5 Levels of "Sultans of Swing"

hello Internet my name is Ayla tesler Mabe and recently My New Puppy George ate my mom's iPhone I'm not joking he's been eyeing my guitar picks like a delicious iPhone lately so I preemptively ate them first so he couldn't eat them needless to say I have no guitar picks because they're currently in my digestive tract and I wanted to make a lesson highlighting one of the greatest pickless guitarists of all time Mark Knopfler so we're going to start with a D Minor open chord you leave that D string open put your middle finger on the second fret of the G string put your ring finger on the third fret of the B string and put your index finger on the first fret of the high E string and then you play C major and then we're gonna play a very interesting version of a B flat chord because that's usually a pretty tough bar chord to get down but you can play it with just three fingers index finger on that third fret of the D string middle finger on the third fret of the G string ring finger on the third fret of the B string you want to avoid the high E string if you want it to be a straight up B flat chord though secret tip it does sound kind of cool to leave it in there but you do want to just play those three strings and then we want to play an A major chord I have to do is take this shape slide it down a fret we put that all together D minor D B flat a so the next thing to do to take it to the next level is add some strumming [Music] so what am I doing I'm playing up down up up down up up down up up down up up down up up down up up down up up down up now the next thing we can add is a muted smack strum like this [Music] foreign [Music] at the point where you can do that no worries I don't think you need to have that muted strum in there but if you want to work towards it all you want to do is release pressure with your fretting hand so that when you strum the cord does not ring out and you instead get that kind of sound and why did I say and what was I gonna say [Music] and of course I am doing this with just my hand no pick [Music] and that upstroke is with my index finger down stroke is with my thumb and then when I do that muted strum I'm actually using my nails because you can hear in the original it has this sort of bright texture to it and I think that's attributed to strumming with the nails like that if you also want to be like Guitar George and know all the chords you can head on over to guitaro.com trial where we have a full transcription of this song as well as hundreds of other songs that you love now let's get back to the plane so let's now learn the chord voicings that are actually used in the song instead of playing that open D minor we can play it as a bar chord so barring across that fifth fret ring finger on the seventh fret of the D string pinky finger on the seventh fret of the G string middle finger on the sixth fret of the B string let's jump from the a string down now you're playing a D minor chord and then foreign we want to play a C major to B-flat and luckily those two chords use the exact same shape so our major bar chord shape there are two ways you could play it bar with that index finger across the third fret from the a string down and you can use three fingers like this across the fifth fret of the D G and B strings or you can also bar with your ring finger that's personally how I play the chord and you do want to avoid the high E string if you're playing the chord this way just because it'll turn into a different chord but either way in the original I think the high E string is avoided regardless of what chord voicing you use so C major B flat you simply move that chord shape down two Frets and then you play a major same open chord as before but every so often you can hear that they go to an a dominant seven chord and all that is is an a major chord with your middle finger removed so that the G string is open [Music] I'm sorry guys I really want to move on to level four but I need a pick for that [Applause] [Music] oh hold on perfect so the next thing we're going to do is add even more finesse to the strumming pattern this is played with a pick though you can definitely do it with your fingers as well [Music] so what's going on first I'll show you how to do it with your fingers and then with the pick down down up and then this next downstroke is muted [Music] and then the last two strums are up Strokes [Music] you can do that for all of the chords other than the B flat [Music] I want to use a thinner one just because it's a fast strumming pattern and that's usually a good thing to do when you're strumming fast it's the same down down up down and that downstroke is muted and then two up Strokes [Music] there you go now the last thing we're gonna do is add all of the thinness and the lead lines and I'm just going to show you five of my favorite licks [Music] so what's going on there firstly slide from the second fret on the G string up to the sixth fret and then immediately put your index finger on the fifth fret of the high E string and then play that g string again [Music] G string E string and then put your ring finger on the sixth fret of the high E string and then again play G string High E string and if you can add some vibrato when you play that sixth fret of the high E string it'll sound even more authentic and then slide that shape down to the fourth fret of the G string and the third fret of the high E string [Music] slide it down so your middle finger is on the second fret of the G string and your index finger is on the first fret of the high E string [Music] there's the first look [Music] so what's going on here [Applause] start by doing a pull off from 10 to 9 on the high E string and then land on the 10th fret of the B string and then you're gonna slide from nine seven to six on the G string [Music] and then you do a pull off from seven to five on the D string and then you land on the seventh fret of the a string with some vibrato [Music] so this next lick you're gonna play this very cool Triad shape middle finger on the second fret of the G string index finger on the first fret of the B string ring finger on the second fret of the high E string and you're gonna slide this up all the way to the ninth fret eighth fret ninth fret and you're gonna move it down a fret and back [Music] and it ends with the tenth fret of the G and B strands I'm pretty sure those are the only two notes I can hear but sometimes when I listen to it I wonder if that high E string is in there really quietly [Music] so maybe you could try to get just a little bit of that note to come in or you could ignore it completely or you could full-on include it I think either way it sounds great [Music] foreign such a great look you're going to start by bending the 12th fret of the B string up a whole step and you definitely want to get some sweet vibrato on there and then you're gonna catch the 12th fret of the height U string [Music] and then you're going to bring that bend down and land on the 10th fret of the B string [Music] and then you're gonna slide up to the 14th fret of the G string with your middle finger and then use your index finger to play the 13th fret of the high E string foreign let's move on to the last lick [Music] that might be my favorite Lick in the whole song You're gonna start with your middle finger on the second fret of the G string slide up to the sixth fret and then put that index finger on the fifth fret of the height E string play that g string again and then play the seventh fret of the high E string [Music] and then you're going to take that middle finger slide up to the ninth fret and then use your ring finger to play the ninth fret of the high E string [Music] and then you're going to slide that up to the 12th fret playing the G string in the height E string then you end by playing tenth fret of the G string and the E string and you really want to try to get some vibrato on there I think that's part of what makes Mark knopfler's playing so gorgeous he just has an incredible touch on the instrument [Music] I hope that this video gave you a way to start playing this iconic song No Matter What stage in your guitar playing you're currently at let us know in the comments what level you got to and if there are any other songs you want to hear me break down this way thanks for watching and have a lovely day [Music] you can't use that

Channel: Musora

Views: 1,551,237

Keywords: dire straits, sultans of swing, mark knopfler, sultans of swing guitar lesson, how to play sultans of swing, dire straits sultans of swing, sultans of swing dire straits, sultans of swing guitar

Id: 0dboBTsIqps

Length: 12min 37sec (757 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 06 2023