Family learning dobro, ukulele, and guitar

Homespun Tapes series of book + CD lessons called All-Star Bluegrasss Jam Along, with separate books for guitar, mandolin, banjo, fiddle, & bass, all with the same songs and all inter-related. At least, that's what I started to say...

Then realized that there's no dobro specialty, so you're probably on your own to interpret that from the guitar version. (Or depending on your tuning, maybe the banjo version? 5-string is normally tuned, I think, to G-D-G-B-D low-to high, although that first, short "low" G is normally tuned way up, to an octave higher than the other G string; same as guitar 1st-string/3rd-fret.)

No ukulele either, but that might also be interpreted from the guitar lessons. Uke is tuned like a guitar capoed at the 5th fret (again with that low "D" string =actually I guess it's a G= tuned high), so you'd need to transpose any music up a 4th or down a 5th. While that may seem complicated, for chording it just means that playing, say, the G, C, & D7 guitar chord SHAPES on uke results in the SOUND of the C, F, & G7 chords, all nicely compatible. Ukelele chord shapes ARE the same as the 4 high strings of guitar chord shapes, just transposed.

By the way, while TABLATURE varies between instruments, actual sheet-music, in standard notation, is the same for all. If you're currently learning to read music, adapting becomes much easier. (Lots of mandolin players would rather work from violin arrangements than those written specifically -and maybe simplified- for mando).

Homespun has other "jam along" DVDs, not so much intended to teach a specific instrument as to teach song structure & communication, easing you into playing with others. All of these a geared toward the more basic type of song that you're looking for.

Sounds like a great family project. Good luck!

- Ed