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Author Topic: The Mark Knopfler Songbook — Featured on MK's official YouTube channel  (Read 115092 times)

Offlinejbaent

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Your video remind me of one that Roberto Sanchez, the guitar player from the Spanish tribute "Alchemy band" made explaining a lot of things about guitars and, starting in 5.58 he starts talking about "Single-handed sailor", the two rythmic tracks from MK and David, and he explains the MK guitar solo.

The video is in Spanish, but the important thing for us is what he plays, so I hope you can enjoy his video anyway!

Roberto says that is the most imaginative solos Mk had done in his whole career, a solo that doesn't happens automatically but it needs to be planned, to think about what he wants to do and how, and plays it part by part.

https://youtu.be/FSNHJU9C9Y4?t=358
« Last Edit: May 10, 2022, 10:18:14 AM by jbaent »
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Offlinedustyvalentino

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Can I request the solo/licks from the start of the track please? :)
"You can't polish a doo-doo" - Mark Knopfler

Onlinequizzaciously

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Your video remind me of one that Roberto Sanchez, the guitar player from the Spanish tribute "Alchemy band" made explaining a lot of things about guitars and, starting in 5.58 he starts talking about "Single-handed sailor", the two rythmic tracks from MK and David, and he explains the MK guitar solo.

The video is in Spanish, but the important thing for us is what he plays, so I hope you can enjoy his video anyway!

Roberto says that is the most imaginative solos Mk had done in his whole career, a solo that doesn't happens automatically but it needs to be planned, to think about what he wants to do and how, and plays it part by part.

https://youtu.be/FSNHJU9C9Y4?t=358

Great playing! Miles ahead of me actually! But he's in a tribute band, after all, so he must know his stuff. And he was blessed with a bigger thumb that's for sure, haha. I don't know about "Single-handed sailor", to me any Mark's solo is a diamond. What an underrated guitar player he is... There should be more people trying to play this stuff because it's so amazing. But everybody's playing John Mayer nowadays :lol

Onlinequizzaciously

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Can I request the solo/licks from the start of the track please? :)

Sure, I'll take a look at it and on other solos maybe. As I can see, the demand for this stuff is still obviously here (who would've thought, haha), so I need to get to work. I knew this lead guitar stuff is popular, to me it's just another level of responsibility, trying not to drop something totally wrong by accident.

Offlinedustyvalentino

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Thanks!

One of the reasons the intro is interesting to me is that MK re-purposes licks from one of the old blues tunes he does with the Hillbillies (can't remember the name right now) which goes back to your point about improvised solos repurposing other stuff.
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OfflineJF

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Your video remind me of one that Roberto Sanchez, the guitar player from the Spanish tribute "Alchemy band" made explaining a lot of things about guitars and, starting in 5.58 he starts talking about "Single-handed sailor", the two rythmic tracks from MK and David, and he explains the MK guitar solo.

The video is in Spanish, but the important thing for us is what he plays, so I hope you can enjoy his video anyway!

Roberto says that is the most imaginative solos Mk had done in his whole career, a solo that doesn't happens automatically but it needs to be planned, to think about what he wants to do and how, and plays it part by part.

https://youtu.be/FSNHJU9C9Y4?t=358

there are not only two rythmic tracks on single handed sailor, but three ! four guitars in total

https://www.mk-guitar.com/gear-on-all-songs-for-all-albums-wiki/gear-on-album-communique/

Onlinequizzaciously

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Your video remind me of one that Roberto Sanchez, the guitar player from the Spanish tribute "Alchemy band" made explaining a lot of things about guitars and, starting in 5.58 he starts talking about "Single-handed sailor", the two rythmic tracks from MK and David, and he explains the MK guitar solo.

The video is in Spanish, but the important thing for us is what he plays, so I hope you can enjoy his video anyway!

Roberto says that is the most imaginative solos Mk had done in his whole career, a solo that doesn't happens automatically but it needs to be planned, to think about what he wants to do and how, and plays it part by part.

https://youtu.be/FSNHJU9C9Y4?t=358

there are not only two rythmic tracks on single handed sailor, but three ! four guitars in total

https://www.mk-guitar.com/gear-on-all-songs-for-all-albums-wiki/gear-on-album-communique/

And that's exactly why I dreaded recording solos for so long... The level of complexity is beyond any human level. I think if somebody except for MK himself (at least his younger version) would be able to recreate any of his songs with multiple guitar tracks exactly, he'd be a president of the world. I can confidently say that even with all my powers, I won't be able to even come close to the stuff MK did in his debut album. And I don't know how he found 10 trillion hours to develop all this stuff. I'm almost ready to give up playing every time I try to pick up anything the guy played, but it's 1% of a chance that I'll be able to play it that saves me.

OfflineJustme

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Brilliant playing as always!  :clap
And she's sitting in her Lusso, in the early morning sun.

Offlineprimi

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Pavel, what are your thoughts about how hard to pick? I watched your last "the bug" video and then watched that guy Roberto and you both picked much harder than I would (or did). I think I read in a book (possibly in that official Mark Knopfler Guitar Styles) that he plays light, not hard at all. I also played light and if I put some deliberate attempt at picking harder I quickly gravitated towards light picking again.

Onlinequizzaciously

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Pavel, what are your thoughts about how hard to pick? I watched your last "the bug" video and then watched that guy Roberto and you both picked much harder than I would (or did). I think I read in a book (possibly in that official Mark Knopfler Guitar Styles) that he plays light, not hard at all. I also played light and if I put some deliberate attempt at picking harder I quickly gravitated towards light picking again.

That's an amazing question actually. And a hard one, so please excuse me for the long answer. I think we need first to establish what "light picking" means. From my experience, often, extremely often I come across people who play too lightly, even including accomplished professional musicians! And I mean here more the "slow attack" or "fast attack", and not the raw force you apply to play a string. I think of it as the speed of fingers in the right hand.

The thing with guitar playing is, that the volume of your playing doesn't depend on the raw force you apply, it's more about how fast you attack the string with your fingers. If you'll watch classical guitar players, these guys usually have a perfect right-hand technique, but their fingers barely move, and the volume of playing goes all over the place: from quiet whispering notes to atomic explosions. How on Earth do they do that? They do that by changing the speed of the attack.

"Light picking" is actually a required skill in order to be a good musician because if you pick too hard, the excessive stress on the right hand will quickly drain your stamina and the hand might actually even get hurt in the long run. So picking should always be as light as possible and relaxed as possible, but the actual speed of attack may change.

From what I can see and hear, Mark has a pretty fast attack, he doesn't approach strings lightly at all. If you play his stuff lightly, it just doesn't sound like it's supposed to sound. Take "Marbletown" for instance. Mark hits those strings pretty hard in that song, he's not lightly picking it at all. So no, I'd say he plays really hard. But Mark is a big guy and I think this comes pretty naturally to him, so coming from someone like me it may feel like I'm forcing this attack. If you have big hands, chances are you will automatically pick harder.

So anyway, my view is that two things should co-exist somehow in guitar playing: the 100% relaxed right hand, but at the same time, the fast attack with fingers. But if you will force this hard attack, you'll lose your hand, and if you decide to play lightly overall, you'll lose the tone. So it's a fine balancing act and a hard, but crucial thing to develop in your playing, at least in my view.

Onlinequizzaciously

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Part 2 of my "Water Of Love" experience, where I talk about rhythm guitar. Playing solos is nice, but the best experience for me always has been and always will be playing rhythm, so I'll continue to dive into it more and more. This song is so simple, and yet, so captivating, that's the beauty of Mark's early songwriting. Fewer chords, fewer notes, but a lot of feel and atmosphere. Pavel.

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Another solo time — Speedway At Nazareth! A masterpiece of a solo, it’s difficult, but in a good way. As always, Mark never flashes his technique for the sake of it. This song demands some elbow grease from all the musicians in the band (look at the Drummer!), and Mark delivers this beautiful solo in his department. I’m happy to find this new format, I never thought breaking down solos would be so much fun. The best feedback I got for it is that it’s interesting even for non-musicians. That’s what I would call a success! Pavel.


Onlinequizzaciously

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Now it’s the rhythm guitar part of “Speedway At Nazareth”. You know if your favorite MK song doesn’t appear on my channel is either because I still never tried to play it, or I played it and was astonished by its complexity. I wanted to do Speedway for a long time but always put it away. Now, having covered the solo part, I figured why not discuss the rhythm now. The stars must’ve aligned, lols. It’s a hard part, but also very “approachable” as well. There are levels and levels you can go deeper and deeper with this song. Starting with just outlining the chords, which is already a big endeavor since there are so many chords and variations, around 20 shapes and voicings. Then it’s strumming, starting with simple two beats strumming, then a more complex strumming, then picking. Then combining picking and strumming. Then learning the solo. I mean, it’s the whole world on its own, and with two videos, clocking in at 30+ minutes, I only started to, attempted to figure it out. It’s an iceberg! But don’t be the Titanic. Pavel.



As always, something becomes obvious after the recording, and another detail I missed is that the band usually plays Dm before G and Esus4, but as Dm/F on a guitar is technically the same thing as F6, it more depends on what other musicians are playing. If you really want to, you can emphasize F6 with an F on the 4th string and Dm with an open D string. I played both versions. And wrote it down correctly in the tablature.
« Last Edit: May 31, 2022, 07:09:31 PM by quizzaciously »

OfflineJustme

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Another solo time — Speedway At Nazareth! A masterpiece of a solo, it’s difficult, but in a good way. As always, Mark never flashes his technique for the sake of it. This song demands some elbow grease from all the musicians in the band (look at the Drummer!), and Mark delivers this beautiful solo in his department. I’m happy to find this new format, I never thought breaking down solos would be so much fun. The best feedback I got for it is that it’s interesting even for non-musicians. That’s what I would call a success! Pavel.



Damn! That's sounding way too good! Awesome deconstruction of an epic solo.
And it works on those singlecoils also.
And she's sitting in her Lusso, in the early morning sun.

Onlinequizzaciously

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Another solo time — Speedway At Nazareth! A masterpiece of a solo, it’s difficult, but in a good way. As always, Mark never flashes his technique for the sake of it. This song demands some elbow grease from all the musicians in the band (look at the Drummer!), and Mark delivers this beautiful solo in his department. I’m happy to find this new format, I never thought breaking down solos would be so much fun. The best feedback I got for it is that it’s interesting even for non-musicians. That’s what I would call a success! Pavel.



Damn! That's sounding way too good! Awesome deconstruction of an epic solo.
And it works on those singlecoils also.

Thank you! That's only my second solo deconstruction, I hesitated to do it because I only have a Squier Mini at my disposal and a practice amp, but you can make a lot of sound out of this combo it seems.

 

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