Dobro Minor tuning on minor songs ?

Stefan Roller · From: Germany

Hello Forumites, I got a question about Dobro tuning. Being very new to resonator guitar, I don't know if you tune your Bs to Bb when playing a minor song (like for example The boy who wouldn't hoe corn). Seems to be a little bit easier when it comes to pulling offs, but quite sure I am terribly wrong and it's all executed in standard bluegrass tuning. I hope that topic's not causing too much eye rolling... thanks !
Best regards, Stefan

Howard Parker · From: Maryland

I can recall only a handful of tunes where it is common to retune the dobro to a Gm or Gm/Gmaj tuning. Most of the time a minor keyed tune is played on a standard G tuned guitar.

On the tune that you mentioned I believe the studio recording was done on a Dmaj tuned guitar. However, Jerry has played it in concert many times on a standard dobro Gmaj tuning.

Hope this helps.

h
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Webb Kline · From: Orangeville, PA

The best solution I've found is to tune the low G to an E. This gives you minor 7ths all the way up the neck without losing the major chords when you want them, which can still e played if you don't include the 6th string. I use it on songs like Little Wing and Summertime, etc. It's really fast and easy to retune on the fly.

Howard Parker · From: Maryland

That's true Webb but, I'd encourage the OP to explore the full capability of the open G tuning before moving on to one or more alternates.

Stefan is new to the instrument and if he's trying to emulate what he hears then he should know that most of those tunes were originally executed in major tunings.

Hope you are well,

Howard

Webb Kline · From: Orangeville, PA

Agreed, Howard. Someone remarked somewhere the other day how we get obsessed with a dozen strings and 10 pedals and 10 knees and a dozen different tunings, while guitar players get all the glory with a conventional 6 string, and so why do we need all the extra stuff? I agree to a point. In fact, I don't even have a pedal guitar anymore. And it has forced me into learning how to play all styles and to do all the pedal pulls with slants, just like Noel, Herb, Leon, Joaquin, Don and the boys always blew us away doing. And, while challenging (which is why we play isn't it?), I'm having a blast doing it without pedals and with only 6 or 8 strings.

BTW, the MA is really in the zone now. Man, does that thing sound amazing. And I just got new hearing aids which makes it even better. I'm gigging regularly with my MA, and a Remington 8 mounted on the top tier keyboard stand above my piano. Mom and Dad always told me that they danced to Bob Wills and Glenn Miller all the while I was in the womb, and I may not be a dancer, but I was born to swing. Smile

Give Paul a howdy when you see him. Very Happy

Webb Kline · From: Orangeville, PA

Stephan, as per Howard, explore the relative minors in standard G tuning. In example, Open G will work for E minor, 5th fret C works for Am, etc., Start there and learn the minor scale from that point. Go to looknohands.com and tune the guitar to open G, and examine the minor chord possibilities, as well as the minor scales. There are very few songs that I tune the low G to an E for. More often, I tune the 4th str D to an E to swing. They are the only tunings I ever use on dobro.

b0b · From: Cloverdale, CA, USA

If I really needed minor chords, I'd raise the 4th string D to E. That gives you an Em without messing up the G major on the top 3 strings.

It's best not to retune more than one string for a song. Mr. Green

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Steve Lipsey · From: Portland, Oregon, USA

and don't forget that 2 note chords are how lap/dobro players do minors...with GBDGBD tuning, at the open position, you have a BD, which is a B minor chord, and a GB which is an E minor chord - you don't need to play all three notes to get the point across. Even more true if there is a band behind you, they play the other notes in the full chord...and this all is even without slants.
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Brian McGaughey · From: Orcas Island, WA USA

Hey Stefan,

Don't forget that it's a minor 3rd interval between the B and D strings.

And that a "passive" chord of root/fifth/root can go either way minor or major.

And that many minor key songs on dobro use either melodic scales (one note after the other) or open strings in combination of barred strings for chords or scales in order to achieve minor tonality.

You gotta explore it! Have fun.

Edited: looks like Steve and I had the same thought at the same time!

Stephen Gambrell · From: Over there

Seems like Mike Auldridge tuned his 2nd string down to Bb, for a few tunes (Rider?) And I know he tuned the 6th string down to E for Killing Me Softly.
But Howard is right. Explore that open G tuning. Learn some scales, up the neck, and across the neck. Lotta good music in there.

Stefan Roller · From: Germany

Thank you so much everyone... there's so much great advice to be found here.
Best regards to all of you,
Stefan

Bill Mollenhauer · From: New Jersey, USA

So Steve or anyone, Is it better to use a 1,3b minor chord or a 3b,5 when you need a minor chord?

Bill

Howard Parker · From: Maryland

With two notes you are playing a partial chord. Your choice of notes may depend on what else is happening with additional instrumentation and/or what the changes are before and after.

It's all context and taste.

h

Steve Lipsey · From: Portland, Oregon, USA

The advice I got (Paul Brainard) was that including the fifth and leaving out the root generally gave you more of the flavor. This is especially true when there are other instruments going - the bass will hit the root for you, etc. But as noted, they are all just different takes on the chord, and play what gives the feel you are looking for...same for 7ths and fancier chords, you pick the note(s) you need, sometimes even just one note will be right...how's that for a not-very-definitive answer?

Sometimes I just use the chord form that happens to be where I want to play in the neck, based on what comes before or next... e.g., in one song the band does I have an Am, then a C, play the Am on fret 10 (A+C) and slide down to fret 5 because I want that descending slide feel....could have played the Am on fret 5 as a C+E...

In another I have an Em to C, I do those both at the 5th fret (E+G for the Am), throwing in the C on the Em a bit to play the Em6, then using mostly C+E for the C chord even though I could play the whole chord....just a flavor choice.

I really learned the value of 2-note chords when I added in playing pedal steel along with dobro- tuning is a compromise there, and you can get two notes to be perfectly in tune with each other easily, but three notes will simply be out of tune on some pedal/lever combinations...this is true for lap steel also..your harmonized 6th scales are just two notes, and are great accompaniment chords....
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Xavier Baron · From: Mahina, Tahiti

Stefan,

Did you see the movie "The broken circle breakdown"?
If you didn't, you should Very Happy

The actors are the musicians too, and both tunes The boy who wouldn't hoe corn" and "Mountain sand" are played by the dobro player in Gm tuning.
For those who have seen the movie, any idea about the banjo tuning use in "Mountain sand"?

Xavier

Erv Niehaus · From: Litchfield, MN, USA

I have an 8 string dobro that I tune to C6th.
There you have an open Am.

Stefan Robertson · From: Hertfordshire, UK

Dobro minor tuning - E,B,D,G,B,D

I'd have to agree. Its great for a 6 string. But still limiting I'd prefer 8 or 10 strings.

b0b · From: Cloverdale, CA, USA

Limits aren't necessarily bad. They make you think.
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Brian McGaughey · From: Orcas Island, WA USA

Stefan Roller · From: Germany

Xavier,
believe it or not, those two songs from the soundtrack of Broken Circle Breakdown are the reason for my topic:) We wanted to play the songs and I nearly got mad figuring out the tunes... for Sandmountain I'm tuning to Gm, The Boy... in ordinary G. For Sandmountain, our banjo player tunes to Gm as well, B down to Bb.
Again, thanks to all of you for your help and insight !

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