What instruments does Dolly play?
She is regarded as one of the best female guitar players in Nashville (even with her long nails, she held her own picking with greats such as Chet Atkins). She is also an accomplished banjo picker and plays the autoharp (which she calls a harpsichord) beautifully. She also plays the piano, dulcimer and drums. In concert, she’s been known to offer a few notes on fiddle, harmonica and pennywhistle, but I believe she pantomimes those and I dont know if she can really play them or not. Does Dolly read music? No, she never learned how. In high school, she played snare drum in the marching band, because that was the only instrument which didn’t require one to read music. THE SONGWRITER How many songs has Dolly written? As of the mid-80s, she had written and published more than 3,000 songs. As she averages one every few days, I’d guess that by now she has written more than 5,000. Of these, she has recorded and released nearly 350 of those (some three or four times), and about 200 have been re
