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For new lap-style playersIf you're new to playing a guitar flat on your lap with a steel bar, you're in the right family. The dobro is a resonator guitar played exactly that way: face up on your lap, the steel bar in one hand and picks on the other.
Music With Mark teaches the dobro, in open G tuning, from your first tune-up to advanced bar technique. Here's what carries over to lap-style playing, what the lessons don't cover, and where to start.
Intonation: lining up the steel to play in tune (public lesson video)
They're close cousins. Both are played flat on your lap with a steel bar, instead of fingers pressing the strings down to the frets. The difference is the body. A dobro is an acoustic resonator guitar, built around a metal resonator cone that makes it loud on its own. Most instruments sold as lap steels are solid-body electrics played through an amp.
Mark uses both names for his instrument, the dobro and the resonator guitar, and calls the bar “the slide or the steel or the bar.”
Every lesson is taught on the dobro in open G: G B D G B D, low to high. The lessons don't teach C6 or other lap steel tunings, pedal steel, or electric lap steel setup, amps and volume pedals.
If your lap steel is tuned to the same open G, the fret positions in the lessons line up. In any other tuning, the bar control, picking and ear training still apply, but the chord and scale positions won't match.
In the Warm-Ups lesson Mark lays out the gear: finger picks, a steel (the bar) and a capo, which is handy but optional.
Intermediate Rolls and Harmonics are free in the Starter Kit too, so you can hear where the path leads.
“I love the slide guitar.”
“Really, you just need your finger picks and the steel and you can start getting to work.”
“All I had to do was just shift my steel a little bit and it goes from bad to good.”
Every lesson is free with a free account: all 29, beginner to advanced. The Dobro Starter Kit adds an open-G tuning chart and the tab for your first roll. No card needed.
Get free lessonsSee the Starter KitA dobro is a resonator guitar that's played flat on your lap with a steel bar, so it's played lap-style, like a lap steel. The main difference is that the dobro is acoustic, with a resonator, while most lap steels are electric.
No. Every Music With Mark lesson uses open G (G B D G B D, low to high), the standard dobro tuning. There's no C6, pedal steel or electric lap steel instruction.
If your lap steel is tuned to open G (G B D G B D), the positions in the lessons line up. In another tuning, the bar control, intonation, picking and rolls carry over, but the chord and scale positions won't.
No. With bottleneck slide the guitar is held upright and the slide is worn on a finger. On the dobro the guitar lies flat on your lap and you hold the steel bar in your hand.
Finger picks and a steel (the bar). Mark also shows a capo, which is handy but optional.
Yes. Every lesson is free with a free account, and the free Dobro Starter Kit has three lessons that play with no login (Tuning, Intermediate Rolls and Harmonics), an open-G tuning chart and the tab for your first roll. No card needed.