Dominic Miller, the guitarist for Sting, recently shared his thoughts on the difficulty of playing songs by The Police. According to Miller, The Police’s songs are not particularly complicated to perform, though there are some aspects that can be challenging to execute well.
With musicians like Sting, Andy Summers, and Stewart Copeland, it’s no surprise that The Police’s music is highly regarded. Summers, in particular, helped shape the band’s distinct sound, creating guitar parts that weren’t typical fast “shredding” solos of the 1980s but still had elements that made the songs tricky to pull off.
In a recent interview with Ultimate Guitar, Miller discussed what he finds challenging when performing The Police’s songs with Sting. When asked if there were any specific songs that were difficult to play, Miller emphasized that it wasn’t the technically difficult 9th chords that were challenging, but rather the energy needed to perform them.
He mentioned that the most challenging song to perform is “Synchronicity II,” not because of the riff, but because of the energy required to get it just right. He explained, “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 was also asked if there were any Police songs that were difficult to replicate in terms of vibe. He responded by saying that he doesn’t find it hard, as he respects Andy Summers’ guitar work deeply and tries to play the parts as he originally did. He added, “So the thing for me is to get the main riff and then let me improvise. Because we do improvise a lot, even on Police songs. We improvise all the time, but it’s very structured.”
Miller emphasized that he always sticks to the essential riffs, stating, “The riffs, the important riffs, I’m always going to play. I don’t want to mess with them, because I can’t come up with better material than that.”
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