Sting’s guitarist Dominic Miller thinks there are no challenging songs by the Police to play.
“‘Synchronicity II’ — it’s always important to get the right energy on that one,” the musician replied when asked by Ultimate Guitar what’s the most difficult track by the Police to perform. “It’s not about the riff.”
He went on to say, “There’s no riff that I find challenging in the Police. Everything is playable. There’s nothing that I find challenging.”
“But just, it’s all a question of energy, finding the right energy. And ‘Synchronicity II‘ is a sweet spot that we’re looking for. And that’s quite challenging to find it sometimes, but when we do, it’s great,” Miller explained.
In a 2023 interview with Rick Beato, Miller shared that he once saw a video with the headline ‘Sting’s most iconic riff’ by a popular Dutch guitarist. He was curious if it would be ‘Roxanne’ or ‘Every Breath You Take,’ but instead, it was about ‘Shape of My Heart,’ which he thought was a mistake.
He was surprised and kept watching as the video went on about the song. The musician explained, “I went, ‘Well, that’s okay, I don’t really mind because why should I really care? It’s not that important,’ but then he’s talking about how difficult it is these chords.”
“He says, ‘But the guy who plays it live, he doesn’t play that chord live because it’s a very awkward chord to play, but he does a variation,'” Miller revealed.
Dominic added, “He takes the easy way out, and I thought, ‘Really?’ Then I thought that’s not true, but then actually it is true because the thing is that that chord is almost impossible to play if you’re standing. Sitting down is okay, of course, but if you’re standing playing, that is really difficult, so I modified it.”
Since ‘The Soul Cages’ in 1991, Miller has worked on every Sting album. He has played over a thousand concerts with Sting and helped write songs like ‘Shape of My Heart.’
