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I remember as a kid seeing the Money For Nothing video on MTV, that’s the one that had the super high-tech CGI animations which were state-of-the-art at the time. The guitar riff at the beginning of that song totally blew me away and I believe was my first foray into playing proper air guitar. To this day day if I hear that intro in the car I’ll turn it up as loud as it will go, I highly recommend trying that sometime if you haven’t already. Money For Nothing was my introduction to Mark Knopfler and although I didn’t play guitar at that time, I think the riff at the beginning of that song was one of the things that made me want to one day learn how to play. It wasn’t until years later that I learned just how great DIre Straits was as a band and how incredibly talented Mark Knopfler is as a guitar player. When I finally got my first CD player, the Knopfler / Chet Atkins album “Neck & Neck” was the first CD I bought and still is one of my favorites. All that is a long way to say that Mark Knopfler is one great musician, great player, song writer, and singer (ok, not everyone loves his voice but I like the rawness of it). This mini guitar solo lesson has parts that a beginner, intermediate, or advanced player would enjoy – so no matter where your at, I recommend trying to learn it. This isn’t from an album or anything, just something I made up that captures (to the best of my ability) the Mark Knopfler style of playing. Obviously he wouldn’t be using a guitar pick if he were doing it, but that’s another lesson entirely. If you have any questions about this lesson, ask and I”ll answer.
Mark Knopfler Guitar Lesson
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getter = better ………oooooooooooops …….
It just keeps getting getter here Brian solid stuff for the seeker
Hurricane Ramon
Is there an element of Gary Moore in there also??? Excellent lesson!!!
If you would could you tell me what chords your using. great lession.
Agreed, Germissile.
The last lick (0:33) sounds like Gary Moore’s style, which I like very much. Fantastic lesson.
Awesome! I love the dissonant stuff. Like the very first lick in this lesson. Adds a ton of flavor. I’ve always been careful not to do that, but after this lesson, I’m looking for every good opportunity to add a little of it. Great stuff, . . .
Sad news… On Sunday 6th February 2011 musician Gary Moore died in his sleep of a heart attack while on holiday in Spain. He was the one to inspire me to play guitar. Too sad…
WOW! I did not realize that he had passed. I had always wanted to see him perform live. A wish, that obviously, will never materialize. I do indeed, “Still have the Blues”. RIP Gary!
Excellent lesson, you have a great teaching manor and Knopfler is one of my favs, the way he can express those emotions from the guitar - this may become my new ‘can i help you’ riff for the guitar shop - being such a ledgend that he is surely you cant just have 1 lesson for the sytle of knopfler ??
hi Brian my name is bonzo and am from Gatineau (Québec,Canada)
near Ottawa and i just wanna say that i love your guitar lessons
i follow you since september 2010, and am getting biter to bether
and it’s amazing and prety proud of my self…beleave me i love guitar
more then anything in the world…keep on rocking Brian….thank you body.
Hi Brian
Just signed up to your site. I am very interested in developing a Mark Knofler style and found your lead guitar video good but unfortunately with the tab you have supplied there is no standard notation which makes the timing difficult for me. Is it just me?
Malcolm
Hi Brian.I love your way of teaching the guitar.You are very cool as always. I have just been on your site and watched the Mark Knopfler style video excellent job.I have down loaded backing/tab tracks to practice .Is it possible to down load the chords to the backing track or do a video at some time I hope so……Thank again Brian…..J.P.C..spain….
Hi Brian
as a fellow musician I was particularly interested in your MK lesson, as MK is my biggest influence and is totally reflected in my songs and recording.
In your video, I found your tone to be fairly true to Form and wanted to know what amp and settings you were using.
Thanks……
Ps : Mark does not use any PRS guitars…..Pensa Suhr, Strat and Les Paul are the main culprits….
A real treat Brian..marvellous lesson..the main lick can be used as the basis for a hundred others
Hi Brian,
I was just notified that I received a response for my question on the blog posted a month ago……Unfortunately it is neither a response, noe anything but just another comment……
If you are into your lessons, your blogs, your supporters, listeners and students, it seems to me that you would make the effort to post a response or offer some type of info……
But heck what do I know……when I send emails to Mark in London….he does respond…..but he is not into stardom…..perhaps you are…..so long.!
hi Brian a stupid question and one i should be able to work out what is the chords for the backing track
Brian; Thanks for your help,
All of these videos are very useful and Iam learning a lot.
Luis Ortiz from Tijuana Mexico
Brian: Jut a generic comment; I guess “when the student is ready the teacher will appear” holds true. I have been mining the ‘net for tutorials for the last few months and have followed several popular guitar lesson gurus’s.
Not to put anybody down after them giving of their time and knowledge freely; but You can tell when they are more interested in showing how good they are versus focusing on the"student”.
There’s the shredder held back: “then he goes into this riff: (***&&^^&*) … “just do “this”(****&&^&^*),
The degreed music major:” your third finger is on the 4th string ,5th fret,the 5th( of the cmaj scale(?),“slide up half an octave going into the locrian mode )…”
Fortunately I find none of that here.I guess its my good luck you are teaching at my current level. Enjoying it, and learning alot (quickly). Keep it up 🙂
yeah I know what you mean about a lot of YouTube guitar instruction footage being people that really just want to show off their abilities - must be a form of insecurity. That being said, there are some great teachers out there on the web - a lot more than there were even a year ago. Just imagine what online learning is going to look line in 20 years. We’ll look back at videos like these and laugh. 🙂
Please disregard the above…Thanks;
I found it!
(The sound just needed more “gain”).:)
Love the sound…I realize alot of “tone” is in the fingers( and in the amp via “random access control manipulation” ( a.k.a. “knob -dicking”)
I’m “playing”(“with”? “at”?) a fender mim strat with a blues jr(tubilicious). and a SS Behringer gmx210( an “underrated SS “bedroom amp” if I may say).
Brian; What gear and settings are you using in this?
Dude, learning this lesson is like seeing God…
Hey, that not fair! I buy for 5 bucks an account,
but its not possible to see this video, because there a special GEMA CopyRights on thia video in Germany, you should notice that on your site, before people signed up !!
@thekraut - I didn’t realize that you couldn’t view the materials on this site in Germany - Not sure why they would block the content of this video as I own 100% of the copyrights and I never show you how to play copyrighted material.
That being said, I’m assuming you can still download the jam tracks and tab (and could always watch the video on YouTube) - do you still want me to refund your $5?
I’ve never seen Knopfler play a PRS or LP. I’ve only ever seen him with a strat or dobro etc. I have to go watch more vids. He seems to have done a lot around D minor.
@thekraut & @Brian, I can’t believe German IP law would block this (have you seen the stuff they put on the net??) Brian, I think if you contact GEMA and gain an exemption under ‘study purposes only’, maybe the Anal German organisation might let your vids through and they might learn a little lateral thinking. thekraut, hang in there! Let’s all still support Brian.
I signed up today - 5$ is a small price to pay, even for just this lesson! the fast concluding riff reminds me of the one Knopfler used at the end of ‘Brother in Arms’ at Wembley in mid-80’s - he says ‘thank you - we love you’ - and the band holds the G#m chord and Mark plays this great fast riff over it, and afterwards we hear the recorded explosions from the AV crew, with pictures on the big screen. I think I fell in love with Dire Straits at that moment - it was the most moving Outtro I had ever heard.
Hi Brian ,
I got a fender stratocaster and try to reproduce the sound.
Did you have an overdrive pedal.
Thanks
Brian, when you mention the settings of the guitar, you say the tone controls are mostly……..I can’t get the next word you say, not that it is terribly important but I play it back over and over and it sounds like you say the tone controls are mostly baked. What is it you say it bugs me.
I said “Tone control is mostly bass”
Excellent stuff as always. When u have time could u do some Neil Young style lessons as well?
The Tab is not comming through impossible to read and is incomplete.
Could you fix it please.
Thank You
Excellent lesson
@Bill6 - I’m not sure what you’re seeing but the tab should be just fine. Make sure you have Adobe PDF reader to view the tab. If you have any other issues email me directly - brian (at) activemelody.com
Right from the start the licks in this lesson got me ,, awesome stuff!! keep up the good work, now all I have to do is learn it LOL!!!
Hi Brian. This is a cool lesson… Thanks! I’m wondering same thing as a couple of others…. What chords for the rhythm. I believe the rhythm is in key of C, and the lead is mostly major pentatonic… Am i correct?
@shlabotnik - the chords are A minor, F, G, E7 - and you would typically solo in the A minor pentatonic for this.
Please do more of Martin style lessons donald
Hi Brian, could you please fix the tab, especially the penultimate bar? I can’t get your rhythm. Thank you for your great lesson!
Wow, This is WAY BACK when Brian was young fast and in his prime! lol just kidding! .. I’m going try learning from this excellent lesson and hoping to learn as much Brian’s Knopfler style lessons and possibly pick this to enter July’s active melody challenge!
It would be wonderful if you could also explain how these notes masterfully go out of the scale.