A-Z Songbook, Intermediate Acoustic, Pop & Rock

Every Breath You Take chords by The Police

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Every breath you take | Chords + Lyrics (tune down 1/2 step)

Intro

Verse 1

Verse 2

Bridge 1

Verse 3 (as verse 1)

Every move you make, and every vow you break.
Every smile you fake, every claim you stake, I’ll be watching you.

Middle 8

| F (C) | F (B A) |
Since you’ve gone, I’ve been lost without a trace.
| G (D) | G (C B) |
I dream at night, I can only see your face.
| F (C) | F (B A) |
I look around, but it’s you I can’t replace.
| G (D) | G (C B) |
I feel so cold, and I long for your embrace.
| F (C) | F (B A) | Aadd9 | Aadd9 |
I keep crying baby, baby please.

Instrumental

| F#madd9 | F#madd9 | Dadd9 D | Eadd9 E | F#madd9 | F#madd9 |
| Aadd9 | Aadd9 | F#madd9 | F#madd9 |
| Dadd9 D | Eadd9 E | Aadd9 | Aadd9 |
||: Do do do do :||

Bridge 2

Oh, can’t you see, you belong to me?
How my poor heart aches, with every step you take.

Verse 4

Outro

||: Aadd9 | Aadd9 | F#madd9 | Dadd9 D :||
(Every breath you take, every move you make, every bond you’ll break),
I’ll be watching you (every step you take).
(Every single day, every word you’ll say, every game you play),
I’ll be watching you, (Every night you’ll stay).
(Every move you make, every vow you’ll break day, every smile you’ll fake),
I’ll be watching you (everything you take)
(Every single day, every word you say) Whoo, hoo (every game you play),
I’ll be watching you, (Every night you’ll stay).
(Every breath you take, every move you make, every bond you’ll break),
I’ll be watching you (every step you take).
(Every single day, every word you’ll say, every game you play),
I’ll be watching you, (Every night you’ll stay).
(Every move you make, every vow you’ll break day, every smile you’ll fake),
I’ll be watching you (everything you take)
(Every single day, every word you say, every game you play),
I’ll be watching you, (Every night you’ll stay).

Every Breath You Take Chords: Learn the progressions

When you try to play along with the original recording of Every Breath You Take, you’ll find that it’s not in tune, use my free tuner to change the Hz to 449 to solve this problem.

You also have to tune down a semitone or convince the singer that it should be a half step up from the original or your chords won’t sound right.

After the singer hasn’t understood this request, buy the Digitech drop pedal and avoid these kinds of conversations in the future. Alternatively, buy another guitar and keep it in Eb!

Let’s assume you are playing it, thinking in the key of A. The chord progression is I – VI – IV – V – VI. With the add9 extension, it looks like this for the intro and verse:

If you ignore the last two bars and the add9 extension, this is the same chord progression as Stand By Me.

Because of the add9 extensions, it sounds very different from Stand By Me and to make it sound like the original, you need to get the chord shapes right. Only TAB can describe this perfectly, here’s a link to that part of the lesson: Every Breath You Take – Guitar Lesson with TAB.

The bridge starts on chord IV, then finds tension with a bIIIx chord (that’s a C), goes back to I, then finds more tension with the IIx chord before we hit ultimate tension with V, like this:

Notice the subtle change here of going from add9 back to the triad is a modification to the verse/chorus part.

The greatest challenge when playing Every Breath You Take is the (very) stretchy chords. You need TAB and tips for how to make it easier.

In the TAB lesson, we also work out how to incorporate the middle 8 piano line on the guitar.

After you’ve got the TAB down, a simple chord chart is all you need to remind you how to play Every Breath You Take’s chords.

Every Breath You Take Chord Chart | PDF + iReal Pro

Should you want to download this chart, here’s a PDF: Every Breath You Take Chord Chart PDF.

This chord chart was created using iReal Pro, here’s a link to that file: Every Breath You Take iReal Pro. Using this and the iRealPro app, you can change the key.

Every Breath You Take is the most-played song in the history of radio!

The Police‘s most popular song and the most-played song in the history of radio, Every Breath You Take is the definition of a hit.

The band was just about to scrap it, thinking it was way too cheesy. That was before Andy Summers came up with the iconic add9 extensions for the main chord riff.

To wrap your head around how big this hit was, in 2010, it is estimated that Every Breath You Take generated almost 1/3 of Sting‘s entire publishing income.

Considering he by then written Roxanne, Englishman In New York, Fragile, Shape Of My Heart, So Lonely, Message In A Bottle, Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic, Don’t Stand So Close To Me, and Walking On The Moon, that’s pretty nuts!

Every Breath You Take Chords | Related Pages

Every Breath You Take | Guitar Lesson + TAB

With this guitar lesson, you can learn to play Every Breath You Take by The Police using TAB and chord analysis.

Five similar tunes | Chords + Lyrics

When you can play Every Breath You Take's chords, try these five tunes from the songbook.

The Police tunes

The Police recorded Every Breath You Take.

The Police was a New Wave band from England comprising Sting, Andy Summers, and Stewart Copeland.

Unusually, it was Stewart’s brother, Miles Copeland III who managed the band and later, Sting’s solo career.

The Police on the web

Sting tunes

Sting is an English musician who, prior to his solo career, had a band called The Police, with Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers.

Formed in 1977, The Police reached worldwide success after releasing their first single Roxanne only a year after they formed the band.

Sting on the web

About me | Dan Lundholm

Dan Lundholm wrote this guitar lesson about Every Breath You Take's chords.

This was a guitar lesson about Every Breath You Take chords, by Dan Lundholm. Discover more about him and how you can learn guitar with Spytunes.

Most importantly, find out why you should learn guitar through playing tunes, not practising scales, and studying theory in isolation.