Message In A Bottle

When we're talking about classic guitar riffs, they don't get too much more famous than this. They also don't get that much harder in a pop/rock context! We once again see the awesome use of add9 chords, alongside some quick and accurate right hand picking. Simone takes you through all parts of the song in this lesson.

Section 1: The Riff

For the iconic riff we are playing basically one shape the moves across the whole guitar. The shape is based on the 'add9' chord shapes (just like Every Breath You Take), but as we only use the root, fifth and 9th, we would consider is 'sus2' chord. These are the shapes:

Section 2: The Powerchords

The riff is followed by a cool power chord section, where you play all downstrokes and palm muting. The chords you are playing are shown here.

Section 3: the chorus

The chorus uses more full chord shapes, rather than powerchord versions. This really opens up the sound of the song to create a clear new section. The three chords are shown here.

Keep Learning: Barre Chords

Many thanks for watching this video and visiting the website. If you love this tune, but find some of the chords quite hard to follow, check out our barre chord course right here on our website. This will help you learn these difficult shapes, and really help strengthen your fretting hand, ready for more difficult chords. We also learn the theory behind the chords and apply them to some great tunes! You can check it out here: Barre Chords Guitar Course.