Dire Straits "Southbound Again": Mark Knopfler Guitar Lesson

[@adamhotrod]

Best breakdown of Mark’s playing I’ve seen. Really well done, so thank you. I’ve struggled with this track for years.

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Thanks Adam! The way he uses both sides of his fingers, and crosses over with his thumb! So wild!

[@pokeround]

Most complete lesson in six minutes ever. Nice one! 👍

[@rhythmnation15]

Woah Bro I just learned something! Heard this in 1978 and always wondered how he played it. Much thanks.

[@bradgoose]

I've stumbled upon another gold nugget from Eric's vault! Really enjoying this, Eric. You're a pleasure to learn from - many thanks, Newcastle upon Tyne, England.

[@stevestarr6395]

Great playing and tone Eric and yes Marks finger technique is very tricky and challenging!

[@mayadaniel1676]

Dire Straits ...this album blew my mind and still does...GOAT!

[@ferpirata76]

Excellent man! Thanks and congratulations from Spain!

[@V6Arese]

Thanks for this great lesson ! Its one on the most difficult thing on guitar. And now i can play it! 🙏🙏🙏

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Yay!

[@ozgurceylan4084]

I love your taste of music very much. You are an amazing musician Eric.

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Dude thanks so much Özgür! I gotta do some more Knopfler vids - you wanna talk about an amazing musician - he's the man!

[@ozgurceylan4084]

@@EricHaugenGuitar Can't wait sir :) you have a great selection there. And your vids really help to improve finesse on guitar playing. Tortoise song tutorial was amazing too.

[@goonisamenace8956]

Great tutorial, i never thought it would be this difficult omg

[@goonisamenace8956]

Been a year now getting back into the mk way and it’s not too bad just mk is a god lol

[@robertoibarra6331]

Such a good lesson Learned this within an hour

[@Tomlinsky]

Man, having a serviceable Travis picking technique getting my thumb to NOT keep wandering back to the A string sure is a challenge. I think it's called 'fun' but I'm not convinced at this point! Great lesson.

[@al1976-v7m]

I was always wondering how he does that, really cool riff. Thanks for the lesson!

[@vojislavpavkovs9124]

Daaaamn bro! i always struggled with this one, but never bothered to look how it should be played.. after few videos I saw, it just not felt right... But this thumb double sting down pluck is the key... i managed to figure it out in 5 min after i saw this video! Cheers bro!

[@patlesage1256]

Hey Eric ! Great lesson ! and you're one of the rare guy who's showing the famous MK way of playing the real way....I'm fan ! Thanx !!!...i'mgonna look at your others vid...Take care !

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Thank so much, my shred brother! I can't really play like the great MK, but I keep trying :-)

[@V6Arese]

Great lesson! Thank you very much! 🙏

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

My pleasure!

[@trioguitar]

Fantastic guitar lesson!

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Knopfler is an eternal fascination for me!

[@CTmoog]

Another great video! Thank you for sharing/teaching!

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

But of course! What an interesting approach to right hand fingerpicking!

[@Berniewahlbrinck]

Amazing tutorial for a lifelong Dire Straits fan in Germany! I wonder what your thumb looks like where it hits the strings ...

[@anthonyquattro584]

thanks for the tutorial helped heaps

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Yay! I'm happy to help!

[@rachelflair4835]

So look...this is one of my favorite songs by D.S. This teaching was superb! I wish I could buy some of your lessons but my choices in life have left me recovering and just getting by. Still, I will learn from your videos. I play very well and can read music. But I lost my way in life. Now..music is again my passion! I choose life! A request...oh...I think this is a good challenge. Please show how to play the masterpiece riff from the song 3 Strange Days!!! Blessings

[@creekrocklofi]

Yess!! Just found this one. Now I have my next thing to work on.

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

The knopfler thumb! Truly a unique device. He's got some clips on KZbin where he talks about it and plays - it's pretty humbling to watch him just messing around. He's a groove master.

[@creekrocklofi]

It is humbling. “Money For Nothing” was the first song I learned on air guitar. I was hooked.

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Oh yeah! I still can't play that riff like him - it's inimitable!

[@Oahusun]

Thanks Bro.! You're great.

[@monmixer]

Cool, BTW nice mustang

[@vittoriochimetto]

Okay ⭐️

[@vittoriochimetto]

Grande lezione ok bravo ti seguo

[@h2er80]

Fantastic thanks!

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

It's my pleasure! I think this video is the beginning of me starting to understand Knopfler's genius technique.

[@adamkeenan5707]

The Mustang makes it all that much easier to watch the video, thanks.

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

+Adam Keenan Thanks Adam! She's a scrappy old girl, but so good to me 😎👍🏻

[@LADYJUSTICE50]

Wow! I have to tell you, I've loved this song since 1980 when I found it on the flipside of a 45 in our Jukebox at the nightclub I worked at. It was one of my favorite songs to Dance to on stage. And I am NOT a Dire Straits fan at all. But this song epitomizes my taste for blues and had just the right tempo and style for some creative footwork and slides that I used to perform. Plus it's just such a "feel good" rhythm (even if the lyrics weren't!) that I never got tired of performing to it! Now as for guitar, I never even thought about learning this until about 8 years ago when I decided I wanted to learn how to play one! And I gotta say, just your picking & expressions have my undivided attention! ⬅or as you referred to it, your "butchering" of it! I'm still a pathetic beginner but I can't wait to see what else you do & have! Question: Since you obviously like the Blues, have you ever heard of "City Boy Blues" by Motley Crüe? I'd love to find a tutorial on it! I also was delighted today to find some Johnny Van Zant tunes that excited me more than ... Well let's just say they were Yummy! 😛 I'm searching for fairly simplistic Blues that I could reasonably tackle with a lot of devotion - shying away of course from the exceptional SRV tunes or the classic (& my favorite!) "Little Queen of Spades" by Eric Clapton. Do you have a few suggestions or better yet, a course that a beginner could get into? It's wonderful to meet you & Thank you for the Video! I love your style! 😁🎸😍

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Yeah! This song's got a killer groove to it! For beginner blues lessons, I highly recommend @activemelody, or @justinguitar - both those fellas do really great vids! btw - I love classic Motley Crüe! - Hair Metal was really popular when I was a kid. A lot of that stuff doesn't stand up to the test of time, but the Crüe sure does!

[@borgan1964]

It was easyer then i thought,,,uuff i worried so much,,,,,ten minute,,i though i need one week,,nope,,and old man can learn😀

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Good for you! It took me a couple of weeks to get this one down!

[@skatetodeath666]

You may think you're doing it right but probably not 🤣

[@sabvath7265]

@@skatetodeath666 this haha

[@Makuz1988]

perfect!

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Thanks Markus!

[@AlexandreAugustin]

Excelent, one of the best lessons.

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Thanks Alexandre! Knopfler's right hand technique is really something out of this world!

[@AlexandreAugustin]

Last year i made a cover of the Money For Nothing tune using the right hand technique of him, your vid help a lot to get it right. Check It out!

[@meprobinson]

Great lesson!

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Thanks Mark! I'm glad you liked it!

[@robertfarris8565]

Great lesson, how about one on Plynth by Jeff Beck...

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

ooooooh good idea!

[@JasonUmbrellabird]

Hi Eric, have you heard Knopfler's song 'Prairie Wedding' with Gillian Welch on BVs? thanks for the lessons!

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Oooh I'm gonna have to o check that out now! That's two of my favorite artists!

[@2whl4re]

Audio changes at 3:34, like you lost your lapel mic. There's a video cut there as well. Makes it a bit harder to understand than with the lapel mic, because of the room echo. Great videos though, really enjoy them. Thanks for your efforts!

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

That is weird! There's an edit there - where I had to cut out my dog walking into the shot :-) Doesn't explain the audio drop out, though. I'm gonna have to check the original file - thanks for the heads up!

[@brich2929]

just noticed that.

[@JackK867]

what's the name of the song you do a little vamp on when you talk about travis?

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

If I remember correctly, it's "Mystery Train" by Elvis - I'm sure there's some good lessons on it already on YT :-)

[@JackK867]

@@EricHaugenGuitar Thank you for the answer sir!

[@randyzeitman1354]

Nobel prize for guitar teaching

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Thanks Randy! That lick is quite a bear to get right!

[@joeeng577]

So does the right hand help with muting/choking notes?

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Precisely! King Knopfler utilizes right and left hand muting to get his unique sound. It's quite tricky!

[@floriantinschert5542]

So the fingerplucked notes on A (before the 5-4-2-0 rundown) are muted, right? Are you palmmuting those or just have your left hand cover the strings?

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Not quite - it's left hand muting, kinda like in reggae where the fingers are only down on the string for the exact moment that the hand picks them. Then they release, but stay on the string to choke the sustain.

[@floriantinschert5542]

@@EricHaugenGuitar Awesome, thank you!! Is this technique where he doubles the strums on his thumb with picking from the fingers also how he plays rock n roll shuffles like Walk of Life? Really appreciate your channel, all your lessons are spot-on!

[@igorperic5232]

Do you use downstrokes with first two fingers to play 'chords' when you press them? I tried this technique on money for nothing, I always hit other strings when using downstroke.. hmm

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

In this one, the third note is finger downstrokes, and then all the other downbeats are gotten with the thumb - it's sorta a clawhammer banjo technique. Its tricky at first, but slow and steady wins the race :-)

[@paolosantovito2598]

Thank You!!!! ;-)

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

I'm happy to help, Paolo! This one is tricky! I still struggle with that thumb technique!

[@mikolaj00]

Heyyyyy love your videos man :) I know this one has been here for a while buuuut have you watched pavel fomekov lesson ??? ;) If not please give it a try , won't regret it

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Wow! He knows his stuff! An excellent resource!

[@bradsc0tt]

What's the song you start @2:40?

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Oh yeah! That's a very approximate version of James Burton's solo on "Hello Mary Lou."

[@bradsc0tt]

@@EricHaugenGuitar Thanks!

[@chrismiller8285]

Are you hammering on the the last part of lick or plucking it? Can't tell from watching at full speed even though you demonstrate plucking it when you show the technique.

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

I just played it again - seems like it works fine either way. It's a little smoother/easier if I hammer the last bit :-D

[@chrismiller1661]

Thanks. It is indeed a bear to get it to sound like Knopfler. Playing two strings with the thumb is tough. Great lesson!

[@fretman40]

Is that a 50 or 100 watt Silvertone???

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

It's the dual 6L6 version, so it'd say it definitely closer to the 50 watt range.

[@PhantomLordOG]

Sounds like southbound by the allman brothers band

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Great song!

[@remoman]

No one can make this riff sound quite the same as MK...

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

1000% Agree! Like all the true greats, his technique and phrasing is truly his own!

[@loly1969]

pl do . setting me up

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Gah! Yeah I gotta look at that one - check YT though there might be some good vids on it already

[@DodgeMan360]

"Yeah I'am butchering it..." meanwhile it sounded awesome

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Ha! Thanks Mark! If I could be 1/100th of the guitarist Knopfler is, I'd be a happy dude :-D

[@bzzzrecords3078]

@@EricHaugenGuitar Eric, any recommandations of guitarists in that kind of picking style (playing both rythm and melody altogether) that you're "butchering"? :)

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Chet Atkins all the way! One of my all time favorite records is "Chet Atkins Picks on the Beatles" - it's a huuuuge part of how I think about playing/style/arrangements.

[@borgan1964]

Eric?.... are you Nowegian?

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Yeah! My Grandfather was from Bergen!

[@jerryfields4837]

bass an drums not busy cause they were not aloud to be busy! big MK fan but thats how its always been..leave it to the expert

[@theclash24]

Teach me, lol

[@enricmaria97]

Wrong. Just one thumb. The second thumb are the others two fingers doing a reverse picking

[@Ordynathor]

No idea how to do this

[@christopherpopowitsch3254]

Maybe get a blister on your thumb ?

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Indeed!