Two badass instruments for your toolbox!

The Banjo and the Dobro guitar

On the Institute of Musical Instrument Technology’s website there is a list of all the musical instruments in the world, the total count is 544. That is a lot of tones, timbre’s, rhythms and frequencies on the international music scene!!

Now in North America everyone knows the common instruments in a band; the bass, drums, guitar, piano and vocals. Two instruments that I consider unsung heroes that can add so many amazing layers, color, soul, mood and rhythms to music are the Dobro guitar and the Banjo. Consider these instruments like the supporting actors in a great movie but like on the silver screen those supporting actors can sometimes steal the show or without them there is no show at all!

The Dobro guitar, or sometimes referred to as the “lapstyle resophonic slide guitar” with its trademark metal, hubcap looking resonator in the center of the guitar like body can either have a round or square neck. The string height is significantly higher than a regular guitar making the instrument excellent for slide playing and they are typically tuned in either an open G or D tuning. It can be played lapstyle with a tone bar or like a traditional guitar on the hip with a steel finger slide. The Dobro is mainly used in the country, bluegrass or blues music genres but I think with the right dynamics, arrangement and production any genre could use the Dobro guitar. It has an acoustic sound but when featured with some guitar pedal distortion it can really scream and stand out in any rock or outlaw country track. For some excellent samples of Dobro guitar production listen to “The Lucky One” by Alison Kraus or the haunting notes it echoes in “Hummingbird” by Carly Pierce. The dobro notes are hiding in many of the Florida Georgia Line tracks but is an essential ingredient that gives their timeless songs depth, dynamics and layers. Check out “Get Your Shine On” by them and imagine that track without the Dobro guitar!

The banjo, or the 6-string guitar version of it called the “banjitar”, is one of the more rhythmic string instruments with a very distinct tone and texture to its sound due to its round, plastic resonator. When used as a layering instrument taken in and out of parts of the song and playing “rolls” under the major harmony structures of the song it can create a very dynamic music production option. The “plucks” of the strings played during the rolls in either 1/4,1/8 or 1/16 notes gives the instrument a uniquely rhythmic nature and because the resonator is plastic the notes do not have much sustain also making it more rhythmic and staccato in sound. Some examples of pop songs that use the banjo in an extremely effective way are “2 Heads” by Coleman Hell or Nelly Fertado’s “Powerless”. Some of my favorite country tracks that use the banjo in an awesome way are Eric Church’s “How ‘Bout You” (even has some distortion on it) and again many of the Florida Georgia Lines songs use the banjo significantly to layer in thicker production or emphasize parts of a song ie: “Simple” and “Round Here”.

Next time you are doing some songwriting or music production consider adding these two unsung hero musical instruments to the composition and you just might find out they become the feature or “hook” in the song!