Trying my hand at Dobro style playing.....

[hardtdc]

Bought a nut extender and resonator gauge strings for one of my old cheap acoustics, and a bar slide. I figured I'd try my hand at learning to play Dobro style. Got it set up and started going at it.

All I can say is: Damn, it's a lot harder than it looks. It's going to take some major hours of practice before this comes around.

 

Jerry Douglas makes this looks so easy. I now think he must be an alien from another planet.

[Freeman Keller]

 

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hardtdc wrote:

 

 

Bought a nut extender and resonator gauge strings for one of my old cheap acoustics, and a bar slide. I figured I'd try my hand at learning to play Dobro style. Got it set up and started going at it.

 

All I can say is: Damn, it's a lot harder than it looks. It's going to take some major hours of practice before this comes around.

 

 

 

Jerry Douglas makes this looks so easy. I now think he must be an alien from another planet.

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Be a little careful putting "resonator strings" on a standard acoustic.   They are pretty heavy gauge (usually 16 to 56 or so) and are designed for "high bass" or dobro G (GBDGBD) - note that the bottom two strings are tuned up.    This is probably the best tuning to experiment with bluegrass dobro style of play, but if you are familiar with open D or standard open G, you can take that directly to your lap slider.   One advantage of high bass G is that you can play in every major key (which a good bluegrass player needs).   It is possilbe to capo a lap guitar (Beard sells the special capos).

Cindy Cashdollar and Douglas both have good lessons on bluegrass dobro, many others play lap style (including Kelly Joe Phelps, John Fahey, Ben Harper, David Lindsey) on ordinary flat top acoustics.   Slide on in....

[ajympt]

Yeah, I have tried a time or two - i end up selling them after I fail to progress beyond the "cat in a screen door" stage

[BydoEmpire]

It's going to take some major hours of practice before this comes around.

 

Jerry Douglas makes this looks so easy. I now think he must be an alien from another planet.

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He could be an alien... or maybe he just put in major hours of practice.

I was never that good at it, but when I had my resonator I used to like playing with the bar on some songs - totally different sound and feel.  It's always fun to explore new ways of playing.  Kudos for trying something new - stick with it for a little while!

[hardtdc]

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Freeman Keller wrote:

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hardtdc wrote:

Bought a nut extender and resonator gauge strings for one of my old cheap acoustics, and a bar slide. I figured I'd try my hand at learning to play Dobro style. Got it set up and started going at it.

All I can say is: Damn, it's a lot harder than it looks. It's going to take some major hours of practice before this comes around.

 

Jerry Douglas makes this looks so easy. I now think he must be an alien from another planet.

---

 

Be a little careful putting "resonator strings" on a standard acoustic.   They are pretty heavy gauge (usually 16 to 56 or so) and are designed for "high bass" or dobro G (GBDGBD) - note that the bottom two strings are tuned up.    This is probably the best tuning to experiment with bluegrass dobro style of play, but if you are familiar with open D or standard open G, you can take that directly to your lap slider.   One advantage of high bass G is that you can play in every major key (which a good bluegrass player needs).   It is possilbe to capo a lap guitar (Beard sells the special capos).

Cindy Cashdollar and Douglas both have good lessons on bluegrass dobro, many others play lap style (including Kelly Joe Phelps, John Fahey, Ben Harper, David Lindsey) on ordinary flat top acoustics.   Slide on in....

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I set it up open D so that it's dropped down a step from standard tuning on most strings to keep a good bit of tension off due to the heavier gauge since I am a little concerned that it could do neck damage. At the same time, I got this old acoustic for under $50 even though it plays great, so if it warps the neck I'm not out anything.

I'm actually surprising myself and picking the basic techniques up rather quickly (after 3-4 hours of practice). I might end up buiyng myself a mid-priced square neck resonator after all. I'm starting to really dig this style of playing.