Every Breath You Take by The Police works great played as fingerstyle, and once you get the chords down it flows really nicely.
The song is based around the use of add9th chords more or less throughout. If you're not used to them you may find some of the fingerings a little difficult at first. Nonetheless, they're very rich sounding and well worth getting to know.
Every Breath You Take Song Facts:
- Tuning - standard
- Capo - 1st fret
- Difficulty - beginner-intermediate
- BPM - 117
Want to be a truly great player?
Get HUNDREDS of fingerstyle video lessons for an incredible 40% OFF!
Take advantage of this brilliant offer and learn absolutely everything you need to know about fingerpicking.
Get 25% off tabs when you join the mailing list
Thanks for subscribing! Please check your email for further instructions.
The Lesson
The verse uses more or less the same chord progression as the intro. The only difference is that for bars 7 and 8 it goes to Emadd9 instead of Gadd9.
As always take your time and focus heavily on accuracy over speed.
Enough exercises to last a lifetime!
An almost endless supply of fingerpicking patterns, strengthening your skills day-by-day.
Take your playing to new heights!
Let me know what you thought of the lesson in the comments section below. Tell me what you found hard/easy and add any song suggestions that you may have.
Thank you for making theses lessons and YouTube videos for free it really helps
It’s a pleasure.
You call it Eb in the bridge but I am pretty sure that’s an E?
Yes it’s an E. It’s because of the capo on the 1st that I’m calling it an Eb. Most people find it a little easier to understand that way. It’s one of those things, either way you’re going to confuse some people.
I see that makes sense now. Thanks for reply.
I love how these videos are for free it makes things easier thank you
Thanks Destiny.
Your video shows two measures of C add9 for start of chorus, but tabs shows one measure C add9 and one C7? Thanks for the great lessons!
Yes you’re right, I ended up having to transcribe the song a year or so after I shot the video and I found that actually I was playing it slightly wrong. The TAB is correct here, my apologies.
Thanks Chris! You did a very great work of breaking that down.
Thanks Chris, glad you enjoyed it.