Beginner Guitar Lesson 40 - "Every Breath You Take" - Melody

This time we are going to learn the melody line from this famous Police song, "Every Breath You Take," and a beautiful and simple melody it is, too. This melody is all in the key of C major, so it is great for working with the scale and using it in a more musical way than just plinking up and down it!

The TAB and notation is all set out below. I recommend that you learn it in easily digestible parts, breaking it down into 2 bars, or at most 4 bar sections, and just drilling them until you become more confident with it.

This is by no means difficult, but the melody does go up fairly high on the thin e string, bringing you into new territories that you have perhaps not yet explored. Take a look and listen at the video here. It should give you a better feel for the fingering and picking technique.

(camtasia goes here)

We have broken the score up into four bars per line; this is a suggestion as to how you should break it up in order to learn it more easily.

 

Again, I suggest practicing this in four bar parts, with the metronome set to about 90 to start with, then increase speed in increments of 5 bpm till you reach 120, which is about the right tempo for the song.

Now that you know the chord sequence, I also suggest that you make your own backing track to a basic beat (using an MD recorder or mp3 recorder), and just practice playing the melody over the top of it. Making the backing track is great practice for you in itself.

If you cannot do it yourself, or lack such equipment, do not fear… of course we have already made a little backing track for you practice to.

 

In a very short time, you have gone from knowing very little about the guitar to playing popular songs like "Every Breath You Take," using what I believe is the most enjoyable method of learning possible. Enjoying the process really is key. If you stop enjoying the learning, you’ll struggle to get anywhere. So, with just 15 minutes a day, you will avoid burning out, but you will learn a lot!