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Making music the Knopfler way

MUMBAI, MARCH 5. Coaxing music out of vintage guitars comes naturally to him, and so does the realisation that life is too short to postpone its joys. For the 56-year old lead guitarist and `Sultan of Swing' Mark Knopfler, in India for a musical shows, life changed after an accident that left his collarbone and some ribs broken. Asked how he wrote popular songs despite a literary bent of mind, the former teacher, journalist and now a popular songwriter, said: ``I just stagger from one crisis to another till it is finished.'' The leader of the popular band Dire Straits added: ``I never know where the songs come from. It is still a mystery.'' Knopfler's skills have shone through tracks such as `Baloney Again' and `Silver Town Blues.' ``A song seems to have its own laws. It is not like poetry, it has its own demands, its own complexities,'' he said, suddenly rendering a lyric `My baby, my baby', in deadpan style.

On tips he would offer budding guitarists, he said: "I do not consider myself as a teacher. I have always done everything wrong. I have slept while playing the guitar and in fact mastered the art. I just would slid down from the couch and the floor, and play the strings in a horizontal position, all while sleeping," he said."I am every good guitar teacher's nightmare," said Knopfler. — PTI

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Making music the Knopfler way

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