What I mean with double-string bends are licks that are played on two or more strings and one or more of these are bent. Such licks appear in countless Mark Knopfler or Dire Straits songs.

The following video clip demonstrates how to use such licks, and their relation to the chords they are based upon. Note that the last licks (Once Upon a time and Sultans of Swing) were covered in one of my former articles.

Most stuff in this video should be self-explaining, so here it is.

This video is in high quality. If your connection speed is too low, click here to watch it on youtube in normal quality.

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Remember the guitar lick In Sultans of Swing following “and Harry doesn’t mind..” ?

In songbooks or tabs you will find something like:

(play b-string at fret 8, plus g-string at 7th fret, bend g-string one whole note, notes g and d, the d is bent to e)

In fact this is the way Knopfler seems to play it on many old or new live recordings.

I suspect that on the studio versions (both the CD version and the alternative vinyl single version that was released in some countries like Germany or England), he played it differently, like this:

(b-string at fret 6, g-string at fret 7, then bend up *both strings* one whole note, use the second and third finger of the left hand for bending, notes f and d, bent to g and e)

This is more difficult which might be an explanation why is was only played in the studio this way. The problem is you must be very careful not to mute the b-string accidentally with the finger that bends the g-string.

If you play it this way, you can make it scream more, also you can release the bend and both notes will perfectly match the following Dm chord (listen carefully, this was what gave me the idea to this).

The same bend seems to appear on ‘Once Upon A Time in the west’: oy yeah … (the bend, and release it) …. once upon a time in the west”

See this article for one of my youtube videos where I also demonstrate this bend.

Ingo

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Related articles

• Some Mark Knopfler licks using double-string bends
• Mark Knopfler licks on an acoustic – How to practice electric guitar on your acoustic
• How to get that Sultans of Swing Sound – Mark Knopfler played 08 strings?
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• Rhett Davies and the sound of the first Dire Straits album
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