The Key of A — Dobro

A major harmonises to A – Bm – C#m – D – E – F#m – G#°; A minor to Am – B° – C – Dm – Em – F – G. Most of the country repertoire in this key lives on three of those chords — the tonic, the subdominant and the dominant — plus the relative minor when a song wants one darker turn.

The dobro chair carries slide fills and turnaround answers, the same job the pedal steel does on records that carry one instead. Face-up in open tuning, a chord here is a bar laid straight across the neck, or tilted a fret or two, rather than a hand shape — every diagram below is such a bar position, and a quality open G cannot spell that way is marked instead of drawn.

Learn the tonic-subdominant-dominant grammar in A until your hand goes there without asking, then add the relative minor, and most of the repertoire in this key is already playable.