Sultans of Swing

I still remember the time when I heard this classic by Dire Straits for the first time. It just seemed to be a nice song, that’s all.

But slowly it grew onto me. Besides, I also started realizing how popular this song is among so many others, including my friends, who are very much “into” western music.

And then one day my friend Ajinkya commented, somewhat jokingly: “Hey Damle, what sorts of songs you play on the guitar, man? Play some songs like these…” He was obviously referring to those two classic and evergreen blues-rock guitar solos played by Mark Knopfler towards the end of the song.

“No man, those are really tough parts. I have yet to practice so many things in the basics of a guitar. Pieces like these better not be attempted until you are really ready to try them.” That incidence must have been about a year back or so. I was (I still am) totally trying to follow the stern discipline that my guitar teacher always recommends.

Months flew by. I was attending my guitar class regularly. Trying to learn all sorts of techniques my sir was teaching me. And then one day, my sir very casually said: “Have we done Sultans of Swing?” He was so casual that he himself started talking about some other topic within the next minute.

But just by the mention of that song I was extremely thrilled. Does he mean that I may have come closer to the level of attempting it? In spite of knowing how strict my sir is about such things, I decided to give it a shot.

“Sir, do you think I could attempt it?” I had finally gathered the courage to say it.

“Well, there are some really important techniques that one needs to master before attempting it. It really involves some hard work.” Sir casually said while feeding his cat.

“No worries. You just let me know those exercises. I will keep on practicing those as long as I have to.” I thought I was getting closer to it, finally!

“Hmm. We will see about that.” Sir said coolly. That’s it. Nothing more. The class was anyway over and it was time to go home. So I did not press too hard. Let’s see how it goes, I told myself.

After that what followed were 3-4 different exercises which lasted for next 5-6 classes over one and half month, I think. They may be related to the song, they may not be, I used to think. The song was never again mentioned by me, sir or my other friend from the class. I was just told to keep on practicing these few exercises, nothing more. As always, I had just decided to trust my sir.

And then that day came. Even though I had not nailed those exercises 101%, he seemed to have thought that I was ready. He actually told me that from the next class onwards he was going to teach the song, starting with the 2^nd solo. I was excited beyond imagination!

It’s not that before I couldn’t have tried to play it myself. I could have, but then every song demands some particular and preferable guitar-playing techniques which only years of experience can teach. And it indeed made sense. Playing the solos was much more manageable by now.

From the next week onwards, the song practice started. Those odd timings of the vocals, those challenging instrumental parts, some better ways of playing the chord progressions… everything…

Well, ahem, it is still going on. I still make plenty of mistakes in all the above mentioned aspects. But nothing of that really matters. What matters is that I have finally managed to reach that stage, where I am now eligible to attempt the song. And even though I am making all those mistakes - in spite of playing at much lesser speed - I now have the confidence that if I continue to work like this in future, I surely would be able to play that song in a style very close to that of the original, if not exactly as fine.

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And then the man he steps right up to the microphone

And says at last just as the time bell rings

‘Goodnight, now it's time… to go home'

And he makes it fast with one more thing

'We are the Sultans…

We are the Sultans of Swing.'