Play like Mark Knopfler

Mark Knopfler plays lead without a pick, and that is the heart of his sound in Dire Straits songs like "Sultans of Swing": thumb on the bass, fingers on the melody, notes that snap and sparkle over a clean tone. This chapter teaches you fingerstyle lead guitar the Mark Knopfler way, in A major and D minor.

You start with pinches and snaps, plucking bass and melody together and pulling a string away from the guitar so it slaps back with a sharp attack. Double-stop melodies show how to play two voices at once in thirds and sixths, each finger owning its string. Major-pentatonic hooks teach catchy, singable lines in A with hammer-ons, pull-offs and a bend, and triad rolls turn small chord shapes on the top strings into rippling, harp-like arpeggios over a Dm, Bb, C, Am progression.

Every exercise plays as tab in your browser with a click and a tempo ladder, on a clean amp sound, and each lesson ends with a checkpoint. By the end your picking hand will feel at home without a pick, and your lead lines will sound clean, light and full of character.