Dobro
Dobro, level 1— Get ready to unlock the secrets of the most mysterious and metallic instrument in bluegrass! We’ll start off in the most common keys and learn some chord-based ideas for getting around the fretboard. We’ll work on easy patterns for remembering scales, and how to use those scales to make great Dobro music. We’ll cover slides, hammer-ons, and pull-offs, and make sure you have good overall bar technique. You’ll learn exercises to improve tone, pitch, and speed; picking techniques such as rolls and single-string playing; ideas for building your own solo from the ground up; and how to play back-up with chords, rhythm chops, rolls, and fills. You’ll leave the workshop knowing how to make some nice musical sounds on your Dobro, and you’ll know what to practice to get to the next level. Tab will be provided.
Prerequisites: Preferably, an advanced-beginner player listens to a lot of bluegrass Dobro music, plays in open G tuning (from high to low: DBGDBG), is comfortable wearing fingerpicks and a thumb pick and fretting the strings with a bar, knows the names of straight-bar chord positions (C = 5th fret, D=7th fret, etc.), and has started to learn some licks, scales, and/or tunes. As for music theory, the only prerequisite is that you know how to sing “Do-re-mi.” If you’re not sure you’re ready for the workshop, try to get a couple of lessons or study with an instructional DVD before camp. Bring your Dobro, extra strings, a Dobro slide (beveled ends with sharp corners are preferable to “bullet” bars), capo, tuner, notepad and pen, and picks.
Ivan Rosenberg has released 4 CDs of mostly-original instrumentals and an instructional DVD, and his original songs have appeared in over 100 television scores including Deadwood, Oprah, and The Daily Show. Ivan performs with bluegrass/roots band The Breakmen and old time/world music band Mighty Squirrel, he recently toured with IBMA award winner Chris Jones, and he was featured in the “New Voices in Slide Guitar” tour along with Doug Cox, Steve Dawson, and Rachelle Van Zanten. He has also performed and/or recorded with Billy Cardine, Chris Stuart & Backcountry, Hit & Run, Greg Spatz, Jake Schepps, Julie Elkins & David Thompson, Mike Grigoni, Chad Manning, and Ben Winship among others.
Ivan writes a monthly Dobro column for Mel Bay’s Guitar Sessions. He has taught at the British Columbia Bluegrass Workshop (six consecutive years), the Puget Sound Guitar Workshop, and several other acoustic camps. He’s been an instructor at the CBA Music Camp twice before, and by all accounts, he’s one of our very best Dobro teachers, and we’re very pleased to have him back.
www.ivanrosenberg.com
Dobro, level 2—This class assumes you have a reasonably good grounding in the basics, so we will focus on a variety of topics at the intermediate-to-advanced level. This will include: improving your technical skills and fretboard knowledge for more powerful, fast, and clean playing, including warmups, practice patterns and workouts; rhythm techniques; developing solo dobro arrangements ( e.g., Old Rugged Cross, Wayfaring Stranger); playing fiddle tunes in the keys of D, G and A, including how to approach songs that don't "sit well" on the dobro; techniques for creating solos, embellishing melodies and adding distinctive color, tone and voicings to your playing.
Prerequisites: Be well versed in the basics--know your rolls, hammer-ons and pull-offs, basic scales, playing rhythm, and how to develop a melody-based solo.
Rob Ickes was recently named Dobro Player of the Year by the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) for a record-setting ninth time. The youngest dobro player invited to participate on The Great Dobro Sessions (1994 Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album), he is a founding member of one of the most influential bands in contemporary bluegrass, Blue Highway. Through the Window of a Train, Blue Highway’s eighth album, was released by Rounder Records on February 12. An active session player, Rob has recorded with a wide range of artists, including Alison Krauss, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, David Lee Roth, Toby Keith, Reba McEntire, Ricky Skaggs, Patty Loveless, Earl Scruggs, Marty Stuart, Claire Lynch, and Mary Chapin Carpenter. His recent work on Merle Haggard’s Bluegrass Sessions has been high on the Billboard bluegrass charts since its release. His four remarkable solo albums on Rounder Records reflect his interests in jazz and blues as well as bluegrass. Even as a young musician, his groundbreaking technique and musical vision mark him as one of the most innovative dobro players in the history of the instrument.
Rob's preeminence in the field of dobro instruction is evident in his published instructional materials (Essential Techniques for the Dobro, a 2-vol. DVD set on Homespun; three volumes of transcriptions on AcuTab and Mel Bay; and instructional DVDs on his own label, ResoRevolution, released in 2008; click on “Instructional Materials” at www.robickes.com/store.cfm for more information), his numerous teaching credits at camps including Sore Fingers (UK), NashCamp and Wintergrass Academy, and his role as producer of the first-ever ResoSummit in Nashville in Nov. 2007, a 3-day, 80-participant event including a "who's who" cast of dobro instructors (Rob Ickes, Mike Auldridge, Cindy Cashdollar, Phil Leadbetter, Randy Kohrs, Michael Witcher, Andy Hall, and special guest Jerry Douglas), luthiers Tim Scheerhorn and Paul Beard, and band performances by Three Ring Circle, Mike Auldridge with The Claire Lynch Band, The Infamous Stringdusters, and Missy Raines & the New Hip (www.resosummit.com). Rob taught at the CBA music camp in 2003, and we’re proud to have him back.
www.robickes.com
CBA
Home | About the Camp | Instructors
| Schedule | FAQs
| Home
