Is this the lesson topic you are referencing to? It’s a different topic than this one…which might explain the confusion about your question.
Like this message from @Jamolay
"I have worked on this module with fingers only. It works fine.
I am not a pick person, but there are some advantages to picks in some style of play.
I also think you can do it all, at least almost, with fingers. It would help to spend time on finger technique. It takes a lot of dedicated practice, but will make everything easier and sound better."
@Tbushell I saw this is the next lesson but I’m really talking about this one, I havent checked the next one yet.
I think @MAT1953 gave me the right direction which is the paid strumming course.
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Hi @Livelong ,
There is a lesson on how to get this sort of sound with thumb and fingers:
This might be what you are looking for. (I just noticed, this is the very next lesson in the module).
It seems the fingerstyle version is more oriented towards acoustic guitar, while the pick version I associate with a clean, jangly electric guitar, like you might hear from R.E.M. or the Byrds, etc. The finger version doesn’t bring to mind Knopfler, to my ears, certainly not his electric playing. (Though, I imagine you’re more familiar with his music than I am, and he may have done tons of songs in this style that I’m not aware of. 
)
I was trying to transcribe the accoustic intro of Where do you think you’re going and it seems that in the intro there is a strong accent on a high note, like if he was picking the thin string as described in this lesson while upstrumming. I could not reproduce this sound so I just left it in the meanwhile. That could be something like this.
Really hard to understand what he really does as he’s pretty fast, he did not release tabs and there’s almost no live for the Communique album. You can see his fingers roadraging the fretboard on the Sultans of Swing lives but there is just the Rockpalast for WDYG which is way easier.
The next lesson might be it. I’ll do this lesson with a pick, can’t hurt me anyway, and I’ll go into the next one and see if it suits.
Thanks much for your answers all
I’ve also heard that “Mark Kopfler does not use a pick”. And I understand that he often does not…but this 2024 interview in Guitar Player magazine implies the story is complicated. Indeed, he states “I didn’t give it [using a plectrum] up until recently.”
I have a question about the strums specified in the tab. The down strums indicate one should not play the first string on the down strum. I get it: we hit string one on the upstrum, and string one is the first individual string we play, so it sounds nicer to miss it on the down strums. My question: how important is this from a skill point of view, given the goals of this lesson? I don’t recall any strumming lessons so far that talk about missing string one, only string six (for obvious reasons!). Should I be as concerned about missing string 1 on those down strums as I am about hitting the correct individual strings?
Hi Judi,
I think you will find use for reasonably good control of string muting on any string. adjacent strings are usually just laying the fretting finger a little flat or pushing it into the adjacent string above.
Muting string 1 can come fairly quickly by letting finger 1 grab too much of the neck at the bottom. This I tend to do unintentionally, especially when grabbing a long stretch with finger 3. this is from rotating the hand until the bottom of finger 1 touches the edge of the neck and therefore string 1. The other way for me is to curl the finger over the bottom a bit when it is not in use - again, these is muting with the “fluffy” part of the bottom of finger 1 just as the palm is starting.
There can be even some muting required for strings two to four strings away from your ringing strings. I often need to think through a method of quieting string 5 of 6 when it wants to resonate with the note on string 3 or 2. This is more dependent on the position of your hand to give a reliable description here. I find I use the strumming/picking palm in this case, but that is only sometimes and can be hard to do.
Thank you Michael! I’m feeling a bit silly - like you I struggle with inadvertently muting the first string (small hands and reaching, similar to what you’ve described) and constantly work on overcoming that challenge. It never occurred to me to actually use this challenge to advantage in this situation.
Thanks too for bringing up the need to quiet strings 5 or 6. I work on the obvious things - mostly trying to use the tip of another finger or my thumb to quiet string 6 - but my thinking hadn’t become sophisticated enough to consider situations you describe. I’ll keep it in mind now! There’s always something, isn’t there? 
I have found many ways to use a problem to my advantage! Just depends on the situation to see it as a problem or a solution! 
Play an A on string 3 and quiet it. Now feel open string 5. It really stands out on an electric. This is a major nuisance for me on one song! I am using my thumb over the top, but that is not all that easy to do, even with reasonably adequate hands for it. It is very slow to move into the next position.
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What experiences has everyone had when trying to do this exercise without looking at your hands?
I’ve been practising this exercise every day for 2 weeks, and I can just about do it without looking if the first picked note is on the first string (as is the case for the initial 2 bar and 1 bar patterns). However, I’ve found playing without looking basically impossible when attempting to do the ascending pattern (e.g. see tab below for C major). It seems that no amount of practice whilst looking at my hands enables me to play the same thing without looking. Does anyone have any tips on how to make progress here?
I’ve been working on this exercise recently as well. Based on the comments from others, it seems that most folks need a while to get “good” at this. I don’t know if I have tips on making progress, but will share my experience: I’m improving, but I still miss strings if I don’t look. I’ve decided to give myself a bit of grace and to keep practicing while peeking at the strings. Better to train the hand properly, than to repeatedly hit the wrong strings! (I’m also thinking about muting the high e string on the down strums.) Based on my experience working on other guitar skills, the peeking will naturally diminish as I become more proficient, perhaps because it’s really easier not to look. I don’t have natural talent for guitar, and have come to accept that it will take a long time for me to feel “good” at most techniques; maybe others with more talent can offer more technical guidance. For me - I keep improving and that’s what matters!
Another somewhat tangential observation: I recently was distracted from my planned practice routines for about 6 weeks. As I regroup, I’ve begun revisiting songs and exercises I’d been working on over the past year. It was amazing to me how much easier - and how much fun - it is to get going on these things after that break! I plan to consciously do something similar with this exercise (and with all my practice moving forward): I’ll work on it until my progress slows or stalls, at which point I’ll set it aside for some time (maybe 4-6 weeks), then re-introduce it to my practice routine 2-3 times per week. I’ll stay with it until I hit a new plateau, then set it aside again for a while. Of course if the technique is needed in a song I’m working on, that will become the practice.
So that was all about me, but I hope if nothing else it indicates that you’re not alone in this challenge! I’m interested to learn from the suggestions of others. 
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I think you answered your own question Barny. You need to practice WITHOUT looking. If you make a mistake, feel around for the right string/fret and try again. You want to be training your hand to decouple from your eyes.
I’ve been doing this with the intro to Wanted Dead or Alive by Bon Jovi. It wasn’t until I started practicing without looking that I made any real progress.
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Chris @jacksprat, I love your reply…it’s a great illustration of (at least) two things. First - what works well for one person may not work well for another. Second - sometimes we find ourselves trying multiple approaches - sometimes simultaneously, sometimes sequentially.
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That’s exactly what I normally do, albeit sort of unintentionally. Up to this point, I’ve not explicitly practised playing anything at all on the guitar without looking, it just sort of comes naturally after practising enough times. It’s a slow and gradual process; I find myself peeking at my hands less and less. However, in the case of the one-bar ascending pattern, that slow peeking less-and-less process doesn’t seem to be happening, and I start making a lot of mistakes if I simply forced myself to not look.
Good point, I’ll try letting the mistake happen and feel around for the correct string. It seems so obvious now that you say it, but, as mentioned above, that was not the way I approached practising without looking up till now. Thanks for the tip!
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A couple of thoughts: it takes a long time to master this type of playing – accurately picking out single notes, jumping across multiple strings: it’s not easy, even if you look at the picking hand. If you haven’t done much single-note picking before, I would expect dozens of hours of practice would be needed to play this cleanly, at decent speed, while changing chords.
One positive thing is that even if you pick the wrong string on occasion, it will still sound good. (Well, for the treble strings, anyway. I think hitting the correct bass note is important.)
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Been working on this for a while and mostly get it right but not beating myself up about it. Been looking for a song to use it on and come across Karma Chameleon. Not exactly these patterns but the same technique and I think you can use it. Justin is just playing random up picks which he says is not a pattern but might become one.
Any suggestions for other songs would be appreciated.
Michael
As I wrote somewhere else (possibly above in this thread), I think many songs by the Byrds or R.E.M. employ this sort of guitar work.
I also quite like to use it for Hungry Heart by Bruce.
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Hey Matt.
Yep Pearl Jam ‘Last Kiss’ is one of the random high string up picks songs. Its a great one too. Very easy. One of the first Pear Jam songs I learned to sing and play. My Wife knew what I was trying to play right away. I never told her it was random and didnt play and sing it a seocnd time in front of her until much later.
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Thanks John @jjw
Will check them out.
Michael
Jason @Ontime
Pearl Jam - have heard the name but that’s as far as it goes will check them out,thanks.
Michael