Blog Post Categories
- Dire Straits/ Mark Knopfler live pictures and videos (16)
- Guitar in general (59)
- Vintage guitars (28)
- Mark Knopfler gear (87)
- Misc (59)
- MK guitar style and licks (69)
- Recording (15)
- Understanding music (23)
Pages
- Contents – List of all articles
- Forum
- What is a blog and how can I use it most efficiently
- The idea behind this blog
- Support this site
- Poll: Wishes for future articles
- Gear on all songs for all albums – WIKI
- Privacy policy
- Live Chat
- Contact
Recent Forum Posts
-
Bridge state/height
posted in forum Gear by thomasfloss on 30. January 2012 at 20:00
-
Recommended gear for the MK style
posted in forum Gear by Ingo on 29. January 2012 at 16:41
-
Welche Gitarre und Amp fuer Anfaenger und Knopfler-Sound?
posted in forum Deutsches Forum - German forum by markus on 26. December 2011 at 18:38
-
Gitarre & Amp mit Knopfler-Sound für Anfänger
posted in forum Deutsches Forum - German forum by markus on 26. December 2011 at 18:20
-
St. Mark's DSP Effects Pickups Debuted At The Musikmesse Frankfurt Show
posted in forum General Guitar discussion by littlemustache on 19. November 2011 at 15:50
Recent Comments
- Installing a Highlander iP-1X – The best pick-up for the National resonator guitar (8)
- Dire Straits Water of Love guitar tutorial (4)
- Ingo: There is so little gain on the amp so that it is not louder than my talking (the amp was a...
- Jean-Francois: very nice article and playing Ingo, well, as always
I know it wasn’t your... - Ingo: The reel to reel – a 1/2″ Teac 80-8 made of wood and steel and only little...
- Fletch: Another wonderful instructional vid Ingo, many thanks. Do you ever use that reel to reel...
- Dire Straits Down to the Waterline explained: licks – chords – solo – no tabs (9)
- Alain: Ingo, thank so much for this lesson which give us a really knowledge of MK technics and...
- Mark Knopfler Signature Strat with lipstick pickups played on Forever Young (duet with Bob Dylan) (3)
- Music Man Guitar Amps (26)
- Ed Goforth: http://soundcloud.com/gof orthsound/david-gilmour-s olo-sorrow Modded HD-65 Bass head...
- Ed Goforth: Check out my Music Man mods here. I was on My space, but it was getting too much crap...
- How to avoid RSI, carpal tunnel syndrome, wrist pain etc. when playing guitar extensively (part 1) (8)
- Ingo: Pain seems often come from overuse, and overuse causes cramped and hardened muscles....
Archives
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
Links
Meta
Tag cloud
TOP 15 Popular Articles
- Guitar refinishing – nitro vs poly and how to remove a polyester finish
- Mark Knopfler’s Music Man HD 130 212 guitar amp
- Forum
- Mark Knopfler’s Sultans of Swing amp – The brown Fender Vibrolux
- Music Man Guitar Amps
- Mark Knopfler’s Amp and Effect Settings on the On Every Street tour
- Red – redder – the reddest: fiesta, dakota, candy apple, hot rod, and more Fender colours
- The King of Clean – Mark Knopfler’s Tone King Imperial amp – Hand-built vintage technology and sound
- Trying to recreate that Sultans of Swing sound - The gear I used on the Puresolo competition.
- New site shop launched
- How to get that Sultans of Swing Sound - Mark Knopfler played 08 strings?
- Mark Knopfler’s amp settings on Fender Hot Rod Deluxe (Boom like that promo, Germany 2004)
- The Dan Armstrong Orange Squeezer compressor – Did Mark Knopfler really use it?
- Mark Knopfler’s 1938 Gibson Advanced Jumbo acoustic guitar
- Ernie Ball volume pedal modification to make the taper like it was with the old Allen Bradley poti
Top Comment Authors
- Ingo (297)
- Jean-François (116)
- Jeff - Anthony (36)
- Dermot O'Reilly (28)
- Erik (21)
- TheWizzard29 (21)
- Knopfleberg (20)
- zach (20)
- Philipp (19)
- Fletch (17)
- Morten (17)
- John (14)
- Jim (13)
- Ryan T. (11)
- thomas (11)
- liftedcj7on44s (10)
- Alex Mircica (9)
- danny (9)
- Jakehadlee (9)
- jude (9)
- Eduard (8)
- Antonio (7)
- Chris (7)
- Eric (7)
- Jeff (7)
The one-man band – Playing both rhythm and lead guitar together
Posted in: MK guitar style and licks by Ingo on December 02, 2008
The video in today’s post demonstrates an important aspect of Mark Knopfler’s unique guitar style: the blend of rhythm and lead guitar playing.
I remember the day I first saw Mark Knopfler on TV in the late 70ies. I knew their stuff from the records, and I heard his lead guitar playing on these. What was striking when seeing him play was that his hands were apparently doing something all the time, he did not pause between all those lead licks on e.g. Sultans of Swing, he was constantly playing something – although you mainly heard the lead licks.
In this respect his playing is like an ice-berg: what you see is only the top of it, while the biggest part is under water. Just like the part under water, there is a constant rhythm, sometimes only scratching or clicking sounds. Something that is there although you are not always aware of it. This is one reason why it sounds so groovy and why the lead licks sound so effortless, and why often it sounds different when less advanced players cover the song with their bands.
In later years he emphasized the lead lines with the volume pedal a bit – bringing things in or out, but it works without as well – in the early days of Dire Straits he often left the pedal fully up for parts of the song. Simply make sure to play the rhythm carefully, not as loud as you would do when playing rhythm only.
I guess this approach resulted from playing alone (e.g. all the finger picking stuff Knopfler used to practice endlessly when not having a band) and from playing with a trio (his band before Dire Straits – the Cafe Racers – had only one guitar, bass, drums, and a singer). When David Knopfler came in with his rhythm guitar, he doubled the rhythm or kept it up when Mark played lead. This way both guitars could be panned to different sides of the stereo panorama without any sound holes. Also these partly percussive elements blend nicely with the drums. A great CD on which this can be studied is Live from the BBC – a radio concert from July 1978 that was officially released many years later.
I remember an interview with John Suhr – the luthier who built his famous Pensa-Suhr guitars – who said that Mark Knopfler sounds like a band when playing alone.
Here is the video in the standard video quality version. You can watch a high-resolution version directly at youtube (click here).
"Buy me a beer" - donate for the site via PayPal. Or buy a backing track in my online shop :)
Hey Ingo! Thank you very much for this article! You did a tremendous job with the last few articles!!
Comment by Philipp — 2. December 2008 @ 21:44
Hi Ingo
Great as always.
How do you do the lick comming in after “and the horns are playing that sound”________?
I think I have it figured out but I’m split between two versions?
Comment by Knopfleberg — 3. December 2008 @ 00:57
Thanks for your comment, Philipp.
Knopfleberg, I think I play the the f on the g-string with the d on the high e-string, next only the c on the e-string, finally the f and the a (g- and b-strings), not 100% sure of it but sounds alright to me
Comment by Ingo — 3. December 2008 @ 07:07
Hi Ingo
Ok, I play the the f on the g-string with the d on the high e-string just like you, next I play the g on the b-string and the e on the g-string, finally the f and the a (g- and b-strings)like you.
Alternative:
the f on the g-string with the d on the high e-string just like you, next I play the c on the e-string and the e on the g-string, finally the f and the a (g- and b-strings)like you.
I cant decide which is most correct?
Comment by Knopfleberg — 3. December 2008 @ 23:32
By the way….
I’m sorry I got so caught up in this I totally forgot to say thank you for your great great articles and your effort in doing this, Thank you Ingo.
I live in Denmark, so overall we are not that far apart, what a day we could have sitting “nerding” knopfler stuff eh ;o) If you are ever going in the Copenhagen area, please write me an email, I would love to buy you a beer in real life ;o)
All the best
Allan (knopfleberg)
Comment by Knopfleberg — 4. December 2008 @ 00:02
Hi Ingo,
thank you for this article. I really enjoy your blog. Could you please explain Mark’s right hand rhythm technique or the way you do it? I’m interested in the progression of thumb and ring-index-combination. Can’t really figure it out…
Than you in advance.
André
Comment by akmoscow — 6. December 2008 @ 13:11
oh, sorry
meant middle-index-combination…
Comment by akmoscow — 10. December 2008 @ 23:51
Hello Ingo,
Lifelong Knopfler fan here .
Always wanted to learn to play his songs.
The beauty of his style is the flow; the way the song just effortlessly moves from bar to bar with no abrupt or pushed changes. It just flows.
I love that and I am struggling with my first few months of guitar learning – mainly from youtube – and I hope that I can pick up some tips from your site to learn to play even a small little bit of Knopfler’s style.
I am 42; used computers all my adult life and now have developed some iteration of carpal tunnel syndrome , so its all the more difficult for me to “flow” over the fretboard.
But I really would love to learn to play like The Knopf.
cheers and thanks
glad i found this site today
Comment by OceanBreeze — 10. February 2009 @ 12:42
Well, I just got schooled.
I think I need to go back and re-learn Sultans. Your website is great, thanks for the lessons and inspiration.
Comment by Erik — 7. January 2011 @ 16:35
Hi, thank you for this great article. I was wondering, in the rythm part, what cord do you play after the D-minor grip? is it some kind of variation of the c-barré chord? I see that MK does the same or similar grip when he’s playing live. I really can’t imagine that it is the c barre, because I find it rather difficault to hold my thumb around the neck when playing that particular chord.
Comment by siggi — 23. February 2011 @ 02:35
It is a normal C (with the e in the bass), Knopfler plays it quite often. No need for the thumb, it is only on four strings.
low e: x (mute), a: 7th, d/g/b: 5th, high e: mute
Comment by Ingo — 23. February 2011 @ 17:20
you could also add :
- just the 8th on the low e with the pinky
- or the 8th on the low e with the ring and the 8th on the high e with the pinky
it is the “G-barré positon”. You can use it for any chord, but it is rather difficult for the first frets, especially if you have small hands.
Comment by Jean-Francois — 25. February 2011 @ 12:57
Dear whoever wrote this, and whoever is in the video. YOU ARE COMPLETELY WRONG. This is not rythm and lead at the same time. this is rhythm then lead then rhythm then lead. However, the guitarist is still in a rhythm, BUT not playing the rhythm notes. a good example of rhythm and lead at the same time, is “nothing else matters” by metallica. they play a rhythm using the 4 lowest strings, then the lead is played on the 2 highest strings. you might say “impossible” but how they do so, is simply by plucking multiple strings at the same time. Give it a listen
Comment by guy — 24. September 2011 @ 05:57
Dear guy, it seems you missed my point completely
Comment by Ingo — 24. September 2011 @ 12:32