E m(add9) — Dobro

E m(add9) is E – F# – G – B, and no bar position on the dobro's GBDGBD strings sounds all of it — not straight across any fret, not on any short slant.

When a tune calls it anyway, the dobro plays the part of the chord a bar can reach, or a single-string line through it, and leaves the guitar and the mandolin to carry the rest. That is ordinary work for this seat, not a failure of it, and nothing is drawn here because a grip the bar cannot hold would be a lie.

E is the vi of G, the V of A, the IV of B and the ii of D, so the caller will still count it — the seat just answers it with fewer strings.