Easy stuff for beginners, MK guitar style and licks

A plumber’s C chord

What do you think is the most important chord for the average guitar player? Well, presumably it is a rather simple, basic chord that is played often in all kind of tunes. So probably a ‘normal’ major chord, something like C or D.

Even a beginner quickly learns that there are many ways to play even something simple as a C chord. The first version you learn is probably the one that uses open strings, see the picture.

While this one is a favourite of all folk players, the most important version for rock is possibly the chord played at the 3rd fret position. In chord books you will find something like this:

This chord is normally played as barre chord which looks like one of these:

You will soon discover that for the Mark Knopfler playing style where you often switch from chords to fills or to a solo, the barre chords pictured above do not work very well because you  have to move your left wrist quite a lot This is because when playing lead Knopfler holds the neck “just like a plumber holds a hammer” (quote Mark Knopfler) while a classical guitar player holds the neck with the thumb at the backside of the neck /see pictures above), so the wrist is at a different position, much lower so that barre chords become easy.

The way to play a C chord in a “plumber’s way” would look like this as a diagram:

or like this on a photo:

The index finger frets the a string, the pinky the d,g, and b strings, middle and ring finger do nothing, or (as in this picture) the ring finger might help to keep the strings down so that less force is required for the pinky. Compare it e.g. with the following picture showing Knopfler playing this C chord in ‘Money for Nothing’ (from the Live Aid concert, 1985):

And why do you think a plumber holds a hammer the way he does? The answer is obvious: because he has to work with it and this is the way it works best. The same is true for the guitar: hold the neck like a plumber, this is the natural way to do it, forget about the snobbish attitude and about guitar teachers who still think barre chords are what makes “good technique”.

Guitar in general, Guitars, Mark Knopfler gear, Vintage guitars

Secrets of Vintage Guitars: Brazilian Rosewood

Fans of vintage guitars normally claim that vintage guitars sound better than new ones. Why? Some say because the wood is old and dry, or it resonates better with the time a guitar is played.

Others say that some parts were in detail different than they are today. Some of this is vodoo, but there are in fact a few real differences. One of these is the kind of wood used for fingerboards: vintage Fenders mostly had Brazilian rosewood (botanical name: dalberia nigra),  a wood – as the name suggest – from the tropical rainforests. Brazilian rosewood is protected by strict environmental laws these days, it cannot be legally obtained since 1992. No cutting of trees, no export or import. For this reason it is almost impossible to get, and also extremely expensive. New guitars come with Indian rosewood instead (dalberia latifolia, it grows on plantations) , or from some other parts of the world like Madagascar.

Some specs of Brazilian rosewood like average density or hardness are in fact different than for Indian rosewood, also the look is slightly different. As far as colour is concerned, both can be almost black or rather brown, from lighter brown over redish brown to purple brown. Brazilian rosewood can feature a highly figured grain, and  often has tiny holes (I have heard these are in fact wurmholes). Besides it is said it has a typical sweet smell but since I can’t smell anything like this on a guitar, I guess this is rather when working with the wood.

Brazilian rosewood on a ’62 Stratocaster. Vintage guitars often have imprintsfrom
the fingernails where these rest when playing frequent chords like E or Am.

Indian rosewood can look very similar.

Brazilian rosewood often has an attractive grain .

Indian rosewood

Brazilian rosewood is said to sound a bit brighter but nevertheless warm. To make one thing clear: the tonal differences are very subtle, and both kinds of wood can sound fantastic. If you google for ‘brazilian + Indian + rosewood’ you will find hundreds of pages or discussion from guitar forums about these differences.

What is my personal opinion: I have played many guitars with Brazilian rosewood. The problem is as always that you will never have two guitar that are identical with the exception of one single feature like the type of rosewood (and nobody would replace his fingerboard to make an A/B comparision obviously). Nevertheless, I got the feeling that the ones with Brazilian rosewood had something in common that is missing with Indian rosewood. A subtle difference, but still there. Or I am simply wrong, who knows (now the experts can chime in).

Mark Knopfler’s ’61 Strat has Brazilian rosewood – Fender changed only gradually to Indian rosewood sometime between the late 60ies and early 70ies. His Pensa Suhr from late Dire Straits days also has Brazilian rosewood, I am not sure about his later Pensas (luthiers often still have small supplies of it, their ‘personal treasure’), the Signature Strats haven’t.

Guitar in general, Mark Knopfler gear, Misc, Misc, MK guitar style and licks

Audio sample from Hamburg 78 (speed corrected)

Today I messed around with an audio player plug-in for WordPress (the software used to create this blog). In some other post I wrote something about the Hamburg concert (Musikhalle, Hamburg, Germany, Oct. 28, 1978) and mentioned that I slowed it down to the original speed (the concert around in some fan hubs or on torrent trackers runs almost ridiculously fast), so I added the audio player with a sample song from this legendary concert. See the original post (click here), I added the audio player below the pictures (so you have something to look at while listening).

The song I selected is Lions. Note how the sound changes when Mark switches between bridge and middle pick-ups to middle pick-up for the solos. He used the ’61 red Strat with the rosewood neck (#68354) on probably all concerts in late 78 (see this post for more about this).

Enjoy!

Guitar in general, Misc, MK guitar style and licks, Understanding music

Zen and the art of playing the guitar

Zen – a word sometimes heard, but only rarely explained. Those who practice Zen say that “Zen is what cannot be explained” – not really helpful. So what is it, what does it have to do with art, and what with playing the guitar?

Basically Zen is a Japanese form of Buddhism. It is not a religion – you don’t have to believe in any gods or in Buddha. Instead it has something to do with a particular state of mind. It is this state of mind that is the ultimate aim – it is finally the way to what Buddhists call enlightenment.

Take a look at the following three pictures that all have to do with Zen.

MK picture courtesy of lukas

So, what do these have in common? The Zen mind is characterized by clearness, simplicity, and mindfulness. The monks who work in a Zen garden do this to practice concentration, combined with a certain kind of relaxation. They concentrate on all the details in their garden, on the sand, on those tiny pebbles, on the plants. Concentration is also essential for the sword fighter, one tiny moment of unawareness might result in his death in a fight. And the guitar player – not all, but at least the one pictured here 😉 – performs a piece of art where also each tiny detail matters, everything is important: each single note can be made to sound perfect by concentration, the attack matters, he volume, the vibrato, the song itself of course, simply everything.

Just like the Zen garden must not look overcrowded but open and simple instead, a piece of music should be clearly structured and should have enough open space, so better leave out this killer guitar solo, leave out that complex rhythm fill, leave out things that are not required and disturb the peaceful flow of the music.

Zen focusses on the things “as they are” and concentration is the gate to being aware of the world around you. Never think about the past, which is over anyway, never think about the future, which is totally open and outside your control. Instead live in the now, in the very moment.

One essential way to build up such concentration is meditation. Meditation basically combines relaxation and concentration to enter a different state of mind. All Zen masters practised meditation for thousands of hours in their life. What about our guitar player? Am I to say he also meditated a lot in his life? Well, there are thousand different kinds of meditation: pay attention to your breathing, pay attention to your interior, or to each step you do when walking slowly around, to everything around you, to the right way of standing and holding a sword, or to sit for hours and play the guitar. It is the concentration, always combined with relaxation, that matters. And yes, practicing your guitar in a particular way can be regarded as meditation, and I am sure it can have similar results as conventional sitting meditation.

Modern psychologist have a new term for this state of mind, they call it “flow”. Doing some kinds of work can under certain circumstances lead to this flow. You feel one with the world around you, your thoughts stay in the focus on what you are doing, and you feel perfectly happy.

The next time you practice your guitar you might also concentrate on things you normally are not aware of, like your body posture (very important for your energy flow and thus for your ability to concentrate), your breathing, (even and deep breathing leads to relaxation which is required for more concentration) or technical things like the perfect vibrato, more dynamics and attack control, and not on things like getting faster or louder.

Keeping up the concentration level seems to be very hard at first, so you might say it is impossible to be aware of all these things all the time. However, you might find out that the longer you concentrate, the easier it suddenly becomes to keep up concentration so it is definitely worth the effort and does not only help you to play guitar better but also to live a happier life. So …

Guitar in general, Misc, MK guitar style and licks, Understanding music

Recommended listening: Amazing Rhythm Aces – “The End is not in Sight”

Whenever people are listed who influenced Mark Knopfler to come up with that Dire Straits sound, you more or less will find the same names: J.J. Cale, Bob Dylan, Hank Marvin, Ry Cooder, Eric Clapton, sometimes Django Reinhardt or Richard Thompson, etc. I remember that I was surprised to hear another name, a band that I had never heard of before. This was in the “Unauthorized Mark Knopfler Biography” by Myles Palmer.

Palmer wrote a book about Mark Knopfler based on interviews with all kind of people who used to know Knopfler before Dire Straits or around the time they started, even people like his school teachers or work mates. I think it was Dave Pask, the lead singer of the Cafe Racers, the band Mark Knopfler played in just before Dire Straits, who mentioned how enthusiastic Mark was about the Amazing Rhythm Aces, an American band that sounded like a mix between Lynnard Skynnard (‘Sweet Home Alabama’) and country roots.

Dave Pask was quoted: ‘Basically, the sound comes from the Amazing Rhythm Aces’ lead guitarist Barry “Byrd” Burton,, and J.J. Cale, who he was listening to a lot of the time. […] There is a song he was influenced by called “The End is not in sight”. Listen to the guitar playing on that.’

This song is from the band’s second album called “Too stuffed to jump”, and in fact it is an absolutely great song. You can hear it here on youtube:

The guitar solo reminds me of things like Down to the Waterline. The melody itself has not much in common, but both the chord changes (A and E compared to G and Bm; note that Bm is the minor chord to D, and G and D would be the same one note lower), and the way the solo takes over after the verse create a similar feel. The first song of that album – “Typical American Boy” – is also stunning.

If you like the song and want it in better than youtube quality, you will find the album on a remastered CD at Amazon. The better buy seems to be the ‘two albums on one CD’ version at the same price which you can directly order at Amazon from here (simply click on the link for your country to get it from your local Amazon):

Amazon.com————Amazon.co.uk———–Amazon.de

If you are inetersted in the Myles Palmer book (it is reviewed a bit controversial, nevertheless it contains a lot of exclusive information), you can still get it at Amazon as well. Unfortunately it seems to be very rare and is partly rather expensive there:

Amazon.com————Amazon.co.uk———–Amazon.de

Easy stuff for beginners, Guitar in general, Mark Knopfler gear, Misc, MK guitar style and licks, Understanding music, Vintage guitars

Suggestions what you would like to see here

This weekend is a rather busy one, so not too much time for the blog so far:(

This blog is online for less than two weeks, and the number of readers is steadily increasing, thank you a lot.

I was wondering if I can go on blogging about this stuff forever or if I will run out of topics or ideas , so I made a list with concrete blog entries I can do next. Within a few minutes I had a list of almost 50 ideas 🙂

So, there should be a lot of things you can look forward to. On this list were some goodies like interesting news about Dire Straits gear, a/b-listening comparisions between different kind of gear (e.g. vintage guitar vs new ones, vintage amps vs. modelling solutions), music theory, recording techniques, fun stuff, and more.

Maybe I should use this post to ask you guys out there what you might be interested in in particular, it might help to decide what to do next, or to add another 50 ideas to my list 🙂

Why don’t you simply use the comment function at the end of this post (you don’t even have to leave an email, it is very simple and quick) for suggestions?

Easy stuff for beginners, Mark Knopfler gear, Misc

Pictures from Hamburg Oct. 28, 1978 (?)

Edit 2012: I had to correct myself. These pictures were probably from the next day, October 29, 1978, when they played in Berlin (compare this blog post).

Unlike these days, when each concert is not only recorded on audio or video, not to mention all pictures made by a million people it seems, there are hardly pictures from those early Dire Straits concerts. Too bad digital cams were not invented yet.

I often see pictues on bootleg CD covers people made, or on other places, but it seems many have some problems to tell if a picture is from this year or that. In fact, for probably 90% of those old pictures it is totally unknown from which concert they were.

I am meanwhile pretty good at dating such pictures and I can narrow down them to a few weeks or a particular tour. I just have to look at amps, guitars (especially David’s), and other details. I might do another post about this later.

For now, only one very easy but a 100% consistent rule how to tell if a picture is from between 77 and October 78, or later, is to look at Mark’s guitar strap: Before October 78 Mark had a rather thin brown guitar strap, after this date, up to the end of 79, he had a wide black guitar strap (with the red Strat, there were different ones for that black Telecaster).

I have the suspicion that he got the black strap, which was manufactured by Music Man, from the Hamburg concert 78 on (October 28) because Europe’s biggest Music Man dealer and distributor was located in Hamburg. (In fact they mentioned Mark as a customer in a magazine add in the early 80ies.)

He still had the brown strap on the Paris video (October 14, 1978), but then there are pictures where I know they were from late 78 with that black guitar strap. And all these were from German magazines, and Hamburg was one of their biggest gigs so far with a lot of media attention. It is not prooven, but I would bet the following pictures are from this concert. They are all not from the internet but from my collection, so probably “unseen before” (yeah, I used to collect such things when I was a teenie, have many more 😉

BTW, there is a bootleg recording of Hamburg available but it runs at a too high speed and thus sounds really strange. If you speed it down you will notice that it is really a gem, Mark’s concentration level and spontaneity were outstanding once again.

For your enjoyment, here a few of those pics:

“Got a new guitar strap today”

 

edited: I added a sound sample from this concert (Lions), click here for more info.

Easy stuff for beginners, Guitar in general, MK guitar style and licks, Understanding music

The Circle of Fifths: What is it for? – plus: example analysis of Knopfler songs

What is the Circle of Fifths and what do I need it for?

Every guitar player pretty soon realizes that certain chords seem to belong together, they are related in a way, while other chords are only rarely used within the same song. The chords C , F, and G seem to be such related chords – these are not only the chords you would use for a blues tune in C, but also the majority of traditionals – if you play them in the key of C – do not require any other chords than these three.

So, how do I know which chords are related, which ones are even closely related, which ones are not?

The answer can be found from a simple chart that is called the “Circle of Fifths”. I will simply skip all the redundant information like “why a circle, why fifths – or sometimes even ‘fifths and fourths'”, instead let’s only look at some practical use it can have. More theoretical information can be found at countless places, e.g. here the Wikipedia link.

Here is the chart (taken courtesy from library. thinkquest.org), read on how it works:

To keep it really simple: Outside the circle you will find major chords, insides are minor chords. Each major chord has a corresponding minor chord (e.g. Am belongs to C, C#m to E, ..).

Rule 1: The closer the chords are in this circle, the more they are related !

For example, we have a song in the key of C. The right neighbour is G, the left is F. –> F and G belong to C (the right neighbour is the so-called dominant chord, the left one the sub-dominant chord).

Let’s add some minor chords: Am belongs to C, Dm to F, and Em to G. –> We get the chords C, F, G, Am, Dm, Em.

On the other hand, a C#m would be very far away from our C, so it is not related, does for this reason not appear in many congs in C, and would sound rather ‘strange’, or at least ‘surprising’.

Only one additional rule:

Rule 2: In a minor key, the left and right minor neighbour chords (in the key of Am, these would be Dm and Em) can also appear as a major chord (D or E).

So, a song in Am might not only have chords like C, F, G, or Dm, but also D and E.

That’s all you need to know, easy, isn’t it?

Now, what do I need it for? Well, to write your own songs (make it sound ‘normal’, or deliberately use strange chords, as you want) , or to figure out the chords of a new song you want to learn by ear: as soon as you have the first chord, try to find the other ones by trying out neighbour chords, often these are the ones you are looking for.

Enough theory, here are some examples:

Example 1: Sultans of Swing

The key is Dm. All chords of the song: Dm, C, Bb, F, and A.

See the next picture: all the chords are pretty close, only the A (right side) does not fit in. If you apply rule 2 (the Am can be replaced by A), everything is in place again, all the chords are “one family”.

(Note: some of the long live versions also have a Gm and Am chord, I left these out, but note how these would also fit in).


(some of the long live versions also have a Gm and Am chord, I left these out, but note how these would also fit in).

Example 2: True love will never fade

The key is C, all chords are: C, F, G, Dm

They are all related and thus very close in the circle of fifths, see below:

Example 3: Money for Nothing

The key is Gm, all chords are: Gm, Bb, F, Eb, C, D, and E.

The C, D, and E chords seem to be out of place (see below), the C and D can be understood as replacements for a Dm and Cm chord (rule 2) and do thus fit into the pattern, while the E is completely out. In fact, this chord sounds somewhat unexpected (it is the last chord of each refrain, on “color TViii-iiih”), especiall the following change back to Gm is very unusual and thus adds some extra kick.

Alright, that’s for today. You should use use the comment function (no registration or email required) to let me know if this article was helpful, or to ask questions, or to make suggestions.

CU soon here again,

Ingo

Guitars, Mark Knopfler gear, MK guitar style and licks

What tuning is Setting me up by Dire Straits, and what guitar?

The guitar playing on Setting me up from Dire Straits’ first album is a true masterpiece. The recording features three guitar tracks: the opening riff, the lead guitar (both played by Mark), and a strummed ryhthm guitar by Mark’s brother David.

On Youtube you can find countless attempts by different players to play this riff. Most of them try it with standard tuning, which also works more or less. However, I am almost sure that it was played in open A tuning (e, a, e, a, c#, e , from low to high). Open A is basically the same as open G, only tuned up one note.

The problem is that there is no video of this song available from that time (later versions with the Notting Hillbillies or with Dire Straits in the 90ies were different, these days he even plays a different riff in standard tuning).

So what makes me think that it is open A?

Hint 1: One reason is obviously that I myself play it in open A, and it works (listen to a sample of riff, refrain riff, solo and outro riffs). But you might argue that this is no real proof of course.

Hint 2: Check out the following picture from I guess early 78. It shows Knopfler playing that old black Telecaster on which he also played Water of Love on almost all Dire Straits concerts up to late 1979. This guitar was tuned to open A, and had a capo at the 5th fret (proven by countless live videos of Water of Love). Note that on this picture there is no capo !!

Playing Setting me up?

I can’t imagine that the Tele was tuned from one song (Water of Love) to standard tuning within the same concert, but if not, it means it shows Mark Knopfler playing a second tune in open A tuning. Which? My guess: Setting me up. Again, more a hint than a proof? The let’s go on to …

Hint 3: On the bootleg CD Live in Leeds (January 1978) Water of Love is directly followed by Setting me up, you can hear the noise when Mark plugs in the guitar before Water of Love, and after Setting me up, but no noise between. So, Water of Love and Setting me up probably both on the black Tele.

Hint 4: This video on youtube shows Knopfler playing Setting me up with the Notting Hillbillies in 1990. At this time the riff was still played similar to the original recording. Obviously it is open G tuning, with a capo at the 2nd fret. (At this time he played heavier strings than in the 70ies, so I guess he now prefers G).

At least this is a proof for open tuning. Last not least, we have …

Hint 5: Many years ago I bought a CD-ROM with pictures of different rock bands, one was Dire Straits. The pictures were from two concerts, one from 1981, the other one from probably May or June 1979.

The 31 pictures from the 1979 concert (my guess is it is Munich or Wettingen) seem to be in chronological order (Mark looks more and more sweaty with each picture). Picture #28 seems to be before the encores.

From bootleg recordings we know that the last two encores were Setting me up and Southbound again.

The next pictures #29 (below) and #30 show Mark playing David’s (!!) black Strat (which was not used by David in those concerts, he meanwhile played a Peavey guitar). I am sure that it is Setting me up, no capo, and the left hand fingering matches Setting me up in A as well.

Setting me up on David’s black Strat

Ok, this is why I think it is open A.

Again, the guitars used for this song :

* studio recording: unknown
* early 1978: black Tele (AFAIK, later in 1978 the song was not played)
* May/June 1979: black Strat (song wasn’t played in early 1979)
* late 1979: Les Paul Special (mentioned in a concert review from a magazine)

To end with, another goodie: I will not hold back picture #31 from that photo CD. It shows Mark Knopfler playing Southbound Again, played on the red maple-neck Strat. This is the only picture where we know that it is this song (no video of Southbound existing).

Southbound Again on the red Strat

Stay tuned,

Ingo

MK guitar style and licks, Understanding music

Eastbound Train: opening chord analysis

The song Eastbound Train is a boogie groove in the key of E. It was the b-side of Dire Straits’ first Single Sultans of Swing, and has been played live on most concerts during the first two years of Dire Straits.

Below you will find an explanation of the opening chord (listen to sample, live at the Hope&Anchor, London, 1977).

In blues-based tunes – and a boogie is often just an up-tempo version of the good old blues scheme – each cycle of the chord progression pattern can end on the dominant seventh chord. This chord always starts with the 5th note of the given major scale; so in the key of C we have a G7 chord, while in the key of E we would get a B7 chord.

By the way, ending on this chord is also called turnaround. And often a turnaround is used to open a blues tune – in other words, you start with the dominant seventh chord or with a phrase running over it. This is the case in Eastbound Train. It starts with the same chord that is normally the last chord of the chord pattern.

A B7 chord can be played like this, using only the four top guitar strings:

Now, this is not exactly the chord in Eastbound Train, but we only have to change one single note, the f# on the b-string is raised to a g. The resulting chord looks like this:

Since one note of the B7 chord is raised – this is also called augmented – we have an augmented B7 seventh chord, in short B+7 or Baug7. For more general information on this chord, see the corresponding Wikipedia article.

Left hand fretting: use the index finger on the d-string, 3rd on the g-string, the pinky on the b-string, and the remaining second finger on the high e-string.

Unfortunately there are only two videos available (Rockpalast 1979, Paris 1978) which show Mark Knopfler playing Eastbound Train, and both don’t feature close-ups of his left hand when playing this chord, so the following two pics are the best ones we have.

That’s for today,

Ingo