Legendary Dire Straits guitarist Mark Knopfler has disclosed that his unique playing style originated from strumming a tennis racket as a child.
At 74 yearsold, Knopfler shared that although he is left-handed, he was advised by his older sister to hold the racket the other way around while pretending it was a guitar. He recounted this anecdote during an interview with Lauren Laverne on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, expressing his appreciation for his sister’s influence: “It’s all thanks to my big sister Ruth. I believe big sisters play a crucial role in our lives.”
“I was pretending the racket was a guitar, and she turned it around so I was holding it right-handed, saying that’s how you play it,” Knopfler recounted.
The Glasgow-born guitarist explained that, being left-handed but playing a right-handed guitar, his dominant hand was used for forming the notes. This approach provided him with “a bit of flexibility” and enabled him to perform a vibrato on “two or three strings at a time.”
Dire Straits achieved five UK top ten singles and four No. 1 albums, with global hits like “Money for Nothing” and “Sultans of Swing.”
Mark Knopfler reveals that his iconic fingerpicking style developed because he grew up without an amplifier. “Fingerpicking came from not having an amp. After my dad spent money on the guitar, I didn’t have the nerve to ask him for one,” Knopfler said, explaining how the absence of amplification influenced his distinctive playing technique.
“I played shockingly bad boogie-woogie piano, taught by my uncle, at home,” he recalls. “I can’t believe how patient my parents were. Later, when I got a guitar, I’d be stomping on the floor, but they never stopped me.”
Notably, Knopfler is left-handed, but a pivotal moment involving his big sister and a tennis racket transformed his approach to guitar playing. “My big sister Ruth… we had these cheap tennis rackets,” he recalls. “I was pretending it was a guitar, and she turned it around, saying, ‘That’s the way you play it.’”
As a result, playing a right-handed guitar allowed his dominant hand to control the fretboard, rather than just handle the picking.
“It gives me a bit of flexibility,” Knopfler says. “If I played a vibrato, I could do it on two or three strings at a time.”
His other hand, developed out of necessity, became crucial as he sought ways to amplify his sound without an actual amplifier. “Fingerpicking came from not having an amp,” he reveals. “After my dad spent 50 pounds on a guitar, I didn’t have the nerve to ask him for an amp. I didn’t think it was right.”
In a 2022 conversation with Guitar Player, Knopfler elaborated on how he honed his weaker hand: “Eventually, I found I could do things with just my thumb and two fingers that I couldn’t achieve with a pick. However, I still use a plectrum occasionally for strumming or playing acoustic tracks.”
As noted by GP, this necessity led him to rely on finesse and economy of picking rather than brute force, which directly influenced the creation of hits like “Sultans of Swing.”
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