Dor grew up in Holon. His parents were both amateur pianists, and favored his approach to music very early in life. After taking piano lessons with his brother Yuval, he started studying guitar at eleven years old, first as a self-taught musician, and later with the Israeli classical guitar master Menashe Bakish, with whom he studied for eight years. When he finished his army service in 1974, he went to Boston with his wife Neta, and attended Berklee College of Music. In 1975, Dor moved to New York where he studied at Queens College and worked until 1981.[1]