The Ultimate Money For Nothing (Dire Straits) Lesson
(Scroll down for the tab)
One of the most original guitar riffs ever written came out when I was four years old. Ten years later, when I was fourteen, in September 1995, I’ve passed by my sister’s room and suddenly stopped. This song was on VH1. Instant flashback.
“I must learn how to play this song”, I said to myself. But first, I had to learn how to play guitar.
Yup, this is the one that got me playing guitar in the first place. It’s one of the coolest riffs a guitar player can have in their arsenal. It’s haunting. And now I give you this lesson. An in-depth tutorial for this amazing riff, covering everything I could possibly think of to tell you and teach you about it.
If you want your distortion to sound like the original recording (A think Mark Knopfler himself has never achieved, actually. I’ve listened to dozens of live versions and even the UHF version where he played it for Weird Al, and it doesn’t sound like it), put your wah pedal after your distortion pedal and leave the wah pedal open at about %60. Or just get the Line6 POD patch and tweak it a little.
Keep in mind, it may take a little practice to get the right feel for playing distortion with your fingers, but don’t give up, you’ll get there eventually. And beware – NEVER play this riff with a pick, or I will personally come over there and confiscate your guitar.
Somewhere there’s a recording of a four-year-old Assaf Levavy singing the chorus of this song in terrible gibberish-English (I think the only legit word in there is refrigerator). If I can convince my aunt to find it, I promise I will upload it one day. In the meanwhile, enjoy this lesson.
(Click image for full-size tab)
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beginner, direstaits, electric, fingerpicking, guitar, howto, intermediate, lesson, lick, markknopfler, music, playing, practicing, riff, rolemodels, solo, sound, technique
