I’ve been playing guitar for 30 years but have never taken on the challenge of learning some quality Mark Knopfler licks. So I decided to go all-in and start with one of the most difficult. I wish I was able to record all the failures of learning this song and show you what it took.

I have always loved the pure, natural sound of acoustic instruments, and those MTV unplugged sets where they’d have all kinds of rock and blues artists perform more acoustic sets. It’s a more intimate setting and sound. I hadn’t really planned on doing any kind of recording at the beginning, but as I started learning the song I was so horrible at the lead guitar I needed to record some MUCH slower backing tracks to play along with, so I started with that. Then, as I was getting it up to proper speed, I decided to add in some other percussion and bass and see what kind of mix I might get. I have been really enjoying getting back into the recording process, and all the rabbit-holes of different mixes and settings. I’ve been putting together a new, simple home studio, and this was a perfect way to get to know it and create a flow (If you’re into that stuff, I’m using a Scarlett 2i2 and recording into GarageBand on a Mac, using a few different mics depending on the application, an AKG C200B, P170, and a Shure SM57).

I consider myself a wannabe bass player and percussionist, and I have to do a few takes to fix my timing errors but I enjoy trying. I pretty much copied the bass line from the recording but tried to add a bit of my own groove in there.

Thanks to Mark Knopfler and Dire Straights for their music and inspiration. 

Now, if you’ve read this far, what song should I do next??