Description
In this lesson we're gonna take a look at another traditional bluegrass instrument. People use a lot of different names for this instrument, but most people call it a "dobro". But dobro is actually a brand name- the type of instrument is called a "resonator guitar" or a "resophonic" guitar.
The resonator is what's hiding behind the metal cover, and it's a thin metal cone that works as a kind of acoustic loudspeaker and gives the instrument it's extra volume and very specific sound.
There are two different types of resonator guitars- the round neck and the square neck. The round neck is played like a regular guitar with or without a slide, and the square neck, like the one I'm showing in the video, is played in your lap and is therefore often referred to as a "lapslide guitar".
The strings are about an inch off the fretboard which makes it impossible to fret a note on it. Instead you use a metal slide to play the notes, and because you don't have to reach around the neck to fret they make it really thick and square so you can put extra heavy strings on it and get a fatter and louder tone!
As you can see I use a slide that's made to be held as opposed to be worn on the finger like you're probably used to, but you can hold your regular finger slide like this as well.
Lesson Info
