Every breath you take is an easy acoustic arrangement for beginners using only three chords.
Sting and the Police’s guitar riff is iconic. This song provides a perfect opportunity to practice barre chords while testing out your new abilities.
E-Major
E major is the primary chord progression used in The Police’s Every Breath You Take and is often associated with doo-wop music due to its 1 – 6 – 4 – 5 pattern.
This chord can also serve as a minor dominant, or modal interchange chord. By flatting and making major II (F#), additional tension and color is added as well as increased resolution towards the tonic chord.
F-Major
F Major is one of the most frequently played chords on guitar music. Not too difficult for beginners to master, this chord produces beautiful sounds while remaining accessible enough for everyone else to play it successfully.
Beginner guitarists may find the full barre version of this chord difficult to produce a clean sound from. Try this easier version for optimal results.
This chord can be an extremely handy asset in your arsenal, offering multiple uses when necessary.
G-Major
G Major chord is one of the most frequently used starting chords for beginners. Due to its demands, however, beginner should practice stretching their fingers prior to trying this chord. Exercise to stretch their fingertips before trying G Major.
G Major chord is an ideal chord to use when building songs. From emotive ballads to high-energy Drum & Bass and Trap tracks, G Major offers you everything from romantic ballads to exciting Drum & Bass and Trap. Additionally, minor sevenths can add dramatic flair.
A-Major
Sting’s iconic guitar riff from “Every Breath You Take” propelled this Police hit to worldwide popularity. Although its barre chord requires some finger strength to master, its use becomes invaluable as you progress up the neck.
Strum this five-string chord by fretting your pinky and middle fingers on the second fret of the low E string, then using your thumb to mute other strings for full bass note voicing.
B-Major
B major is an extremely versatile chord that can be found across many genres of music and is especially beginner-friendly.
As beginners learn the fundamental chords, this one differs in that it does not feature an open string version but instead should be played as a barre chord. At first these barre chords may prove challenging for your left hand but with practice they become easier.
C-Major
This Police hit features an Ab add9 chord as its signature open string chord shape, making it challenging and time consuming to master cleanly.
Andy Summers used this same technique on many of his Police hits to create diatonic chords of the major scale.
D-Major
D Major is an integral chord in jazz, often used as the submediant chord of progressions.
This chord requires extra strength and flexibility in your ring finger to press down on three strings at once while also muteding one of them, so it may take some practice before sounding cleanly on your guitar. Practice! Doing this will enable you to build up appropriate fingerings.
E-Minor
There are numerous chords to be played in the key of E minor, but two that stand out are Em and E(add9), which both feature bluesy sounding chords that work well when used alongside E major chords in progressions.
To play E(add9), begin by placing your fingers in an Em shape on each string and counting to four while strumming every beat; this will help you memorize where your fingers belong on the strings. This is also a good way of memorizing where to place them!
F-Minor
F minor is the relative minor of Ab major, featuring four flats on its scale. Its parallel major is A flat major.
This melancholic chord adds depth to songs, particularly rock and blues music. Additionally, it can add emotional tension in classical works. This chord can typically be found as a root 6 bar chord across all strings on the first fret.
G-Minor
G minor is one of the primary beginner chords you’ll likely learn early in your guitar-playing experience, making switching chords easy as it only involves moving one string higher up your fingers.
G minor is distinguished by two unique forms – natural and harmonic minor scales. The latter has an additional raised seventh pitch that adds distinctive sound to your compositions.