Dire Straits - Down To The Waterline - Guitar Tab

Dire Straits

1978 4:03

Listen on Spotify

About Down To The Waterline

Few debut album tracks announce a guitarist's voice as clearly as "Down to the Waterline" does for Dire Straits. Mark Knopfler plays fingerstyle throughout, and that choice defines everything: the attack is soft, the notes breathe, and the rhythmic feel sits slightly behind the beat in a way that a pick simply cannot replicate. The song sits in E minor at 120 BPM in E Standard tuning, giving the open low E string a natural resonance that Knopfler leans into heavily. The main challenge is not the individual notes but the right-hand coordination, blending a walking bass line with melodic fills using only your fingers. New players often rush the feel or tense up the picking hand, so use the Practice Toolbar to loop the opening riff slowed down until the relaxed, rolling motion feels natural. Getting the blues-rock lilt right matters more here than note-perfect accuracy.

• The song is played fingerstyle throughout, so developing a relaxed right-hand technique with thumb-and-finger independence is the core challenge.
• In E Standard tuning and E minor, the open low E string rings naturally under many of the riffs, giving the part its resonant, full-bodied tone.
• The main riff blends a steady bass-string pulse with melodic fills on the treble strings, making it a useful exercise in two-voice fingerpicking coordination.