What Is a Dobro Guitar?

Series Summary

Popularized by the blues men of old, with its slow, soulful sighing, slide guitar has since made inroads with several musical genres, including country and good ol' rock and roll. Artists like John Fahey, Robert Randolph and Leo Kottke have taken the style to another level of technical excellence and energy, often playing fast and loud, pushing the boundaries of acoustic slide guitar.

Playing Dobro guitar involves using a slide made of steel or brass to sound notes on the fretboard, instead of the traditional method of pressing down with the fingers. In these free online guitar lessons on video, learn techniques to play acoustic slide guitar music. Our expert will show you the ins and outs of this unique style of playing, including choosing slides and strings, using finger picks, and how to properly apply the slide to the guitar. He will also show you some advanced techniques that will help you to take your slide guitar playing as far as you are willing to go. Look for the lessons on alternate and open string tunings to experiment with different guitar chords and sounds.

Video Transcript

"On behalf of Expert Village, I'm Reno McCormick and I'm here to tell you about playing the Dobro today. And to start with, we're going to start with a Dobro, which this is a Nashville Dobro. There are many instruments that look and sound like the Dobro, but they all have different names. The only one that says Dobro is a Dobro. There's millions; Bard, Johnson, Regal makes Dobro, or resophonic guitars. They all are basically the same. They have a cone for a mechanical type speaker, with a spider bridge and a cover plate with sound holes. They're played mostly with a bar and with finger picks and a thumb pick. There are some people who use a flat guitar pick, namely Tutt Taylor. And it's played on your lap, so it could be called lap steel."