Scroll down for full video lesson (with tab) of Every breath You Take.

Every Breath You Take by The Police works great played as fingerstyle, and once you get the chords down it flows very nicely. The song is based around the use of add9th chords and if you're not used to them you may find some of the fingerings a little difficult. Nonetheless, they are rich sounding and well worth getting to know.

Every Breath You Take is no. 10 on my Top 60 Fingerpicking Songs of ALL TIME list. If you've not seen the list be sure to check it out and subscribe to get weekly lessons for each song!

Every Breath You Take Song Facts:

• Released 1983
• Album - Synchronicity
• Grammy award for Record of the Year
• Written by Sting
• Reached no. 1 in The U.K, U.S.A, Canada, Israel, Ireland and South Africa.
• Key Ab
• BPM - 117

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Intro:

Learn more about the techniques used in this song.

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Verse:

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.

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Chorus:

In the chorus of Every Breath You Take, the Aadd9th chord has been added. This really adds a strong lift as it prepares to go back to the verse. This new chord can be rather demanding on your left hand and will likely require some repetitive practice to get consistently right.

The Bridge:

Although you can of course fingerpick your way through the bridge I tend to transfer over to strumming as it increases the dynamic range of the song. Personally, I like to play the bass note of the chord on beat one with my thumb and then strum the rest of the bar with my first and second fingers.

If you want to make sure that you're really on the right track with fingerpicking I recommend trying one of my fingerstyle guitar courses. Find out more here.