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)
Which key is In the Gallery on the first Dire Straits CD? Am or Bbm?
Posted in: Misc,MK guitar style and licks by Ingo on June 30, 2009
The song In the Gallery of Dire Straits’ first album seems to be in a strange key. The official songbooks transcribe it in the key of Bbm. On all live versions Dire Straits played it in Am. So, why is this?
If you listen carefully to the CD version and and try to play along with your guitar, you will notice that Bbm seems to work better than Am, but still is not perfectly in tune with the recording. The reason is that apparently In the Gallery was played and recorded in Am, but then it was for some reason decided to speed it up a bit. In other words, the pitch/speed control on the master tape machine must have been turned up a bit, probably because the recorded version was regarded as too slow. (The theoretical second explanation that they simply tuned all guitars a bit higher does not really make sense to me.)
For this reason it is also higher than standard tuning, about 3 – 4 % (Bbm is a semi-tone higher and would equal about 5 -6 % speed increase). Today there are computer algorithms (called time shifting) which allow to change the speed of a recording without altering pitch, but nothing like this was availaible in 1978 (and even today these algorithms often create audible artefacts like distortion or a weird sound).
You can easily revert this change and reduce the speed with a computer algorithm so that the song is Am again – the same speed and pitch it was recorded at. I did this for you, so here is In the Gallery as it was really played.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
The difference is subtle of course but still clearly audible. The voice sounds deeper and fuller, also the guitar sound changes a bit and appears darker. It is also a question of taste which one you like better and which one you regard as more original – the one as it was really played, or the one with the intentional artistic change. You can leave a comment (even without registering or leaving an email) to let me/us know what you think about it.
"Buy me a beer" - donate for the site via PayPal. Or buy a backing track in my online shop :)
Much better in the Am key! They probably thought that it dragged a bit. Good job transcribing it!
Comment by alun — 3. July 2009 @ 19:22
I have already did that on my computer since you’ve talked about this on MKnews forum some years ago. I’ve even burned it on a CD where I named it “In the gallery – original speed”
At the same time, you talked about the edit at the end of the song. They have cuted the riff that Mark plays live in 78-79, you know the double stop licks, juste after he stop singing.
And in the “MK Quizz” (do you remember old time on MKnews ?
), you asked which song on the 1st album contained an organ on chorus. Of course, it was In the Gallery, but no one did found the answer (I did, but I’ve never write on MK news, just read)
In the gallery is definitively one of my 5 top list DS fav songs.
Comment by Jean-François — 5. July 2009 @ 10:38
Hi Ingo, thank you for your article, which is really helpful. In fact I always asked myself why they should play it in bb because you don’t have the open string available in bb. Did you ever think of Mark using a capo at the first fret? But I think your guess is the right one. I prefere this version in a indeed, it seems the voice sounds better.
Bye
Maurizio
Comment by maurizio — 6. August 2011 @ 11:49
Thanks for transcribing these. I really appreciate it.
-Regina
Comment by Regina Jones — 2. September 2011 @ 17:27