Every Breath You Take by The Police

Overview

Key: A major · Chords used: 7 · Sections: 19

Form: Verse → Verse → Verse → Bridge → Verse → Bridge → Verse → Verse → Bridge → Verse → Tag → Outro → Outro ×7

Where these chords come from: an expert transcription of the original recording made for the Rock Corpus RS 200 (de Clercq & Temperley, 2011), analysis by Trevor de Clercq. This page shows that transcription as-is: the analysis below is generated directly from it by code, not written by AI. Consecutive repeats of a chord are shown once, and the piano voicings are our playable arrangement of each chord symbol, not a note-for-note transcription.

Section by section

Verse 1

• A – F♯m – D – E – A
  I – vi – IV – V – I

Verse 2

• A – F♯m – D – E – F♯m
  I – vi – IV – V – vi

Verse 3

Same chords as Verse 1.

Bridge 1

• D – A – B – E
  IV – I – II – V

Verse 4

Same chords as Verse 2.

Bridge 2

• F – G (×2)
  bVI – bVII
• F
  bVI

Verse 5

• A – F♯m – D – E – F♯m – E
  I – vi – IV – V – vi – V

Verse 6

Same chords as Verse 1.

Bridge 3

Same chords as Bridge 1.

Verse 7

Same chords as Verse 2.

Tag

• D – E – F♯m – E
  IV – V – vi – V

Outro 1

• A – F♯m – D
  I – vi – IV

Outro 2

Same chords as Outro 1.

Outro 3

Same chords as Outro 1.

Outro 4

Same chords as Outro 1.

Outro 5

Same chords as Outro 1.

Outro 6

Same chords as Outro 1.

Outro 7

Same chords as Outro 1.

Outro 8

Same chords as Outro 1.

Chord vocabulary

Chord	Roman numeral	Role	Heard in
A	I	Home chord (tonic)	Verse, Bridge, Outro
F♯m	vi	In the key	Verse, Tag, Outro
D	IV	In the key	Verse, Bridge, Tag, Outro
E	V	In the key	Verse, Bridge, Tag
B	II	Secondary dominant (V/V)	Bridge
F	bVI	Borrowed from A minor	Bridge
G	bVII	Borrowed from A minor	Bridge

Harmonic highlights

• F (bVI) is borrowed from the parallel key, A minor.
• G (bVII) is borrowed from the parallel key, A minor.
• B acts as V/V: it resolves to E.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the Rock Corpus RS 200 (de Clercq & Temperley, 2011), analysis by Trevor de Clercq. Expert by-ear harmonic analysis of the original recording, shown on this page.
• Cross-check: the Rock Corpus RS 200 (de Clercq & Temperley, 2011), analysis by David Temperley. Independent by-ear analysis of the same recording. The two analysts agree on the chord (root and major/minor) for 99% of the song.
• Verified: two independent expert transcriptions agree on this song's harmony.
• Rhythm and chord durations aren't shown; each step is one chord change.