Mark Knopfler Says He Could Use A Guitar Teacher In The Future

Dire Straits lead guitarist Mark Knopfler was previously interviewed by Music Radar and opened up about his focusing on songwriting rather than playing guitar and creating riffs. The famous guitarist revealed that he wants to hire a guitar teacher to be able to practice more which is a new adventure for him.

Mark Knopfler is considered as one of the best guitarists of all time by many music lovers, critics, magazines, and as one of them, he previously was listed on Rolling Stone’s list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. He won three Grammy awards, Edison Award, the Steiger Award, and the Ivor Novello Award along with three honorary doctorate degrees in music thanks to his unique way of playing guitar.

However, in one of the previous interviews that he participated in, Knopfler stated that he doesn’t have confidence in his skills as a guitarist and described his playing as a teacher’s nightmare. He emphasized that he’s holding the guitar like a hammer which is probably very wrong as a self-taught instrumentalist. Of course, his longtime dedicated fans didn’t agree with him and thought that he shouldn’t underestimate himself like that.

About his guitar playing, Knopfler said:

“I have a style which is probably all wrong. It would be a guitar teacher’s nightmare. I hold a guitar like a plumber holds a hammer.”

Moreover, Mark Knopfler admitted that he didn’t have enough time for playing the guitar as he has been working on writing songs for a while. Therefore, the musician would like to find a guitar teacher who can come to his house and help him practice different and challenging songs every week without any interruption. The Dire Straits icon stated that he never had an instructor before and it’s will be very exciting for him.

Knopfler said in his interview that:

“You do get one thing at the expense of the other to a certain extent. I certainly think that my playing has suffered from just being so preoccupied with writing songs over the years. I’m not bitching about it, I love songwriting more than anything and that is why I’ve ended up where I am with it, with the guitar.

I tell you the truth, though, I’d like to have a guitar teacher come round on a Tuesday morning or something and ring the bell, and not set me a load of theory but just talk about a little passage or a little sequence and leave it with me and then go through it with me the next week…

That’s exciting to me because I’ve never had a teacher like that. I don’t want to start learning some shit that I’m not interested in, but there’s lots and lots of other stuff I’d still love to get into.”

You can check out the interview below.