Dobro" covers several different instruments with different sounds, playing styles and applications. There are Dobros played by pressing strings onto a fretboard, like guitars, and there are Dobros played by sliding a bar along the strings, like a steel guitar; Dobros played in the lap and Dobros played slung from the shoulder, standing up; wooden Dobros and metal Dobros that scarcely sound alike; electric Dobros and acoustic Dobros; and six-string, seven-string and eight-string Dobros.
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The first Dobro was created in 1928 by John Dopyera, who teamed with his brothers to patent and pitch their invention: a steel-string Spanish guitar with a large metal resonator, like an inverted, perforated pie plate, where the sound hole would be. The resonator acted like an acoustic amplifier, sending the guitar sound through multiple metal baffles before projecting it out of the instrument. The amplified sound, while metallic and percussive, nonetheless helped the Dobro guitar be heard in a context that increasingly included naturally loud instruments like saxophones and clarinets. The Dobro also fit in nicely with the Hawaiian music that was still a national craze in the '20s, and it recorded well--another new consideration.
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From its inception, the Dobro began being assimilated into folk styles--blues, but mainly the banjo-and-fiddle driven folk music of the Appalachians that became known as bluegrass. Led by Roy Acuff's Dobro player, Beecher "Bashful Brother Oswald" Kirby, and later by Josh Graves, the Dobro player in Flatt and Scruggs' Foggy Mountain Boys, the Dobro became one of the key instruments in defining the bluegrass sound of the second half of the 20th century.
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For now, let's assume the Dobro playing you want to learn is in-the-lap six-string bluegrass Dobro, with occasional forays into western swing and folk. This is the most popular type of Dobro playing, and a great jumping-off point for learning other styles.
What You'll Need
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Believe it or not, you don't need a Dobro--or any other resonator guitar--to play Dobro. You can buy a Dobro nut from a music store that raises your strings off the fretboard enough to play slides. (Remember to loosen the strings on your guitar before trying to slip in the taller nut.) If you want a dedicated slide guitar, find a beater with high action but a great sound and use that as your faux Dobro.
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If you go whole-hog and buy a Dobro, know that metal-body Dobros are better for blues and Hawaiian music, while wood-bodied Dobros are preferred for bluegrass and folk. Start with a six-string; Dobros with more strings have more complex chord voicings which are better for western swing and jazz.
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It's okay to pick a Dobro without thumb- and fingerpicks, but they're de rigueur for a louder, more authentic Dobro sound, so you might as well start playing with them. (The curved part of the fingerpick covers the fleshy part of your finger.) For your bar or steel, buy one with grooved sides and top. They'll help you control the bar, and they make bar slants (which we'll discuss in a minute) easier.
Getting Started
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Tune your Dobro, real or faux, to an open chord. You have two choices: open D (D/A/F#/D/A/D, top to bottom) or Dobro G (D/B/G/D/B/G). Open D has the chord's tonic note (D) on top and bottom; with open G you have to slide up five frets to get it. Even though it seems logical to have the tonic note on top, open G actually has voicings and sounds better for Dobro.
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Grip your slide in your left hand, with the curved tip facing away from you. Your index finger fits in the top groove, your thumb fits in the right-side groove and your second finger fits in the right-side groove. Your third and fourth fingers lightly contact the strings behind the slide; they're used for damping strings, eliminating unwanted noise. Your right hand should be slightly cupped, with the groove in your palm formed by cupping your hand running parallel to the strings.
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First strum an open chord with your thumbpick and listen to the sound. Now slide the bar up five frets and strum again. It should sound complementary, the way a C chord on a guitar or piano complements a G chord. If it sounds sour, check where your bar is. It should be right above the fifth fret--not ahead or behind. Now slide up to the seventh fret and strum a D chord. That should sound complementary, too.
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Those three chords will see you through thousands of songs, but there's more to Dobro than just playing three chords.
Playing Lines
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A slide is trickier than a fistful of fingers for playing single lines, not just because it's harder to play fast but because it's harder to play clean--at any speed. This is where the fingers of the left hand that aren't engaged in holding the bar come into play. To control the Dobro's sound you have to slightly lift the bar off the strings and then lightly touch the strings with your pinky and ring fingers. This shuts off the sound, enabling you to play single notes clearly.
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As you play lines you're continually striking a balance between sliding and damping. Too much sliding and not enough damping and notes turn to smeary mush; too much damping and not enough sliding and you sound like a slow guitar.
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Finding that balance requires practice, but here's a simple rule to get you started: When sliding, only slide a note and let it ring for the last fret to fret-and-a-half. Damp it for the first couple of frets. This will let people know you're sliding without imparting a seasick quality to your playing. You can also damp notes using your picking fingers or the side of your picking hand. These techniques are good for more percussive lines or full chords.
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When you come up to your note, wiggle the bar gently, slightly and quickly side to side. This will help give notes the proper "singing" quality. Enhance that quality by playing multiple notes per picking stroke.
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When picking multiple notes on the same string, bring your thumb forward (or your fingers back) so you can roll on the strings. Try a thumb/1st/2nd/1st/thumb roll derived from classical playing.
In addition to muting unwanted strings you can also play only the string you want using a tip slant. The reason the bar trip curves up around your finger is so you can tilt the tip up to play on a single string. This technique is used for playing against a drone tone--a D or G--and for playing on inside strings.
Chording
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You might think your ability to create chords other than major chords is limited by the Dobro tuning, but this is not so. Many different chords and partial chords are possible using the three notes of the Dobro tuning.
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Consider the G and B. They're two-thirds of an E-minor triad, missing only the E. If you're playing Dobro in a group, you can play a G-B cluster to suggest E minor and let the guitar and bass supply the E's, which they surely will. If you absolutely have to have an E, move to the ninth fret and play an E and a B on the second and third string, or, perhaps simplest of all, just slide up on the first to the second fret and there it is--your E-B-G triad.
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Slanting the bar is another way to get extra chord voicings. Using your first finger as a pivot, twist the bar either clockwise or counterclockwise so that the bar end is over the fret for one note and the middle-back of the bar is over a different fret.
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As you can tell by the description, bar slants are tricky. Here are some tips to make them easier (and sound better):
Don't try slants on adjacent strings. A good-sounding slant involves slanting the bar to hit the third string one fret ahead of the fifth string.
Don't try to play slant chords with more than two notes--three at the most. Things get sour fast with bar slants if you're not careful, and managing the intonation on three notes is a chore.
Get the higher note in tune first, then adjust the lower note. The higher note is more easily heard and is usually the subject of the slant.
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