Mark Knopfler says he needs to restore his guitar playing technique

The legendary Dire Straits vocalist, guitarist, and main songwriter Mark Knopfler has been focused on his solo career for the past three decades. Although he still plays a few songs from his former band, he told Guitar World that he feels he couldn’t play many tracks from the classic album Brothers in Arms today. He also looks forward to restoring his guitar playing technique in order to tackle something challenging, like those songs.

Mark Knopfler says he needs to restore his guitar playing technique

“I probably wouldn’t be able to play them so well now (Songs from ‘Brothers in Arms’). But I’m hoping to put my head down and really get back into some proper playing in the near future. Covid slowed me down a lot. I’ve had it three times. And then, if you’re away from the guitar for a while, your pads get softer and you lose your facility a little bit. So I’m really looking forward to improving.”

“I think what happens is, you develop lazy techniques. I’m forever doing that. You know, half-chords, these little semi-shapes. It wouldn’t make a teacher very happy. I mean, nothing I do would make a guitar teacher happy.”

“I don’t know about ‘improve.’ I think you just find new things to inspire you. Because there’s just no end to it. It’s really all there for you, if you just want to sit down and be bothered to learn it,” Mark Knopfler said.

During the same conversation the musician recalled that he feels like that record meant a lot to many people around the world and it was a crucial thing for Dire Straits’ commercial success. “I think it was a combination of luck and events crashing into each other,” he said.

Dire Straits’ fifth studio album and the most famous one, “Brothers in Arms” was released in 1985. It has hits like “So Far Away”, “Money For Nothing”, “Walk of Life” and the title-track.  It is one of the best-selling albums of all time, with an estimated of more than 30 million copies sold.