Learn how to play a killer Mark Knopfler riff from the song Money For Nothing by Dire Straits with Guitar Control instructor Darrin Goodman, aka Uncle D. This riff can be played with a plectrum, but Uncle D recommends doing it fingerstyle like Knopfler does it. So be sure to get the free tabs to go along with the step by step video instruction and you will be rockin’ this classic riff tonight!
Introduction
How’s it going everybody? This is Darrin with GuitarControl.com bringing you this video lesson and today I want to show you how to play a cool Mark Knopfler riff from Money For Nothing.
So be sure to click on the link in the description for the tabs and let’s get close up and take a look at this.
Mark Knopfler Riff – Money For Nothing
All right, so a big thing that makes it sound the way that it sounds is the way that Knopfler plays with his fingers. You can play this with a pick, but it sounds so much better playing with your fingers and in a lot of ways I believe is easier. So we’re going to start off we’ve just got this D5 power chord so I’m here on the fifth fret of the D string with my first finger and the seventh fret of the G string with my third finger and we’re gonna play that and I’m just using my thumb and my first and second finger. So right now I’m just using my first and second finger to pluck the D and the G string. So we’re going to start this off we play that twice as well we do it three times, we do it as beats one and two, and then the downbeat of three; so like one, two, three. And then on the and of three how I like to do it is I just keep my first finger barred and then I use my third finger to come up here to seven because the next chord is there where you’re just barring the D and the G strings. So then you get one, two, three and four and then on the and of four we’re gonna change… So on the and of four I’m just going to take my middle finger I’m going to bring it up here to the sixth fret of the B string, but since I’ve got my finger of already barring here I get the fifth fret of the G string. And then we hit that on the and of four;
so one, two, three and, four and. So it’s tied to beat one of the second measure so we’re gonna let that keep ringing, but we’re gonna pluck the D string and it’s going to be the fifth fret because again your first finger barre here; one, two, three and, four and, one and then on the downbeat of two we hit that first G5 power chord again… So that’s on the downbeat of two and then on the and of two we barre five and five. So we hit that on the and of two and then the downbeat of three we’re gonna move down to the third fret so we’re barring the D and the G strings and we hit that on the and of three. And then on the downbeat of four we hit the open D string and to four the open D and G strings. So that’s like the first two measures of the riff… Okay then on the next measure we actually we have on the downbeat of one just a little percussive note. So it doesn’t really matter which string you hit, just whatever’s easier for you. It doesn’t have to be just a single string, you just to kind of get that sound in there and then on the downbeat of two we hit the open D and G strings again and that’s tied to the downbeat of three. Then on the and of three we go back to the third fret D and G strings and then two mute strums for four and… Okay then on measure four we’re gonna do a regular B flat power chord. So first finger on the first fret of the A string and then I just use my third finger to pick up the third fret of the D string and my fourth finger pick up the third fret of the G string; we’re going to hit that on one and then we slide up to three. So when we hit that it’s not counted in the timing, it’s that small note. If you look on the note it’s like a smaller size note and the font looks different it has parentheses around it. So it’s like you kind of feel it, but if you think about it like one e and uh, two, three and then we’re gonna slide back down and then we end with the G, D and G strings open. So that’s the first four measures, like half of the entire sequence.
So right now Guitar Control is giving away this really cool free chord chart, there’s a link down in the description where you can get yours. It has every chord you could ever need all neatly compiled on one sheet. It’s in PDF format so you can download it, you can print it off, you can put a copy in your gig bag, put a copy where you practice; so just whatever situation you could have any chord you needed to glance and it’s a free download.
Okay so then starting on the fifth measure we’re back up to where we started here on that G5, and again we’ve got that kind of a mute on the downbeat of one and then we come in on two. Two and then on the downbeat of three we hit just the D and G strings on the and of two, fifth and fifth fret, that’s the C5 over G… and then back to the G5 for four and; so one and, two, three and, four and… Then on measure six we’re going to start off we’re going to hit the D string again, we’re still on the fifth fret and the seventh fret of the G string is still ringing… and now we’re gonna pick up the eighth fret of the B string so I just use my fourth finger here as we’re just going five eight we’re just picking up the octave… All right, and then on the and of two we hit the G5 again on the downbeat of three move down where it’s just the fifth and fifth. So it’s all eighth notes. It’s just kind of strange where it’s coming in because it’s coming in on the and of two and three and down to the third fret and three and four and D and G strings open… Okay now on measure seven is very similar to measure three. We start off with that mute open B and G then to the third fret. On measure three we did the two mutes, but here we’re gonna go open D string on the down beat of four and then on the and of four it’s the D and G string both open and then we kind of do something similar to what we did at a measure four. We’re going to come up here, but now we’re going to do it third fret of the A and D string and again I’m just using my first and second finger, you might want to use your thumb, I’m not 100% sure of how he’s actually doing it. I know he puts his thumb in there, but this is just kind of the way that I’ve adapted to do it to try to emulate that sound. So we hit that on beat four and then we’re gonna slide up to the fifth fret the same way we did before with that last 16th note and then we hit it again and then the whole thing would just repeat…
Conclusion
All right, so there you have it, a really cool riff in the style of Mark Knopfler from Money for Nothing by Dire Straits. So if you like this lesson be sure to give me a thumbs up and leave a comment down below if you have any questions about this or other guitar related topics. If you’ve not already done so please subscribe to the channel and hit that notification bell so you don’t miss any of the content that we upload throughout the week. Well that is all I have for you today. Thanks for watching and have a great day.
