Andy Hall with Sally Van Meter: Interview and Jam

Fri, 02/22/2013 - 6:26pm
Written by AW

Greetings dobroists, reso heads and sliders! We're excited to announce a new 4 part interview that Andy did with veteran slide player Sally Van Meter.  Sally is a Grammy Award winner and has played with everyone from Jerry Garcia, Jerry Douglas, Peter Rowan, Taj Mahel, Tony Rice, and many more. You can find the interview in the Special Guests section or just click on the picture to jump right into Part 1! 

sally van meter

Dobro Tuning: A Complete Guide

Fri, 02/22/2013 - 11:40am
Written by AW

Learning how to tune a guitar is challenging, it's even more difficult to find good information about how to tune a Dobro! If you're interested in learning how to play Dobro (aka resonator guitar), one of the first things you should learn is some basic Dobro tuning. In this sample Dobro lesson from the Online School of Dobro with Andy Hall, Andy shows you how to tune your Dobro like a pro.

In Memory of Mike Auldridge by Andy Hall

Sat, 12/29/2012 - 8:06pm
Written by AW

mike auldridge dobroMike Audridge helped popularize the Dobro in the 70's, and  was in the DC-based Seldom Scene, a group that made Bluegrass more palatable to non-country audiences. Here are some thoughts from our dobro teacher Andy Hall on Mike Auldridge in light of his recent passing.

"I can't say enough about the impact Mike Auldridge's Dobro playing had on me as a Dobro player, and musician in general. First, I'm not sure how many people know what his practice and work ethic was like. He told me many times how he would go into his basement in the morning to play steel or dobro, and not come up till dinner. He was meticulous. The care he took in getting something just right really came through in his impeccable tone, and choice of notes. If you listen to live recordings of Mike and the Seldom Scene, you don't really hear any mistakes. You hear every note, and they're rich and full. As a person, Mike exuded class and style. As my wife put it 'he was always a perfect gentleman'.

Winter Wonderland Dobro Lesson with Andy Hall

Mon, 12/17/2012 - 6:06pm
Written by AW

Andy Hall took a little time out recently from touring and teaching at his ArtistWorks Online Dobro School to record a quick and easy version of the Holiday classic Winter Wonderland.

Andy recorded this Dobro lesson from his ArtistWorks Studio where he watches videos his students send to him and records his video responses.

Andy plays the tune in the key of G, the most common open tuning for bluegrass Dobro and uses some of the techniques he teaches in the beginner section of his lessons.  From sliding up to notes, to double stops and single note steel angling, Andy covers everything from the basics all the way up to advanced playing in his online Dobro lessons.

And the cool thing is that players can watch the lessons, submit practice videos and get video responses with feedback from Andy.