Dobro Hacks

Inspired by Jimmy Heffernan's excellent teaching methods, I've decided to document all the little tips and tricks I've learned while trying to play the Dobro™ (resonator guitar). You know, stuff I wished I'd learned years ago, all in one place.

Minors

First of all, the thing that really held me back on Dobro was the lack of full minor keys. The Dobro is traditionally tuned GBDGBD, which makes for a full and robust G chord. And full and robust major chords with a straight bar all up and down the neck. Generally Dobro-ists "fake" the minors by avoiding playing the 2nd and 5th strings. This is ok for playing accents or behind a singer, but for a full, robust minor chord I've gone to the Greg Booth tuning EBDGBD. I've found that I rarely use the lower G string when picking "breaks" or leads, so retuning G down to E gives you a powerful Em chord when strumming the thickest four strings. And if you tilt-fret the bar on the second fret of the D string you can play EBEGBD which is a great Em chord. And if you strum all 6 strings while fretting the 4th string 2nd fret you get an Em7 chord.

Then your Relative minors are all up and down the fretboard. Play a C chord at the 5th fret, thinnest 4-5 strings, play and Am at the 5th fret thickest 4-5 strings. D-Bm at 7, E-C#m at 9, F-Dm at 10.

You can play a haunting Bm by playing x-x-4-4-0-0. Wayfaring Stranger is excellent played in Bm open like this because the other big minor chord is Em, and if you're in EBDGBD, you can hammer-on the 1st string second fret for a powerful high E note. I often hammer-on the high E, then rake my bar back to the 4th string, second fret and complete the chord with a thumb-strum on the thick strings.

EBDGBD

I learned this tuning from Greg Booth, a great Dobro/Steel/banjo player from Alaska. I use it for the minors, natch, but I also play alot of songs in the key of E. The straight bar at 9th fret E always underwhelmed me, but while in EBDGBD tuning you can fret the G# note on the 1st fret, 3rd string. Playing the open E sixth string, open B 5th, fretted 3rd string at the 1st fret and open B second string give a good approximation of an full E chord. And if you strum through and catch the bottom D string, you've played an E7 chord. Hammering on the 3rd string 1st fret gives a cool Johnny Cash/Folsom Prison vibe, even if you can't Folsom Prison as cool as Greg.

Also, while playing Wayfaring Stranger in Bm, there's an F#7 chord in the chorus. Easy enough to slide up to the 11th fret but even better, with EBDGBD tuning, you can lay your bar across at the second fret and pinch the 6th 4th and 3rd strings (F#, E & A). Gives a nice quick F#7 without alot of left hand movement.

Licks over all chords

Everybody's got a bag of G licks.. maybe even some cool C licks or D licks... but what do you do when you're playing in G and the chord progression goes to Am or Bm? The good news is, do nothing but G licks! It's a little hard to explain in text, but every G lick you know will work over all the chords in the G Major scale. All you have to do is change the LAST NOTE of the lick, to be a chord tone of the chord being played. This requires that you know the three notes that make up the chords you're matching, and where they are on the neck of course.

Cadd9

Those who play standard guitar, especially modern country, will recognize the Cadd9 chord used by Chris Stapleton and a ton of other performers. When making a regular C chord, you use the 1st 3rd and 5th notes of the scale, C E & G. Well a C ADD 9 is as simple as it sounds, you just add the ninth note of the scale, D (C is the octave 8th, D next at 9). So to make a Cadd9 chord on Dobro, let the 1st string (D) ring free while barring the 5th fret on the other strings. x 5 5 5 5 0.

7th Chords

Some of the most interesting chords are 7th chords that build tension. Sometimes finding them is a challenge, since the flatted 7th note is two frets behind the tonic note.. hard to reach with a flat bar. The easiest, of course, is G7 because the open tuned G Dobro has an F note on the 3rd fret, both on the 1st and 4th strings. Sometimes, though, you have to make due with only using two strings to make a chord that asks for four notes. Which two? Well, the best choice is using the note that is the flatted 7th note of the scale, because that is what provides the tension. So F in a G chord, Bb in C chord, etc. One easy way to make a 7th chord is to move up three frets from the flat barred Major position and just play the bottom two strings. For example, C at the 5th fret is CEGCEG straight barred. Playing the bottom two strings at the 8th fret gives you x x x x G Bb. G is the 5th of the C chord and the Bb provides the tension. Of course, you can also get G & Bb on the 4th & 5th strings there. If you're up for it, dropping the root back two frets on the 3rd string, and slanting one more fret gives you the flatted 7th and the major 3rd.

You can also drop back from the barred Major chord two frets, plucking the 3rd and 5th strings to give you a Bb and an F, sort of a "faux" C7th. The Bb is what makes the chord edgy, the F note is part of the iV chord and doesn't sound terrible. You can do these moves (up three bottom two strings, or down two 3rd & 5th) from any barred major chord.

Pentatonic Pockets

Where do I play? A nice "Jimmy hint" is to find a "pocket" of notes, no matter what key the song is in. Say the song is in G, and you've used up all your Go-To G licks down around the 1st-4th frets (who hasn't?). Go to the 5th of the key (in this case D at the 7th fret) and define a little 'X' of notes that all play nicely over G. The root G will be the center of the X, and you can noodle around that X and always resolve to the root to sound "pro." As a bonus, if you're playing in G, let the open strings ring around what your picking.. nothing sounds bad. See the "Pentatonic Pocket" for G at the very bottom of ths page.

Dobro Joe Wilson has some nice stuff on his site, and I stole shamelessly from his slant-less chords to make the graphic below. It's drawn for the Key of C, but is moveable with a little thought.