Learn to play three fun and easy riffs by The Police with Guitar Control instructor Darrin Goodman, aka Uncle D. Be sure to get the free tabs to go along with the step by step video instruction and you will be rockin’ these classic riffs by The Police.
Introduction
How’s it going everybody? This is Darrin with GuitarControl.com bringing you this video Lesson and today I’ve got three fun and easy riffs for you from The Police.
So right now Guitar Control is giving away this really cool free chord chart, there’s a link down in the description where you can download yours and print it off. It has every chord you could ever need all neatly compiled into one sheet. So you could put a copy where you practice or slip a copy into your gig bag; just so whatever situation you’re in you can have any chord you need at a glance and it’s a free download.
So be sure to click on the link in the description for the tabs and let’s get close up and take a look at these.
The Police Riff-1 – Doo Doo
All right so the first one to look at is the riff from the Doo Doo. So I’m going to start off here second fret of the D string with your first finger and the third fret of the or excuse me the fourth fret of the G string with your third finger and then the third fret of the B string with your second finger. So you’re going to be playing this with the open A string and this is eighth notes; one and two and three. So the and of two is tied to the downbeat of three and then we’re gonna switch. We’re just going to take our second and third finger off so our first finger is just barring the second fret of the G and the B string and we hit that on the and of three and it’s a dotted quarter note so it takes up all of beat four as well and that’s our first two measures. All right and then on the third measure we’ve got a chord here that if you’re a beginner it could be somewhat awkward. So the low E string is open and I’m on the second fret of the A string, but you want to use your second finger here and then we’re going to be on the fourth fret of the D string and I use my fourth finger. Now the reason we want to do this and not this is because we also need to put our first finger down onto the first fret of the G string. So we grab this chord it’s that same timing and that’s like one and two and three and four… Then the fourth measure it starts off the same way where we hit the lower end of that chord; one and two and three and then we’re gonna go to a regular D and four. So we hit it on the and of three and then we hit it again for all of beat four and then it would just simply repeat…
The Police Riff-2 – Synchronicity Two
All right then the next one we’ll look at is riff from Synchronicity Two. So this is kind of a weird one if you’re just playing it by yourself because there’s so much other stuff that’s going on, but the timing on this is a little unusual. So this can be actually kind of a good exercise for putting in rests and not playing always on the downbeat; coming in on the and stuff like that. So that’s kind of challenging a lot of times for beginners. So this is kind of a good riff for that that’s kind of cool sounding when you play it along with the track. Sll right so we’re going to come up and we’re going to take our first finger we’re going to barre the ninth fret of the D string and the G string and then we’re going to take our middle finger and put it onto the 10th fret of the B string and then our pinky onto the 12th fret of the B string. Now when we hit this we’re going to strum the D, G and B strings. All right, so the timing is kind of weird. So we start with a rest one and two and three and four and, and then that’s tied to the downbeat of one of the next measure and then we do the pull-off on the and of one. So it’s like and one and two and three and. So we have the first ones where we have the rests in between on that first measure and then on the second measure there are no rests and then it just repeats… So it does it a whole bunch of times… And then after it does it a bunch of times it has this other little part that I’m going to show you that kind of makes it resolve. So on the last time we do the… then we’re going to go to the 12th fret and this is kind of an awkward change, but I just do it this way, I just come with my third finger and I grab the 12th fret of the D string and we’re hitting this two and then we go to the 12th fret of the A string and three, four, so it’s a half note…
The Police Riff-3 – Don’t Stand So Close To Me
All right then the last one we’re going to look at is the riff from Don’t Stand So Close To Me. So this is the original version of this song. Back in the like late 80s somewhere they did like a remix of this song and I like the new version of it as well, but this is the one that I really like. This is probably the very first Police song that I can recall ever hearing. So it’s made up of just these dyad shapes that I’ve done lessons on before in the past if you’re interested in checking those out. So what we’re going to do here is we’re going to go to the fifth fret of the D string with my third finger and the third fret of the G string with my first finger and we rest on beat one; so one and then starting on the downbeat of two we’re gonna play this and it’s eighth notes, so two and, and then we’re going to move down to the next position. So now we’re gonna scoot down and be onto the third fret of the D string and the second fret of the G string and this is like a minor shape and then this is a major shape; so one two and three and, and then first finger to the first fret of the D string and the G string is open and this is four and. So one, two and, three and, four and, one, two and, three and, four and, and it does two measures of that… And then starting on the third measure we’re going to do the same thing. The only thing that’s going to be different is the last chord instead of being this first fret of the D string and the G string open it’s going to be the third fret of the A string and the D string. So how I do that I just use my second finger just to barre the A and the D string. If you wanted you could move your fingers up so it’s like you’re playing an E major chord, but just up a half step…
Conclusion
All right, so there you have it, three fun not too terribly difficult riffs to play by The Police. So if you like this lesson be sure to give me a thumbs up and leave a comment down below if you have any questions about this or other guitar related topics. If you’ve not already done so please subscribe to the channel and hit that notification bell so you don’t miss any of the content that we upload throughout the week. Well that is all I have for you today. Thanks for watching and have a great day.
