Customer Reviews

The Guitar Style of Mark Knopfler (Guitar Signature Licks)

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I've only spent about 6 hours with this book and CD, but I know I'm going to get TOP value for my money. I would actually call myself a "beginner" - I started playing accoustic less than 4 years ago, but have had no formal training at all - picking up bits and pieces as I go along - and time for practising is always too little. I decided to buy an electric guitar, and this is the first time I'm really utilising it - i.e. playing something that doesn't belong on the old accoustic. I'm a great fan of Mark Knopfler's music, and I cannot describe the feeling of playing the intro and first verse of Sultans of Swing together with the great man after about 4 hours of practising! I have only paged through the rest of the book, but from what I've seen and heard, this book and CD is spot-on. The CD itself, with "backtrack" on one channel and guitar on the other (which makes it easy to separate), as well as slowed down tracks, is brilliant! Yes, the songs are very complicated, and I know this book is going to keep me practicing for years to come, but it will be worth it!

This book is excellent, for what it is. The editorial description is a bit misleading, because this book is not a complete transcription of the songs in the table of contents. If you want complete transcriptions of Dire Straits songs, then you will need to look elsewhere. Instead, this book is an overview of Mark Knopfler's style, using passages from his Dire Straits-era songs to highlight aspects of his unique approach to guitar. For example, only the outro solo from "Tunnel of Love" is presented. Wolf Marshall provides a nice discussion of each passage, the transcription appears spot-on to my ears, and the CD is a nice complement to the text.