Guitar Habits of Mark Knopfler 

Mark is number one in my book. Not because he’s fast or a great shredder, but because he’s extremely musical. He makes music not noise.

I started to play guitar because of mark knopfler

Great video, 6/10

2:21 WAS??? He's still alive! And his playing is still awesome!

Mark Knopfler's fingerpicking playing is still one of the coolest techniques I've ever heard

Mark is such an exceptional player it feels like he doesn't get enough credit

Knopler’s ability as a guitar player is unquestionable but what makes him really special is his attitude to music, to life, to everything. He lives in the world with all of us not in some nonsensical celebrity bubble and he has the skill to convert his passion about what he feels and what he sees into a language we all understand…Music.

Does anyone remember when Tyler rated Mark Knopfler a 6 out of 10??😂

I usually like your videos and your playing, and as a modest - and crappy - amateur player I get a lot from your videos. Knopfler is my #1 guitarist, I have been obsessed with his playing for a long time. Attention to details is one of the great characteristics of MK’s habits. I still discover new tricks on a regular basis, he’s just unbelievable. If you allow me a comment, there’s more to MK than what you have captured here. Just a few obvious points: On the solo, MK does not use a hammer-on but instead plucks the string with his thumb, then pulls off. So the 4 note sequence is: Thumb 2nd string / index 1st string / thumb 1st string / pull-off It makes a huge difference, because that 3rd note is central to the sequence; it goes with the beat. Plucking instead of hammering-on highlights both the note and the beat. This is also, imo, one of the habits of MK; pluck strings whenever relevant. It makes it all sound more precise, more defined. Another MK habit is to do a vibrato on “barre triads”, the index is vibrating the 3 strings together. It’s subtle but it also makes a difference, especially in a riff like SoS. Anyway, that’s just me trying to be a purist. Thanks again for what you do, and next time you rank guitar players, make sure you give MK a 15/10

Tunnel of Love solo is so good it almost makes me weep 🎸

You know he is not only alive, he is still kicking ass with the guitar

My favorite guitarist.

Mark: Hey where’s my pick? Never said.

"was" a master? :) He still IS a master no doubt

Love Mark Knopfler... he plays the lead guitar on Bob Dylan's "Slow Train Coming" album and also Dylan's "Infidels" album... beautiful playing as always... Mark is such a powerful and good influence! Thank you for the video!

The real secret is in the percussive nature of his thumb driving the rythm, and the choice of notes and melodies. Every other guitarist trying to emulate his style end up sounding extremely generic blues guitarists. He is a unique dude.

2:06 That pick is gone forever

Mark is a legend. 🎸 Shout out to JJ Cale - a big influence on Mark's playing.

Mark is my greatest inspiration. I love his music so much.His playing in Sultans is smoother than hot melting butter

Dire Straits were by far the most underrated rock band ever.

Thank you for this, Mark is my guitar hero I have been obsessed with his music since I was a young lad having stumbled across Dire Straits thumbing through my uncles record collection and finding Alchemy amongst them, one listen to that live set and I was hooked for life

"he was..", "..Mark did..", etc -- he's still alive and kicking! Sheesh - had me panicking for a second!

Knopfler has a lot of subtle details in his technique that you discover every single day, thank you paul davids

"Last time I was sober, man I felt bad, worst hangover that I ever had, It took six hamburgers and scotch all night, nicotine for breakfast just to put me right Cause if you want to run cool... you got to run on heavy heavy fuel.."

So glad you came to your senses. The rating of 6/10 that enraged so many people was bad enough but then on Twitter you replied to those people by saying after due consideration you'd alter it to a 5. Honestly I almost unsubbed. If it wasn't for the fact I enjoyed your playing so much I might have never watched/listened to you again. Knopfler is without doubt one of the most original/recognisable and downright musical guitarists there has ever been regardless of the complexity of his technique.

Another classic "habit" in his playing would be those crazy bends on Telegraph Road and It Never Rains, for example

My favorite guitarist. So smooth and clean.

This is a great analysis and breakdown/explanation that is useful to me in a practical way. I'll check out your other guitar habits vids, thanks for making them!

Folks,i know even more habits that MARK HAS thats observing most of all his concerts more on a personal note:He always said BYE BYE after his performance& waved his sexy hand as he said it,most always wore a headband to catch the swett,always snapped his fingers after the line" keep the beat"near his head in Romeo&Juliet song,also he clucks his mouth in a couple of his songs,same songs,same time,his little habits are the shits,unique&wonderful......

Can you do a habits video on Eric Clapton?

fantastic overview of marks playing, this helped me out loads, thank you; ill recommend you to all of my guitar friends.

Thanks for this break down of MK's habits/techniques. Really helpful!! I was watching the video of his concert in Milano and was admiring how his music had matured with his age and how he has in incorporated more of the old country (English country) flavour into his music, which made it quite different from American music. This made me want to learn more about MK. So thank you for this tutorial. Much appreciated!

People don't talk about Mark Knopfler much anymore so thanks for this video.

Mark Knopfler is one of my Heroes my man! Really appreciate the lesson and habits! I was wondering if you could do a habits of Al Di Meola, or John Mclaughlin?

Mark Knopfler will always be my favourite guitarist. While other great guitarists achieve success by playing hard, fast, and loud, Mark does so by creating an atmosphere. His licks are minimalistic and down-to-earth, but every note paints a picture, which as they say is worth a thousand words, and it integrates brilliantly with his gifted songwriting skills to create a wonderful, intelligent, subtle sense of just what he's trying to convey to the listener. Sultans of Swing is the perfect example of this; It's a song about a bunch of 9 to 5, working class guys who spend their weekends playing sparsely crowded pub gigs because they love the music, and Mark Knopfler's inter-verse licks and beautiful solos show this excellently. It's exactly the kind of thing you'd hear from the people that he's singing about.

love these videos man...it's half the reason i even watch gear vids. can't afford half the stuff i see but it's kewl to see what kinda sounds you can get outta whatever piece of gear.

I've been studying Knopfler's technique for years. No doubt he's one of the greats overall and his improvisation skills the greatest.

Can u do a video of your habits?? 🤤🤤

Ace video Tyler. In every other MK analysis, video, or book always the material is about his finger style, the Fender and the tone. But MK's 'sound' and musical style is the sound of triads - simple chord structures in his songs, and simple triadic improvisations. To get his sound we need to learn and improvise with triads. Just listen to the solo in Once Upon a Time in the West from Alchemy, it's buckets of triads and beautiful, linear melodic arrangements. Awesome!

Superb, thanks for all your time and effort in making such informative videos. It's quite inspiring to see such styles broken down, in a non flashy way,. that the average player like me can learn little techniques that don't require sub human skills to achieve. Thanks mate top notch stuff.

The go-to DS concert on RU-vid for me is their appearance on Rockpalast (Germany) in 1979. Hour and a half of early DS gold; the whole band is tight, Mark is on fire.

I think you got the nail on the head regarding marks plucky, highly rhythmic style. Another really significant thing to remember about marks style though (that I don't think you mentioned) is that it is heavily influenced by the likes of chet atkins and old blues players. Some of the first guitar techniques he learned were thumb and fingerstyle finger picking. In other words, alternating the bass notes with the thumb and pulling the melodic notes with the fingers. He did a whole album with chet atkins in fact. And there are some video's of him playing the style around. He essentially adapted a kind of chicken picking acoustic guitar technique for rock music. Just incredible.

Been waiting for this. Cheers Tyler

Great video! Sweet playing, and that's a gorgeous guitar you have there! :)

Do Habits of BB King please!

2:21 "Mark Knopfler was as master ...." - how you mean *was*? He still is, isn't he? :)

This is so great! New appreciation for what he’s doing!!

Nice video i really LOVE mark knopfler and supertramp

Awesome video. I love the habits series 😊 Mild issue with the "sweep picking" bit as it's MKs version of circular picking not sweep picking (2 hits on the top e and a pull off only) I've heard there's some issues with copyright if you play it exactly though, even as an example. I may reply with a vid to show what I mean 😋

Sorry to say this cos I like your stuff but most of this sounds nothing like Knopfler’s style. Mark doesn’t just use fingers, he uses finger style even to his lead fills (finger fills often on the off-beat to his thumb). He is also a master of note selection. This just sounds like the same old pentatonic fills with a finger instead of a pick. What you’re playing sounds very staccato & slightly awkward but Mark has a fluidity that makes it sound easy.

Great lesson. Some real gems here 👏👏

Mark has the most amazing and unique technique! Mark has inspired me to pick up a guitar.

Knopfler is honestly so hard to play _right_ - his style is so unique for the style of music that even though most things sound like they'll be fairly easy and simple to play you quickly realise it's actually really difficult to play it like he does.

You are playing it wrong Mark knopfler doesnt make a hammer on and pull off. Instead of the hammer on he picks the high e with his thumb a second time

Oh yes, I've been waiting for this. Makr Knopfler; my first guitar hero. Thanks a million (-:

The thing about Mark Knopfler’s music and their strengths is that he feels the music with his fingers and he expresses themselves in such a gentle fashion but you can feel every nought and every finger bend on his guitar

You missed the g string on the solo, 6/10.

I saw the video and I think to myself: "this guy don't understand the Knopfler style at all" There are some videos in youtube that explain real Knopfler style.

excellent job breaking the triads down and how they relate to the chords,,that was very helpful:)

I was wondering if you were going to do a video on him. Now, its greater than I expected!!

Next episode: The Habits of Django Reinhardt. The bad news is that Tyler disabled two fingers on his fret hand to make it happen. Hashtag commitment.

I believe Knopfler actually plays the Sultans solo riff as such: Thumb, pull-off, thumb, index finger. T T 1 T T 1 E |-13p10-----10--13p10-----10-- B |-----------10------------------10------ and so on... You can hear that he hits the first note (F in this case) with a pluck rather than a hammer-on as you've shown. You can also hear that the section starts with the plucked F, as opposed to beginning with a the D and hammering up to the F as would be necessary with your pattern.

Cool. Knopfler is one of the best ever. Tremendous skill for phrasing, understated and beautiful melodies in his song writing and ability in general.

Absolutely ...brilliant great stuff.. and of course little stomping on pedals ...the sign of a true master 👍👍👍...

Habits of Brian May!

Another well known guy that has that finger style thing going like Mark does is Chet Atkins.

I watch these vids even if I’m not a fan of the guitarist covered, it’s just cool to learn new techniques to incorporate into ur playing.

Such a good idea the habits of Love this series it's amazing And you are such a great guitarist BTW love to see a clapton one

You're actually playing like Clapton playing Knopfler. Your playing is far from Knopfler's. Knopfler right hand is much more subtle than you depicted. You also missed his rhythm techniques, which are also important for getting his playing right. Listen to Skateaway and What It Is. Anyway, thanks for your effort. I reckon MK is one of the most difficult players to get right on this planet.

Habits of Rory Gallagher?

Love Marks style I use my finger not a plectrum , been playing since I was 9 and now I'm 61 but first noticed Mark at the live aid concert since then I've followed his music !

What a great lesson ! Fantastic

Why do you refer to Knopfler always in past tense?

You need to do a habits of synester gates. I’ve been starting to see that he really does a lot more than his prog. Rock/metal playing and I think it’d be pretty cool to see a video on him \m/

Cool stuff. Lots of good information for beginners

I love Mark and this is my favorite video

Eric Clapton habits

Please do a habits of Johnny Marr video.

Thank you for doing this.

I didn’t start because of him but he gave me the motivation to keep going

I actually use the same fingerstyle. It's very classically influenced, as it's very similar to classical fingerstyle

Lil Wayne habits please !

Learned a lot. thanks. Great video.

Mark K inspired me to learn this style. I am far from being able to play in that style but it opened up my own kind of take on it. A compressor and stratocaster help.

i love how he always has to justify himself after he says something he might think is remotely insulting

Chet Atkins

Tunnel of love!!!!THE PIANO PART

For the ending lick, it is a lot easier to change your right hand picking pattern to Th 2nd Str, Fing 1st str, Th 1st str with a left hand pull off and no hammer on. It sets you up better for repositioning

Habits of Brian May.

Pick? Don't need that shit.

Awesome!!!! Thanks 👍

Great video and series! Would you consider doing a video on the habits of Mike Einziger from Incubus? In my opinion he has a very unique approach to writing guitar riffs in addition to some sound scape type stuff.

Do habits of Marty Friedman

2:20 - Mark Knopfler "wasn't a master". he still is :D

I love this... I started without a pick.. always played without a pick.. and yes not like IM AS GOOD AS MARK KNOPFLER OMG, but i do play the same way with the grip fingers, multi strings with fingers and i actually love finger picking with my pinky, that is so satisfying but very hard to learn...

Great lesson im picking it up and applied the trip o let riff up higher and up to 24 frets and fingerpicking it can be done. its kinda yodeling somewhat or pedaltone.

Please do Eric Clapton, Nile Rodgers (Chic), and Roy Buchanan. Love the series, thanks!

I wonder if he's ever gonna do Gary Moore?

very well done lesson

Nice video.., like your's explanations!