Mark Knopfler started career strumming tennis racquets

Dire Straits guitarist Mark Knopfler has revealed he got his guitar playing style from strumming tennis racquets with his sister as a child. The 74-year-old says he is left-handed and while he was pretending the racquet was a guitar, his older sister turned it round and told him "that's the way you play it". Speaking on BBC radio, Knopfler explained his family had played a big part in his music career. When asked about his guitar playing, he said: "Well, it's because of my big sister Ruth, and I think big sisters are very important in this world. "We had these dodgy little tennis racquets that you could get for not very much money, we used to use the tennis racquet as a guitar," he said "I was playing it, I was pretending it was a guitar and she turned it round so that I was holding it right-handed, and she said 'that's the way you play it'." Knopfler explained that meant his stronger hand was forming the notes, giving him "a little bit of flexibility" and allowing him to do a vibrato (bending the strings vertically) on "two or three strings at a time". The guitarist began his storied career with Dire Straits in 1977, continuing with the band until their 1995 break-up when he pursued a solo career. Some of his most famous songs include Money For Nothing, Sultans Of Swing and Going Home: Theme Of The Local Hero. Knopfler is grateful his parents "never stood in the way" of his music career. "I could not believe how patient they must have been because as well, my brother David had a drum kit. "The drums were in the garden shed, just in the little back garden there," he said. "The poor neighbours and the poor parents ... but they never stood in the way of it."