Misc, MK guitar style and licks

Sultans of Swing: Studio version vocals alone, karaoke track, plus the last seconds – unheard before

Found a link in the amarkintime forum today to three audio clips of Sultans of Swing: a) complete b) only vocals (!!), and c) without vocals. Those tracks must be made from the original multitrack recording, and they are even a few seconds longer than what is one the CD. No fade out – instead another lick unheard before.

I have no idea yet where these come from, but very cool!

complete:

vocals only:

backing track (karaoke):

Misc, MK guitar style and licks

Rehearsing Southbound Again

I recently made a backing track and started to rehearse Southbound Again (live version, not an easy one I think) from Dire Straits’ first album. In fact the live version they played from 1977 to 1979 (often as an encore) is a totally different song than the studio version. Unfortunately not one single video exists of it so noone has ever seen how/what/where Knopfler played exactly there. The only complete TV concert from this time was Rockpalast, and they spoiled Sultans of Swing there (Mark played the second solo when it was time to play the first), so they played Sultans again instead of Southbound Again for the last encore.

I recorded myself rehearsing with a small digicam (a Panasonic Lumix FX37), unfortunately the sound is not very good – if I do it properly I record the sound to Cubase with the PC and sync it with the video. I have no idea when I might find the time for a proper recording – always a hassle because you obviously don’t want all those little mistakes on it so you might end up doing it a dozen times or more until you get a version that seems alright – so I simply put this video online as what it is – a rehearsal.

I don’t copy (or even learn) particular versions, I rather end up mixing improvisation and all the little licks I heard on various versions, I really wouldn’t be able to play it again exaclty like this.

The effects and the amp are almost the same as on the Brothers in Arms clip from last week, I think I only reduced the gain from 9 to 8 for a cleaner sound.

Please don’t ask for the backing tracks of my videos. It is an awful lot of work to produce them so it does not make sense to me to sell them for a few cents (unless you’d sell a lot of them, and in this case Iwould probably hurt some copyrights). Also don’t ask for tabs, I don’t use them myself and for this reason don’t have any.

Amps, Mark Knopfler gear, MK guitar style and licks, Recording

Soundcheck Brothers in Arms – the Music Man 212 HD 130 for distortion

Normally I use my Music Man 212 HD 130 amp for clean guitar sounds, but the other day I was tinkering around with the Les Paul jamming to Brothers in Arms. The Music Man has a solid state pre-amp section which is not ideal for distorted sounds. Yet, I was surprised to get some really nice, fat and warm sounds out of this combination.

Knopfler uses Marshall cabinets which allow a very deep bass sound, but I was pleased with the rich bass response from the Music Man, not bad for an open back combo amp.

I feel that it is important for that Brothers in Arms tone to play really softly and gently, don’t bash the strings or tear them. This way you get a great dynamic range.

And before I forget to mention: I rolled back the tone control on the guitar to 2.5 !

Unfortunately the sound on my youtube videos is not as good as it is before uploading a video. I don’t know what exactly it is, seems like a built-in denoiser or something, which produces a wobbling sound and other artefacts. Any help how to eliminate this is really welcome.

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

Another key element of the Mark Knopfler guitar style: Quarter note triplets – with example tabs

Quarter note triplets are notes of a certain duration, or in other words they produce a certain rhythimcal effect. Such a note is shorter than a quarter note but longer than an eighth note. They do not “fit” into the normal grid of half, quarter, eighth or sixteenth notes; they break out of the normal rhythm scheme, thus highlighting a melody or a phrase.

However, they have nothing to do with a “free timing”, they follow a precise logic and have a certain length and rhythm.

With the help of licks based on these quarter note triplets you will increase your vocabulary on the guitar. Whenever you are in danger of running out of ideas or feel chained to a standard rhythm, even a very short lick of quarter note triplets will break up your normal rhythm and give a distinctive gleam to your solo.

Examples of these licks can be found in a great number of Mark Knopfler / Dire Straits tunes, surely to many to name them all (it is probably easier to name those who do not feature them) . Some nice examples which are mentioned later in this article are:

Sultans of Swing, Down to the Waterline,  Lions, Tunnel of Love, Single Handed Sailor, Private Dancer, I believe in you (Bob Dylan featuring Mark Knopfler)

How do quarter note triplets work?

To start with, let`s have a look at the basics of note duration. A standard (= 4/4) bar consists of four beats of the same length (counting: one – two – three – four). This duration – as long as one beat – is called a quarter note.

takt1
quarter notes

A note that lasts as long as one bar is called a whole note, and the one that is one half of this length is a half note, of course.

takt2
a whole note, two half notes

Consequently, a whole note is as long as two half notes, or as four quarter notes. A half note is as long as two quarter notes, and so on.

takt3

If you divide a quarter note into two halfs, you will get an eigth note, if you divide an eight note into two, you will get a sixteenth note, while one sixteenth note is as long as two thirty-second notes. This means you can fill up a bar with four quarter notes, or with eight eighth notes, or with sixteen sixteenth notes, and so on.

click to enlarge

If you combine notes with different duration, you will get a particular rhythm, just like in the following example.

rhythm1

Note that all these notes are a multiple of the shortest appearing note length. In the previous example this shortest length is a sixteenth note. If you imagine the bar being divided into sixteen beats of this length, you will get a sixteenth note grid (grey notes). All other notes of this example perfectly fit into this grid, which means they all start on a grid position, while other grid positions are simply left free. The next picture shows the previous example, now over such a grid.

All notes fit into a grid of sixtennth notes
All notes fit into a grid of sixtennth notes

Triplets

The idea behind a triplet is that a note is not divided into two notes of the same length (e.g. a half note into two quarter notes) but is divided into three notes of the same length. A half note will then be divided into three notes – and these are called quarter note triplets – as indicated by the bracket labelled with “3”.

quarter note triplet
quarter note triplet

duration of three quarter note triplets = duration of one half note

If you play such quarter note triplets over a normal (= straight) rhythm, they will not fit into a standard grid of shorter note length. Quarter note triplets played over a grid of eighth notes will look like this:

quarter note triplest do not fit into the normal grid
quarter note triplest do not fit into the normal grid

The first of the three quarter note triplets falls together with the eighth note, but the next two “sit somewhere between” the grid lines (no matter if you have an eighth or sixteenth note grid). This is the reason why quarter note triplets are more difficult to play, but also why they cause a feeling of breaking out of the normal rhtythm scheme – they simply do.

If you want to play quarter note triplets, you should be aware of the following two rules:

A) They are regular, in other words each of the three notes has the same length.
B) The first of the three notes starts on the beat, the next two are somewhere between the beats (however not in the middle between two beats).

Some example licks

After so much theoretical background, now is probably the right time for some concrete examples so that you have something “in your ear”.

Our first lick appears in the intro of Sultans of Swing (0:09). Here the quarter note triplet consists of three notes on the high E-string (an A, C and A again).

from the Sultans of Swing intro
from the Sultans of Swing intro

Note that the first of the three notes (5th fret on E-string) starts exactly at the 3rd beat of the bar, the next two notes are between the beats, and the last note (6th fret B-string) starts at the first beat of the second bar.

A second example lick is from the middle part of Down to the Waterline (2:45).

from Down to the Waterline
from Down to the Waterline

Note that it is rhythmically identical to the example before. The quarter note triplet again starts on the third beat of the bar.

Practising quarter note triplets

As you probably see, the only difficult aspect about quarter note triplets is the right timing – regular but not on or directly between the beats like “normal” notes.

You should start to practise the rhythmical aspect first, so forget about note names and simply play a muted string over a metronome counting the beats (= playing quarter notes).

Think like this:

  • Start on the third beat
  • All three notes of the triplet have the same duration
  • The last tone (= first note after the triplet) starts on the first beat of the next bar, so try to end on the “one”.

In other words, don`t try to play the second and third note at their correct position (this is very difficult because the metronome does not help you), but instead try to start and to end on a beat with a constant speed  (start: “three” of bar one, end: “one” of bar two)

The exercise looks like this:

basic exercise, play as a loop
basic exercise, play as a loop

The fourth beat of the metronome – “the “four” – falls between the second and the third of those triplet notes. Try not to be confused by this.

Mind to play it regularly, all three notes of the triplet have the same length. If the last note (the one on beat “one”) starts too early, try to play the triplet slower. If it comes too late, play the triple slightly faster.

Remember:

· You should practise this with a metronome (or a drum track).
· Practise at different speeds (be aware that a slower speed might be more difficult than a high speed).
· Practise thorougly, it is the precision that make it sound good.
· Finally you should develop a feeling for quarter note triplets and play them without thinking too much about what are are just reading.

Building quarter note licks / More examples

Note: You should practise the rhythm first (previous exercise) and only start with this next step if you perfectly manage the previous exercise. As you probably will not really listen to this advice, you should try to do the exercise later again, until you can play all notes precisely.

Basically you can play any notes that you would normally play. However, often it sounds good to start and to end with a note that belongs to the respective chord. Note that this is the case with the two Knopfler licks discussed so far.

The following examples include quarter note triplets over a C chord, so the first and the fourth notes are notes of a C chord.

lick1

lick2

lick3

lick4

The next examples run over a chord change from C to G.

lick5

lick6

The next example can be found in Six Blade Knife (start of the first solo) on many live versions (on the studio version he plays eighth notes):

six blade

… or another one from Down to the Waterline which opens the solos:

waterline2

Of course the quarter note triplets do not necessarily have to start on the third beat. Theoretically they can start at any position in the bar. However, in Mark Knopfler`s music you find them normally to start on the third or on the first beat.

In the following example (from Once Upon a Time in the West, 2:48) the first triplet starts at the first beat. Note that there are two quarter note triplets ( = six notes) in each of the next three bars. These bars are “filled up” completely with quarter note triplets.

click to enlarge

Here is another example in which two quarter note triplets (6 notes) fill up a complete bar (from Bob Dylan –  Slow Train Coming/ I believe in You, 4:33) . Note how you can “pinch” the strings to create an effect similar to staccato.

i believe in you

Or this one from Lions (2:11):

lions

The following example can be be found in some early live versions of Water of Love. Note how a two-string scale lick makes use of quarter note triplets.

water of love

Common mistakes

The following is a mistake that is typical when learning quarter note triplets. If you try to make the notes match to a grid of eighth notes, you might play something like in the second bar of the following example. In this bar, the second note is too early and the third too late. The rule “all have the same length” is violated. Compare the “wrong” version of the second bar with the correct one of the first bar.

mistake1

Leaving out notes

One thing you can do to make these quarter note triplets even more interesting is to leave out some of the notes. You should “think” the left out notes (to keep a steady feel when playing) but not actually play them. The following example shows two ways to leave out a note (first bar: the third note, second bar: the second note):

leaving out

In the following example – similar to the the first solo of Sultans of Swing, 3:27 – the first note of a quarter note triplet is left out.

sultans2

Examples from other artists

Of course quarter note triplets are something that is not limited to the electric guitar. You can find them in all kind of music, among all instruments, or in vocal parts.

One example is the refrain of The Right Time by the Corrs (quarter note triplets: “This – is – the” (right time) or “Once – in – a ” (life time).

Or the Mark Knopfler song Private Dancer from Tina Turner: I’m your private dancer, a (now the triplet) dan-cer-for-money…

Summary

You have learned that quarter note triplets do not fit into a straight grid of smaller note length. For this reason they are more difficult to play but reward you with a nice rhythmical effect. They are useful to set highlights to your solo.

They should be aware of their nature and practise them until you have internalized them and can play them without thinking about.

Often they start at the first or third beat of a bar. Likewise, you can play them one after the other, filling up a bar with 6 notes of the same length.

Interesting effects are created when some of these notes are simply left out.

Why not use the comment function to add more examples of quarter note triplets and discuss these here?

Amps, Effects, Guitars, Mark Knopfler gear, Misc, Recording

Sultans of Swing – The alternate single version and the demo version – sound and gear

Dire Straits’ first hit was Sultans of Swing, recorded in Basing Street studios, February 1978. But did you know that there was a different studio recording before (demo version, Pathway Studios, July 1977), and also a later recording (Pathway Studios, April 1978) that was recorded to be released as a single in some countries?

The demo version

This version was recorded on July 2, 1977, together with four other song (Wild West End, Down to the Waterline, Water of Love, and Sarcred Loving which was written by David Knopfler and was never released). The band had just started a few weeks before, and after rehearsing these first original songs they decided to book a small studio – Pathway Studios  – to produce a demo tape. The session cost them about 180 GBP. We all know what happened later: Radio DJ Charlie Gillet played these demo tapes in his Honky Tonk radio show, and the band finally got their record contract at the end of that year.

Pathway Studios was a tiny 8-track demo studio in Islington, London. Here is a quote I found about it in the Wikipedia. Note that it seems to refer to some later point as Alesis digital reverbs were definitely not available in 1977:

“The studio was very small, about 8 x 8 metres with a 2 x 2m control booth in the corner and an upright piano next to it. You could just squeeze three people into the control booth! The tape deck was a Brenell 1 inch 8 track. The monitors and desk were custom made, and they had a pair of Auratones as well, fed from Quad power amps. The desk was quite small, pushed hard against the front wall with the custom monitors hung above and the Auratones on the meter bridge. Outboard was very basic: a Bel delay line, an Alesis digital reverb and Drawmer gates, but they had a nice plate reverb in a cupboard in the office upstairs. I can’t recall all the mics but they were the industry standard stuff. We got big warm sounding mixes and despite the cramped conditions the mixing process seemed effortless compared to the difficult digital learning curve I have been on in the last two years.”

The following two pictures show Squeeze recording there in 1976.

pathway studios 1

pathway studios 2

This Sultans of Swing version (and only this song) was later released on a compilation album called the Honky Tonk demos by Oval records (see below for sound clip).

The single version

After the recording of the first Dire Straits album at Basing Street Studios (February 13 – March 5, 1978), the results were played to Phonogram’s marketing people. Some of them thought that Sultans of Swing was too polished and smooth sounding for a single that is accepted by the radio, so they re-recorded this song on April 20 / 26, 1978, again at Pathway Studios. This single was released in some countries, among them England and Germany, while in others the album version was released (e.g. in the Netherlands or the US). In some countries,  e.g. the former Yugoslavia, one verse (#5, “And a crowd of young boys…”) was cut off to decrease the overall length which – with almost 6 minutes – was rather long for the radio. This version features more distortion and compression, it indeed sounds more like  rock music. It even appears to be a bit faster although it is practically not. It seems it was never released on CD (see below for sound clip).

Sound and gear on these versions

On the demo version Mark Knopfler played most likely his 1961  Stratocaster (S-No #68354) , at this time he only had one Strat. It was probably not painted red yet but had a wood finish. The pick-up position seems to be the middle pick-up. The sound engineer at Pathway – Chas Herington – was later the  lighting designer on the Brothers in Arms tour  in the mid 80ies. It was 1985 in Arnhem, Netherlands, when I spoke with him and asked him about the equipment on these sessions. He told me that Mark played an old Fender Vibrolux amp which was recorded with a Neumann microphone. He also stated that Mark’s typical sound came out of the amp this way, and was not created with outboard effects and processing.
I assume that on the single version Mark Knopfler played his maple-neck Strat (S-No. #80470), also through the Vibrolux. This time there is a subtle distortion, possibly also compression (remember the rumour about the Dan Armstrong Orange Squeezer). The pick-up position seems to be bridge & middle to achieve that nasal sound.

Sound clips

Here are sound clips with excerpts from both versions.
Demo version (from CD)

 
Single version (from vinyl single)

 
Note that Mark also plays one of the two rhythm guitars on both tracks.

Guitars, Mark Knopfler gear

My Sunburst Schecter Strat Copy

Following on from Ingo’s  excellent article on the stolen sunburst schecter used on Tunnel Of Love.  I (Dermot O’Reilly also known as strat61 on some forums) have been invited to write a piece on my Schecter come fender strat inspired by that guitar.

Inspiration

Although I followed Dire Straits from 1978 with Sultans it was only Christmas 1980 when I started to play the guitar myself that I really locked onto Knopfler’s style and really fell in love with the strat. Tunnel Of Love has and always will be a special song for me especially the breakdown part in the song with the lines ..

Girl it looks so pretty to me
Like it always did
Like The Spanish City to me
When we were kids

.. and the subsequent play out. As a kid living in Doncaster in Northern England me and me mates (we don’t say “my mates and I” up there) we always kicked around the local fair that visited the Town Moor race course (not Newcastle’s Town Moor a ref for the song along with Spanish City). So at 16 years old having suffered a few life blows already it gave me a real lift.

My Sunburst Schecter Strat Copy

SchecterFender

SD530968

Even though the red schecter strat was used for live shows and TV at the time like Whistle Test because the sunburst had been stolen during Making Movies tour rehearsals Sept-Oct 1980 I later came to discover the Tunnel Of Love (stolen) strat which in the past few years I succeeded in a holy quest to replicate.

So basically it’s half original Schecter and half a 2006 Eric Johnson Sunburst Strat which is based on a 57 strat with the improvements Eric made, not so much for better sound (any strat has the potential for sounding great) but more for playability and stability. I liked the two piece alder body as the join wasn’t noticable and the very thin nitrocellulous lacquer finish. The neck is a 1-Piece Quartersawn Maple, Soft ‘V’ Shape with a nitrocellulose finish. I added an original schecter brass pick guard fully loaded with schecter F500 tapped pickups and original untampered (still waxed) wiring harness. The exact same as used by Knopfler in his sunburst schecter strats (1980 – 86). Also an original Schecter brass bridge with brass block plus brass “bath tub” input jack.
I always loved those Californian Schecter guitars that Mark used early on in Dire Straits and still untill very recently. I remember the day I read the reply from Andys a guitar shop in Denmark street as I read somewhere that Mark used the store and I wrote to them on “real paper” asking for more information. They said Mark used Schecters not Fender strats – I was shocked.  But that soon changed when heard Making Movies was recorded with schecter strats.

Sounds

Here’s a clip of me playing a few Knopfler licks.  Gear is my Schecter/Fender sunburst strat, 1977 Musicman 65W 212 amp. Also in the chain is a vintage Morley volume pedal, vintage MXR compressor, Boss Delay DDS-3 and an Aphex Aural Exciter.

Even though I have an old 1984 squier (The Popular) strat based on old 70’s fenders that I love this strat feels like a profession model, it’s well behaved, all the frets positions play well, but it is a fuller more smooth sounding strat – less brittle. I prefer the half tapped settings as they have a more open tone, the full bobbin is as a result more closed less harmonics but you can more easily get a pinched harmonic sound as is the case with humbuckers – I usually only use the untapped settings for blues or slide. In terms of matching the Tunnel of Love tones it’s pretty close, although I think my Music Man amp has a bigger part to play as any amp does in the tone mix, but this is the amp that was used on that album. The Schecter pickups can get some of the dynamics heard in that song especially the initial rhythm chops at the song start better than a bog standard strat. I’m still not sure whether Telegraph Road (played with the sunburst schecter replacement) uses the fully tapped or half tapped settings. Also an added plus is getting a great Walk Of Life tone as the pickups are the same as Marks Red tele and you can switch in the Neck and Bridge together.

What I like most about this strat apart from the looks of course is it’s ability to cover any type of style rock, blues different Dire Straits stuff over the years. It does a good impression of a Gibson Les Paul with neck/bridge non tapped and tone rolled off and as I just discovered yesterday with the bridge/mid non tapped you can get a good Ride Across the River tone – whereas sometime a std strat does only a few things well if your lucky. Thanks for reading.

FYI: The Eric Johnson Strat

Guitars, Mark Knopfler gear

Red Dire Straits Fender Stratocaster clone by XY* guitars

*Note: As there was an issue with this guitar – the neck warp was too big to play properly with 08 strings – the guitar was returned. For this reason, I removed all names – of the builder and the client.

XY* – a reader of this blog and singer / guitar player in the band XY*- recently sent me an email about his latest guitar: a clone of the famous original maple-neck Fender Stratocaster (# 80470) that Mark Knopfler used in early Dire Straits. The guitar was hand-built by XY* of XY* guitars.  I found XY’*s website some months ago and was indeed fascinated by his art of copying vintage Fenders.

Here is XY*’s report:
“I was lucky enough to  have a number of genuine old Strat parts that I had scrounged over the years that I didn’t really know what I’d ever do with; a ’61 pickguard and shielding plate, pickup covers, knobs and switch tip, an early ’63 neckplate and old saddles and bridgeplate as well as various screws. And a weird black knob that I can’t even remember getting. It’s bigger than a Fender so I’ve no idea what it is. It has nothing printed on it such as “TONE” or “VOLUME”. So who knows?
These I augmented with a few pieces from a number of “relic” sites. I also sourced a “relic” wiring harness for an early ’60s Strat. My original ’61 pickguard was in a rather poor state so I’ve retired it and was lucky enough to find a genuine cellulose replacement. I also wasn’t to keen to drill a hole through my ’63 neckplate so that was replaced as well. To this, XY* added the fake 80470 serial number.
I guess I’ve always entertained the idea of putting a really good retro Strat together at some point but I’ve never really known who to turn to. I’ve used a number of customised guitars over the years. Some better than others. I never had access to the fabulous guitars I saw in magazines but I’m a child of the post-Schecter tradition where guitar kits ruled and proved that the name on the headstock is just a way to throw money away. It’s ironic how those guitars are now so expensive themselves. The standard of what is out there these days is extraordinary: Musikraft make wonderful necks. The bodies from Warmoth are superbly machined and the likes of  XY* have shown that the accountants that run the huge “name” companies haven’t a clue about what goes into making quality instruments. Sims Custom guitars is very close to whereI live and Martin Sims, the owner, tells some wonderful horror stories of what he’s had to repair. He also recently received a number of old Schecter parts from a luthier who died recently and he let me have a look at them. Honestly, the workmanship and woods make the more recent Fender stuff look ridiculous. It’s sad but devolution is well on its way…

bravewood Strat 1

The reflected blue sky has mixed with the red to make it pink! As you’ve seen from the other pictures it is actually bright red.  As a rule, XY* never fits decals but for this project he kindly threw one in for me. Being the meticulous craftsman that he is, (yup, you guessed it) it’s a ’61 decal to go with the serial number.
The real cellulose pickguard is a lovely touch! I have chosen to go with hand-wound BK “Apache” pickups in the bridge and middle position as they sounded the best out of the choices I had tried and they work a treat. The DiMarzio FS-1 is in the front.

bravewood Strat 2

We decided not to “relic” the finish too much as the guitar had been recently been refinished back then but I look forward to letting it get a few miles on the tyres!
XY* added some lovely little touches: putting the “correct”  80470 serial number on the neckplate, flattening out the neck radius of the slab fingerboard (about 12″ so I don’t think it’s quite as flat as the original appears to be…) for those exaggerated bends and he did a fantastic job on the custom hot red nitro finish. He even gave the neck a “refinished” look; leaving the maple wood at the back of the neck a bit stained and used under the nitro finish as would be the case.

bravewood strat 3

There are a couple of personal touches in that the frets are a bit bigger (medium jumbo) and I’ve used a brass block instead of steel.
I’ve also gone for the very light strings; 8’s. XY* was a bit concerned about this, especially after the 11’s he favours, but I explained how, although lighter than what I’d normally use, it does seem to work for the early DS stuff and it certainly encourages a far lighter touch. He went on to admit that he got used to the light strings and was amazed at the tone that he’s able to get from the guitar.
I had no idea where this little project would lead me but it has been a wonderful, wonderful journey. Not the least of it being a rummage around the playing of Mr Knopfler. Your fine site has been invaluable in providing all sorts of information. I thank you… ”

*Note: As there was an issue with this guitar – the neck warp was too big to play properly with 08 strings – the guitar was returned. For this reason, I removed all names – of the builder and the client.

Mark Knopfler gear, Misc, Misc

Old Geocities Dire Straits Guitar Page down – Please update links and bookmarks

On October 26 Geocities finally closed. Geocities was one of the first hosts for free websites. They were taken over a few years later by Yahoo who now finally decided to drop Geocities forever.

When I built my very first website in 1996, it was Geocities who hosted my original “Dire Straits Guitar Page” at http://www.geocities.com/Nashville/3399/. Although hardly updated within the next years, it was nevertheless one of the first and most complete sources about Mark Knopfler`s gear and sound, and for this reason it had an incredible number of links through all kinds of guitar forums or websites, including the BBC ,  Rockpalast, and numerous guitar magazines.

dsthumb

Unfortunately it was not possible to redirect from a geocities page to some new domain. For this reason I started to make a copy of the original site at my own domain (http://ds.mk-guitar.com) last year and put some internal links from the Geocities page to the new site so that visitors coming from some links find the way to the new location.

From late October on there is only a “This site is no longer available” message but all the content is still available at the new location. If you run any websites that linked to the original site, I would be very thankful if you update your links and your bookmarks.

Guitar in general

The Tai Chi of guitar playing

taichiRecently my son started to practice Tai Chi – an internal Chinese martial art that is often practiced for health reasons. Tai Chi is originally a sophisticated martial art in which you learn to control and relax your mind and your body and to win over the hard with softness this way. It is not really about fighting these days but rather about practicing ultimate principles that enable you to reach a certain state of body and mind in which you can do unbelievable things, fighting is just one of these.

I find that applying the very same techniques and principles to guitar playing makes a lot of sense. Maybe it is not ideal for all music styles but surely for the Mark Knopfler style. It even seems to me that it is not possible to play this way without these principles. So what are these principles in detail and how do they refer to playing the guitar for this style?

Relaxation

One key element is relaxation. The whole body should be as relaxed as possible. And the mind, too. Your muscles become loose which allows extremely fast movements. If you want to play fast guitar licks this will not work with hard and cramped muscles – at least it will not sound the way you want it to, and playing with a lot of muscle tension will get you in trouble like becoming RSI.

Concentration

A relaxed mind allows you to concentrate. In return, keeping up a high level of concentration will reduce your muscle tension. After some time doing so the mind becomes extremely calm and clear. It should be no question how this will benefit for playing ultra-accurate, percussive rhythms or super-fluid casual licks like Mark Knopfler is famous for.

Yin and yang

yin yang pictureYou might have heard about these: the contrast behind all aspects of life that is the cause of all changes and all movements. It is an easy but at the same time very complex philosophy. In short: nothing can exist without its counterpart, without the opposite. Applying to music and guitar playing would mean for example to leave adequate pauses between the notes you play, or contrasting loud notes  with very soft,  low  notes  (just listen to the legendary first solo of Sultans of Swing). Everything in a perfect guitar solo must be in harmony with everything else, everything must be balanced. Bass notes require a contrast of treble notes,  short staccato licks should be contrasted with sustaining singing notes, and so on. I think you get the idea.

While these were really ultimate principles, the next ones are rather concrete details:

Body posture

The body can only reach its full potential when all parts of the body are exactly in the position they are really meant to be. Only this way relaxation is possible. This means the spine should be almost straight with only minimal pressure on your intervertebral discs. The shoulder must be relaxed. If you keep them slightly lifted (like we almost all do most of the time), your arm muscles cannot operate properly. All false positions of any body parts will block the flow of energy through your body.

Breathing

The breath should be deep and even. Try to “breathe into your belly”, not into your chest. Especially try to avoid holding the breath while playing, and to inhale quickly in breaks between licks. Ideally breathing should be natural and not be interrupted when trying to do something comlicated, like playing a special riff or lick. Probably you never payed attention to this aspect. Watch yourself and find out what you do under which circumstances.

Practicing slowly

In Tai Chi complex movements (which are normally whole-body movements) are practised extremly slow – like in slow motion. This way you will become aware of any wrong details like a too high muscle tension, lifted shoulders, or anything else that does not feel perfect. Do the same when practicing guitar: slow it down extremely and try to pay attention to **all details at the same time** – something you are noromally not able to when doing the same thing at a higher speed.

I am convinced that applying these rules will help you a lot to become a better guitar playing – it is not possible to overcome certain limits without them. And what seems to work for fighting or guitar playing also will work for nearly all things in our lives. So applying these principles for all things in life makes a lot of sense – you will not only be able to do things you cannot do otherwise, you will also feel much better and happier. And what can be more important than this?