Just added another post to Tao of Dobro in which I discuss the chromatic and major scales.

I've been working on scales lately on the reso.  Trying to learn where the notes are on the neck.  I've played guitar for many years and I'm familiar with the notes on the guitar neck.  It occured to me the other day that the DG and B ( 4,3 & 2 ) strings are the same as on a standard tuned guitar.  Don't know why I hadn't made this association before now ( slow on the uptake, I guess).  But anyway, it helped a lot.  If you guitar players are familiar with your chord triads up the neck on the D,G and B strings  (you know "F" formation "C" formation, the minors, etc.)  it will help a lot in learning the scales and major pentatonic runs and so forth.  Hope this makes sense, it did to me.....

why mention the blues scale and not explain it? or at least mention when you plan on explaining it?

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Originally posted by joyfulnoise

why mention the blues scale and not explain it? or at least mention when you plan on explaining it?

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That will be in part 2 along with the minor scales. Thanks for pointing out that I had not made that very clear. I'll update the post.

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Originally posted by larry

I've been working on scales lately on the reso.  Trying to learn where the notes are on the neck.  I've played guitar for many years and I'm familiar with the notes on the guitar neck.  It occured to me the other day that the DG and B ( 4,3 & 2 ) strings are the same as on a standard tuned guitar.  Don't know why I hadn't made this association before now ( slow on the uptake, I guess).  But anyway, it helped a lot.  If you guitar players are familiar with your chord triads up the neck on the D,G and B strings  (you know "F" formation "C" formation, the minors, etc.)  it will help a lot in learning the scales and major pentatonic runs and so forth.  Hope this makes sense, it did to me.....

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It took me the longest time to reach that same realization that D,G,B ( the 4,3, and 2 strings) were the same for both the Dobro and the regular guitar. If I were playing in G and it went to the F chord I would jump way up and bar at the 10th fret. Then I was learning Red Haired Boy and saw the F pattern as clear as day on Dobro just like on my regular guitar. Doh!

Very good Michael. Left me wanting to read more....
Thanks
Luke

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Originally posted by Michael Hughes
If I were playing in G and it went to the F chord I would jump way up and bar at the 10th fret. Then I was learning Red Haired Boy and saw the F pattern as clear as day on Dobro just like on my regular guitar. Doh!

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For those of us who don't understand what you just said, can you provide more detail about how you played the F pattern somewhere other than the 10th fret? Thanks!

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Originally posted by Oboe Cadobro

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Originally posted by Michael Hughes
If I were playing in G and it went to the F chord I would jump way up and bar at the 10th fret. Then I was learning Red Haired Boy and saw the F pattern as clear as day on Dobro just like on my regular guitar. Doh!

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For those of us who don't understand what you just said, can you provide more detail about how you played the F pattern somewhere other than the 10th fret? Thanks!

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Hi Oboe,  he probably doesn't mean he played an F chord,  just a run of notes in the F scale that carried him to the next chord.

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Originally posted by Michael Hughes

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Originally posted by larry

I've been working on scales lately on the reso.  Trying to learn where the notes are on the neck.  I've played guitar for many years and I'm familiar with the notes on the guitar neck.  It occured to me the other day that the DG and B ( 4,3 & 2 ) strings are the same as on a standard tuned guitar.  Don't know why I hadn't made this association before now ( slow on the uptake, I guess).  But anyway, it helped a lot.  If you guitar players are familiar with your chord triads up the neck on the D,G and B strings  (you know "F" formation "C" formation, the minors, etc.)  it will help a lot in learning the scales and major pentatonic runs and so forth.  Hope this makes sense, it did to me.....

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It took me the longest time to reach that same realization that D,G,B ( the 4,3, and 2 strings) were the same for both the Dobro and the regular guitar. If I were playing in G and it went to the F chord I would jump way up and bar at the 10th fret. Then I was learning Red Haired Boy and saw the F pattern as clear as day on Dobro just like on my regular guitar. Doh!

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Exactly.  I like to play to looped tracks that I lay down to practice with.  Right now I'm working on any song that has chords other than the basic I, IV, V progression.   Songs that have II chords,  III chords, VI chords, etc.  And of course different minor chords.   It's interesting to link them all together in different ways all over the neck.  Today I happened to think of "Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground" and it yielded some good things.   Give it a try if you haven't already!

What he's saying has helped me a lot too: if you're familiar with guitar, the d, g, and b strings are the same on dobro- so the thinnest string is tuned different on a dobro but the next three are just like a guitar.

I laughed when you said that about Red Haired Boy! The fiddlers like to play it in D, but when I played it in G, same thing as you, the melody is an F chord!

Finding major chord forms on the dobro opens up a huge amount of territory for improvising, I can't slant some of them well enough for it to sound good on most of the neck, but just knowing where the chord shape is in three places on the neck is priceless. 

It's a short step from there to minor, seventh, sixth, and M7 chords for improvising.

Yeah, Andy.  I find myself orienting  myself from this when I'm up the neck now.  I'm actually able to solo out of the first position now because I "know where I am".   I guess this only makes sense to other guitar players who are familiar with the neck.  I just have to remember that the note on that first string is going to be two frets up.

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Originally posted by Oboe Cadobro

quote:
Originally posted by Michael Hughes
If I were playing in G and it went to the F chord I would jump way up and bar at the 10th fret. Then I was learning Red Haired Boy and saw the F pattern as clear as day on Dobro just like on my regular guitar. Doh!
For those of us who don't understand what you just said, can you provide more detail about how you played the F pattern somewhere other than the 10th fret? Thanks!

Hi Oboe,  he probably doesn't mean he played an F chord,  just a run of notes in the F scale that carried him to the next chord.


Yes, you can play a lot of the chords somewhere off the straight bar position. In this case, it was my practicing the scale of C major that led to the breakthrough. F is the IV chord in C and the C scale makes a nice run through F.

Joyful Noise, if you happen to see this, for a "blues scale," take a major scale on the root chord and use the 7th and the minor (flat the 7th and the 3rd). 

Is that clear as mud?

Andy

BTW, thanks for sharing this blog! Now I have a practice plan that I can live with!

Great info, people are always saying, "what chord was that, Andy-" it's not because I have a great talent for music, it's because I know a LEEEETLE bit of theory. Makes playing ever so much more enjoyable.

Andy G.