How to play "Every Breath You Take" by the Police
by Greg Danielak
Once in a while comes a riff so excellent and catchy, that everybody latches onto it. "Every Breath You Take" is one of those songs. The riff is instantly recognizable and everyone's heard it. Here is a guide to how to play this excellent song, with help from Andy.
NOTE: I have seen bogus TABS of this song on OLGA and I must say that they are hilarious. You DO NOT have to tune down any strings on your guitar to play this song.
The 9th DimensionAs you recall, Andy liked to take out major and minor 3rds from chords to remove that "happy' or "sad" quality from them. As he old Vic Gabriani in the December 1997 issue of Guitar World, "If you want room for more complex emotions, you leave traditional triadic harmony behind. That stuff has a certain emotionality built into it - major chords are "happy," minor chords are "sad". Again it's telling you what to feel. One way to lose that was to remove the major or minor thirds from the chords and put in it's place the added second or ninth (same note as the 2nd but 7 notes higher), which creates a much cooler and more open space."
The add9 shape is the classic Police sound; the stacking of parallel fifths across the lowest three strings, where the top note is the ninth. That basic shape is used in Message in a Bottle, in Invisible Sun and of course in Every Breath You Take.
Stretchy Moves
According to Andy, "to play it properly, you have to place your index finger on the low E string at the 5th fret, your ring finger on the A sting at the 7th fret, and your pinky on the D string at the 9th fret. You hold that position as you arpeggiate the first two chords, only moving your index finger to play the third of each chord on the G string. If that's too much of a stretch, you can Iift the index finger off the 6th string immediately after you pick the first note, or substitute the middle finger for the ring. The Dsus2 and Esus2 chords involve holding a simple fifth shape on the A and D strings and using the pinky to reach for the ninth on the G string."
Note that the dots in the standard notation do not stand for dotted notes, but staccato notes- play them with a short and quick feel.
The next section of the song introduces some new chords, but is basically symmetrical like the first part.
Did You Hear That?
As usual, Andy has thrown in some overdubbing tricks that fool people. Certain professional transcriptions include a fill at the coda of this song which is the E and B strings droning alternatley. This fill does not appear in the "Message In A Box" Transcribed version.
On "The Synchronicity Concert", you can see Andy substituting harp harmonics for the piano part at the bridge.
A full transcription of this song can be found in the October '97 issue of Guitar World magazine.
Copyright 1983 Gordon M. Sumner Published by Magnetic Publishing Ltd. (PRS) Represented by Reggatta Music Ltd., Administered by Irving Music Inc. (BMI) in the U.S. and Canada International Copyright Secured
All Rights Reserved
Lesson By Greg Danielak - 2000
