This has been a revelation. I finally understand where I’ve been going wrong. To sound good I need to be playing to people drunker than I am!

I don't even play guitar but this was very interesting.

Mark knopfler is a legend, the fact that people are still playing and trying to learn his riffs decades later just highlights his genius,  a true master of his craft 👍👍🤠🎸

There is an interview where Mark is playing his old Gibson Advanced jumbo and demonstrating different types of rhythm he uses. I can't tell you how many times I have put certain parts of that video in to a youtube video looper and slowed the speed down to .5x speed just to still barely be able to understand how Mark's syncopation really works. His right hand technique has completely changed how I think about riffs and what is possible on the guitar. We always think about the left hand and what it could be doing better. But when you see what a truly amazing example of right hand technique can achieve, it is something you will never be able to unhear. It is like he is adding an ADSR control to the notes. The velocity, the attack, the muting, they are all variables that he just seams to have absolute mastery of and the culmination of all them coming together gives you one of the greatest guitarists that has ever lived. I think the fact that we are still trying to understand Mark's playing all these decades later just goes to show what impact he's had. Great video and great playing

6:59 This is something a lot of people don't understand. It is often way harder to play someone else's solos and riffs than it is for them to play it. Because when they came up with it, they were playing what comes natural. But what's natural for them might be very unnatural for everyone else.

Mark Knofler's approach to the guitar is unique. He's one of the guitar heros that owns his own tone.
Unmatchable!
Even tough, I may say that he never plays this riif the same way twice. And that's good!

Mark's right hand close-up video looks like claw-hammer banjo technique. But with great muting, rhythm and timing. Finger picking masterclass. The earlier, long distance footage he's keeping his little finger anchored on the pick guard.

that looks exacly like banjo clawhammer, maybe that;s where Mark got this bizarre style from, bluegrass

As a non-guitar player, but a soundboard guy, and guitar music fan, Knopfler is in his own league. I thing you are getting there. I always felt like Heavy Fuel was his most scalable song, one that you could learn the basics quickly and work your way closer to the exact match but never quite reach.

This riff is what inspired me to play guitar back in the 80's. Valve amp distortion and a half cocked wah wah pedal gets the tone in the right ball park. Good stuff. 👍

The two fingers are basically catching the strings after you pluck them and then bouncing off.  The nails don't hit the strings.  The closest thing with a pick is probably a rest stroke, movement wise.  It's very precise, it's not strummed.  It took me a long time to figure out, but I can finally play it the way Mark plays it.

I enjoyed this as much for learning about how you tackled learning it as I did hearing the result

As a non-player who has heard many discussions of guitar playing and especially the attempt to replicate a particular solo or riff, I have to compliment you on how you talk about this iconic riff.  It becomes less about copying some notes and more about entering the inner sanctum of a gifted guitar player and having that epiphany of recognizing what makes the sound so special and, further, why copying will never be close to the genius of inventing the riff in the first place and using a personal talent to create a signature for that sound.  We all know this much:  that copying a set of notes is easy enough if you're just determined to sound roughly the same as the original; and that creating that sequence of notes with that particular quality in the first place is very different from copying someone else's playing.  Mark Knopfler invents his sound and creates a series of notes to express something that the lyrics of the song can't convey or that reinforces the melody of the song with a second kind of melody on the guitar.  Many guitar players, even "great" ones, don't do much of that.  Too often, they fashion notes that are just showing off their skill on the guitar, without truly serving the song.  

Anyway, what I enjoy most in your commentary is the reverence or deep appreciation you hold for Mark's playing.  It's the kind of reverence that only a very good guitar player can bring to expressing what they admire about another player.  That sentiment is moving for me.

I've got Guy Ritchie on the phone, he wants to cast uncle Knobhead in his next movie.
Back on topic, interesting how Mark uses his right hand third finger as support on the pickup edge.

7:42 This is the closest I've heard anyone try and replicate this riff and yet the original record still sounds ever so slightly different and unique.

You're the only teacher I know that went through all the frustrations, patience and gone through the tunnel to the other side. congratulations. I believe that's it

I love teaching this riff in one-on-one lessons because the amount of detail in it is astonishing. Even the first slide is difficult to play, and then it starts with the thumb and index finger playing the 5th string at once, and then it has places where the fretting hand is playing hammer-ons while the picking hand is playing bass at the same time. Then it's this downstroke technique, which is a marvel on its own, and which many players confuse with a slapping move. Don't forget how consistent this riff is, and how it sounds so good on its own. I got a lesson on this riff with 0.5 million views, but talking about it for just 15 minutes was a sin on my side. It deserves much more attention. A couple of hours will do. Overall, the technique of the Money for Nothing riff is actually very similar to the Walk of Life rhythm, and it's noticeable in most of Mark's riffs. Two Young Lovers, Don’t You Get It, Song For Sonny Liston, What It Is...

Once you learn Mark's "boom-chicka" pattern, it's amazing how much stuff falls out of it for free. All of those signature ghost notes that show up in his songs are a side-effect of it (some of which I'm sure are on accident).

A sacred peace of rock history, excellent description.

Learning the nuances of a guitar riff is one thing, but nailing the "Uncle Knobhead" that's special!