“IT WAS GET PUNK OR GET OUT OF TOWN,” REMINISCED ANDY SUMMERS IN THE
June, 2007 issue of GP, as he recalled the musical climate in the U.K. ca. the summer
of ’77. “For me, it was a horrible lowering of musical values. Happily, it wasn’t
long before we got out of that and started to slowly develop our own thing.” Their
“own thing,” of course, is now Police history. Summers essentially redefined the
role of guitarist in a power trio, a dirty job that had to be done. His clean, chorused,
echoing guitar sound, and his fresh chord voicings and minimalistic, textural approach
to the instrument opened ears, and made a huge impact on guitarists from Alex Lifeson
to the Edge.
Far from a young punk-rocker stepping directly into the limelight with his first
band, Summers’ back story reveals an extremely dedicated musician who parlayed years
of classical and jazz guitar studies infused with blues, rock, and soul into recordings
and roadwork with major U.K. acts Zoot Money’s Big Band, the Animals, Kevin Coyne,
and the Soft Machine, and accomplished all of this over a decade before joining
Sting and Stewart Copeland to cement what would become perhaps the world’s most
popular musical group since the Beatles.
The Police—Message in a Box: The Complete Recordings collects every recording issued
by the band up until their implosion in 1986. By the time the Police would reunite
in 2007, Summers had contributed to the scores of ten films (2010, Down & Out
in Beverly Hills, Weekend at Bernie’s, and Mississippi Masala among them), released
a whopping 15 solo albums that run the gamut from moody and esoteric world fusion
to a collection of Thelonious Monk tunes (including XYZ [1986], Mysterious Barricades
[1987], The Golden Wire [1989], Synathestesia [1995], The Last Dance of Mr. X [1997],
Green Chimneys [1999], Earth & Sky [2002], plus I Advance Masked [1982] and
Bewitched [1984], both recorded with Robert Fripp before the Police officially broke
up), guested on an additional ten projects, toured internationally, and dueted in
2005 with classical guitarist Ben Verdery (First You Build a Cloud). Post-Police
and reunion releases include several best-of compilations, Live (1995), and 2008’s
Certifiable: Live in Buenos Aires. Summers is also an avid photographer who exhibits
his work around the world, as well as an accomplished author. His books include
Throb (1983), Light Strings (2004), One Train Later (2006), I’ll Be Watching You:
Inside the Police 1980-83 (2007), and Desirer Walks the Streets (2009), all of which
can be previewed and purchased at andysummers.com.
Understandably, a comprehensive stylistic overview of Summers’ extremely variegated
career could fill this entire magazine, so I’ve opted to focus this investigation
on his Police work. Care to join the force? First, you gotta...
1 HAVE A MODUS OPERANDI
Not long after joining the Police, Andy Summers decided that less is more. “I wanted
to exploit the openness of the band’s arrangements, so I decided to create more
space and air by stripping my chords down to fragments,” Summers explained to GP’s
Mike Molenda in the 6/07 cover feature. He began using fewer traditional tertian-based
chords (which Summers considered “old fashioned”), opting instead for his now-trademark
stacked 5ths, added 9ths, and suspensions “to get the harmony moving without the
obvious sentimental associations of major and minor 3rds.” Finding his place in
the mix was also crucial to Summers’ M.O.: “I tried to fit my guitar in between
the bass and drums, which probably comes from listening to a lot of Miles Davis.
I want everybody to play different parts, because that’s where you get some tension
in the music. Particularly in a trio setting, having three different parts interlocking
makes for a much bigger and much more interesting sound.” Trios take note.
2 CHOOSE YOUR WEAPONS
Hailed as a master sonic architect, Summers stands as one of the few artists to
be honored with signature-model guitars from both Gibson (a slightly modified remake
of his 1958 cherry ES- 335) and Fender (a painstakingly exact repro of his treasured
1961 sunburst Telecaster). He’s also done duty on a lovely red pre-CBS Stratocaster,
various Gibsons, and many others, but that beat-to-crap Tele was his main guitar
throughout the Police’s first incarnation. Summers began crafting his signature
sonic textures with a minimal amount of gear. “I had simple tools: a Telecaster,
a Fender Twin, and maybe an MXR Phase 90,” Summers revealed to GP. “The next thing
I got was a chorus, and that, along with the Echoplex, became very characteristic
of the Police sound. I probably got up to four pedals taped to the floor before
I could afford a custom Pete Cornish pedalboard with a MuTron, a couple of fuzz
boxes, an envelope filter, chorus units, and phasers, all of which I’d combine with
the Echoplex.” Summers also incorporated Marshall amps and a Roland guitar synthesizer
into his rig. Of course, times have changed and so has Summers’ gear. For the ’07/’08
Police reunion tour, he used an elaborate two-piece Bob Bradshaw switching system,
the right wing of which includes three Boss FV-500H Volume/Expression pedals, one
used to control a rack-mounted Lexicon PCM 70 and two for an Eventide Eclipse, a
Moogerfooger Analog Delay, and a Boss Loop Station and Chromatic Tuner. The left
wing houses the main Bradshaw switching unit, plus another FV-500H and a Dunlop
Cry Baby wah. Summers’ off-stage rack also contains his main Custom Audio OD100
amp and a Carvin DCM150 used to power stereo effects (each amp feeds two Mesa/Boogie
Rectifier 2x12 speaker cabs), plus additional signal processors, including a T.C.
Electronic TC1210 Spatial Expander/Stereo Chorus/Flanger, Bob Bradshaw V-Comp Tube
Compressor, D-Two Multitap Rhythm Delay, and a slew of stomp boxes, including a
Love Eternity Overdrive, Red Witch Empress Chorus and Moon Phaser, Klon Centaur,
Maxon SD9, and Z.Vex Fuzz Factory. Whew! Mercifully, Summers kept his guitar count
down to three Fenders: a Custom Shop Andy Summers Signature Telecaster, a Custom
Shop replica of his red Strat, and a VG Stratocaster. You can peruse Summers impressive
guitar collection anytime at andysummers.com.
3 BOND WITH YOUR ECHOPLEX
Providing gorgeous ambience, harmonies,
and filling large musical spaces with “clouds of sound,” Summers’ revolutionary
usage of tape and analog delay devices often created the audio illusion of a fourth
band member. Let’s begin with a few Summers-style rhythmic echo textures beyond
the obvious quarter-note repeats. Conjure a gorgeous clean tone, dial in your DDL
of choice (or Echoplex, if you’re lucky enough to still own one) for a ca. 30/70
wetto- dry mix set for four or five diminishing eighth-note repeats, and then flip
on your flanger or chorus and arpeggiate Ebsus2 as shown in Ex. 1a.
Repeat the same figure three frets lower and dig that familiar sound as each chord
tone piles up on the next one. Bump the wet/dry mix to 50/50, shorten the delay
time to a single sixteenth-note slap, palmmute the repetitive lick shown in
Ex. 1b and you should hear two sixteenth-notes for every eighth-note
you play. The sustained G7sus4/D signature Summers suspension tabbed in Ex.
1c (Shades of “A Hard Day’s Night”!) is a prime candidate for testing
our next two timed delays. The first setting repeats every three sixteenthnotes
and plays well with others, as you’ll soon discover. (Tip: Set a single repeat at
a fast tempo and check out what happens to your eighth-note runs.) The second setting
is timed to two quarter-note triplets for each quarternote, making it the ideal
choice for reggae/dub grooves. Finally, Summers often combined two delay units to
set up poly-rhythmic repeats, and Ex. 1d shows what happens when
you layer the setting from Ex. 1a with the first one in Ex. 1c. Try “blowing” and
“releasing” rhythmic sound clouds by using a volume pedal placed before the delay(s)
to fade in and out of your fave voicings. Pretty, pretty cool.
4 CROSS-POLLINATE MUSICAL GENRES
When the Police hit the airwaves
in 1978, their music simply defied categorization. It was punky, yet it wasn’t punk.
It had elements of reggae and power pop, but again, it was neither. What the band
had come up with was a true conglomeration of musical styles unlike anything that
preceded it. Their first album is peppered with songs that begin with an intro and
verse in one style, and abruptly yet appropriately shift genres for the chorus.
Reminiscent of “So Lonely” (Outlandos d’Amour), Ex. 2a shows a
two-bar, reggae-style, verse rhythm figure and suggested voicings condensed into
a single measure (follow those chord symbols), while Ex. 2b typifies
the sort of clean, uneffected Hendrix-meets-Floyd-Cramer fills Summers would substitute
for the F chord. In direct contrast, the double-timed punkish, power-pop rhythm
outlined in Ex. 2c utilizes the same four chords to create a memorable,
frantic chorus riff. It was a crazy blend of three distinctive styles, but it worked!
5 DECONSTRUCT REGGAE
Summers’ acquisition of his first
Maestro Echoplex around Christmas of 1978 just happened to coincide with Sting borrowing
Stewart Copeland’s reggae record collection. “Sting started picking up on that bass
line approach, which resulted in his leaving more space in the songs,” Summers explained
to GP. “At the same time I got an Echoplex. There was no thought about using it
as a tool to create my own sonic identity, I just thought it was cool. And as I
started reacting to what Sting was playing—or not playing—I organically began opening
up even more space by using the Echoplex to play interesting harmonies and rhythms.
Suddenly I was in this crucible with this reggae bass line and a very idiosyncratic
drummer who played a lot of hi-hat, and a signature style started to emerge.” Ironically,
Summers recorded “Roxanne” (Outlandos d’Amour), a textbook example of this concept,
sans effects using only a straight amp sound with just a touch of ’verb. You can
simulate Summers’ verse part by applying the first five grids in Ex. 3a
(Gm-F6-Ebmaj7- Dm7-Cm7) to the staccato quarter-notes in bar 1 of the accompanying
slash-rhythm figure, and then finish up by dropping the last two chords into bar
2, saving that signature G7sus4/D for the final hit on the and of beat four. Have
a bass bud double each note of a descending G minor scale (G-F-Eb-D-C) in accordance
with the downstemmed rhythm in bar 1 (or do it yourself!), and then jump down to
three Fs and a G for bar 2. (Tip: Summers’ chorus chords—Cm7-Fsus4-Gsus4-G-Cm7-Fsus4-
G7sus4/D—follow the same rhythmic scheme.) By the time the band recorded the reggaelicious
“Walking on the Moon” (Reggatta de Blanc) in 1979, Summers’ effector and self-editing
skills were in full bloom.
Ex. 3b details four bars of the rhythmic scheme from the song’s
intro/verse groove, and features a lone, shimmery G7sus4/D (borrowed from Ex. 3a)
played only on beat two of bar 1. (Delay Tip: Use either setting from Ex. 1c.) The
swing-eighth bass figure, like all good reggae lines, disregards the one. Graft
C-C-Dto the first three eighth notes, F-E-C to the next three, and then repeat the
whole deal. Drop a drum bomb on beat three of every measure and feel that tropical
breeze.
6 BE A TEAM PLAYER
As the Police conquered the world, Summers continued to strip down his playing to
the essentials. This might mean simply staying out of the way, latching on to a
relentless groove, or adding cool, unexpected twists, such as punctuating a repetitive
bass and drum groove with a couple of fragmented triads at just the right moment,
but not the one you’d expect. Ex. 4a illustrates the latter approach
with a locked-in, unison bass/guitar line—a root-5-b7-octave/root motif that appears
in many guises throughout the Police catalog— and minimalistic guitar figure that
recall the “Driven to Tears” groove. (Delay Tip: Use the triplet setting from Ex.
1c.) If restraint was measureable, Summers’ playing on songs like “When the World
Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What’s Still Around” (Zenyatta Mondatta) would
certainly tip the scales. Ex. 4b approximates the first measure
of the song’s basic four-bar rhythm figure. Play it once as written, repeat the
same line a whole step higher, and then move up another whole step play it twice
to form the foundation for Summers’ chimey C9sus4, D9sus4, and A7sus4/E (x2) whole
notes, which make up most of the song. (Delay Tip: Use either setting from Ex. 1c.)
Finally, we come to the palm-muted tictock ostinato. No, it’s not a rare species
of bird, it’s a repetitive single-note line like the one Summers plays during the
verses in “De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da” (Zenyatta Mondatta). Play Ex. 4c
over an A-F# -C# (x2) whole-note bass line and you’ll hear the illusion of a fourbar
Aadd9- F# 7sus4- C#m7 progression without playing a single chord. (Delay Tip: Try
the setting from Ex. 1a, or double your pleasure with Ex. 1b.)
7 MAKE EXOTIC SOUNDS
From “Friends” and “Behind My Camel” to “Omegaman” and “Mother,” the majority of
Summers’ solo Police compositions are representative of the band’s more harmonically
and melodically adventurous, if not wacky and oddball instrumental moments. Witness
how a simple four-note motif (root- b3-#4-5) like the one in Ex. 5a
conjures cinematic imagery of a desert caravan, or how the angular 7/4 run in
Ex. 5b—based on an altered b2/b9 version of Summers’ famed stacked-5th
voicing (shades of Frippery!)—can be adapted to its IV and V chords (D and E), and
expanded into a full-blown 12-bar, 7/4 “blues,” and you begin to get the idea that
Summers’ Police work was a bit subversive, and his writing bit off the beaten path.
Ex. 5c illustrates how Summers’ choice of notes for the three-part
harmony intro to “Omegaman” (Ghost in the Machine) could create a total Hendrix
vibe that still allows his own identity to shine. Bonus grids: Play each chord as
a tied whole note to form the song’s verse progression. (Shades of Todd!) Curiously,
one of Summers’ most off-the-wall recorded statements appears on “Driven to Tears,”
a song he didn’t write. “The solo on the record was the first one I played,” Summers
told Jas Obrecht in a 9/82 GP feature. “I did a couple more, but that was the one.
That song is about too many cameras, not enough food, etc., etc. It’s about the
state of the world, and the solo was supposed to reflect the angst that the lyrics
are talking about. So that’s why the solo is angular and angry. If I went in there
and did a Larry Carlton-type solo, it’d have been terrible.” Ex. 5d
presents Summers’ entire eight-bar solo—play it over Ex. 4a’s bass line transposed
to E and feel its angst.
8 RECONTEXTUALIZE YOUR CLASSICAL AND JAZZ CHOPS
You’ll find evidence of Summers’ early classical guitar training in numerous Police
titles. For instance, the p-im, or thumb-, index-, and middle-finger arpeggios in
Ex. 6a—which recall a portion of Summers’ more elaborate verse
figure from “Bring On the Night” (Reggatta de Blanc) form a sequence of diatonic
broken-6th intervals played against an open-E pedal tone. (Tip: For a real workout,
try i-m-a, or indexmiddle- ring.) And Ex. 6b, though not heard
on the original recording, illustrates the classically- voiced, ascending G and
A major triad inversions that Summers played in the early ’80s during the intro
and verse figures to live versions of “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic.” Summers’
penchant for natural and artificial harmonics dates back to “Can’t Stand Losing
You” (Outlandos d’Amour) and the title track from Reggatta de Blanc, and is evident
on many other Police titles, as well as throughout Summers’ numerous solo albums
and collaborations. The eternal student, Summers is particularly enamored with the
playing of late jazz great Lenny Breau, with whom he briefly studied. (Fact: I once
returned home from a tour to find a voice message from Summers, who had acquired
my Breau transcription of “Bluesette,” and was inquiring if I had any more. Now
that’s dedication!) One technique Summers was quick to adopt was Breau’s cascading
harpstyle harmonics (which L.B. gleaned from Chet Atkins), where a chord shape is
held while the pick hand alternates between natural fretted notes plucked with the
middle finger (m) and artificial harmonics played one octave higher by stopping
the harmonic node 12 frets above the fretted note with the index finger (i) and
simultaneously sounding it with the thumb (p). You can begin on a harmonic or a
natural note as notated in the two variations broken down in Ex. 6c.
It’s easier done than said, and once you get either sequence ringing and rolling,
you’ll understand why we call ’em “harp harmonics.” Try “harping” the four chords
in Ex. 5c, and then move on to your own pet voicings. Add compression and delay
to taste.
9 REINTERPRET STANDARD CHORD PROGRESSIONS
During his service in the Police, Summers’ flair for making over well-worn, standard
harmonic chord progressions with clever inversions, chord substitutions, or single-note
embellishments manifested in signature instrumental hooks for many of the band’s
hits, including the jangly, 9th-embellished I-V (A-E) intro/chorus figure of “De
Do Do Do, De Da Da Da,” the snakey, Ebsus2-Csus2 arpeggios subbed for a standard
I-VIm movement in “Invisible Sun” (Tip: See Ex. 1a), and of course, his famously
sampled rhythm figure in “Every Breath You Take” (Synchronicity). Ex. 7a
illustrates Summers’ palm-muted picking pattern applied to an unadorned I-IVm-IV-V
(A-F#m- D-E) intro progression, while Ex. 7b supplies all of the
necessary add9 and sus2 substitutions. Put ’em together and feel the burn. (Tip:
To lessen the pain, pair the Summersapproved voicings in Ex. 7c
into two-beat groupings to navigate the Aadd9 and F# madd9 portions of the progression.)
Bonus: Play Aadd9 x2, F# madd9 x2, Dsus2-D5, Esus2-E5, and F# madd9 x2 to simulate
the song’s “A” section, and Esus2-E5, Dsus2-D5, Aadd9 x2, Badd9 x2 (the previous
chord bumped up a whole step), and Esus2-E5 x2 to approximate the “B” section. Happy
stretching!
10 SEND OUT AN S.O.S.
And speaking of stretches, if there’s one Summers-cum- Police riff you’ve gotta
know, it’s the sequence of stacked 5ths that comprises the intro/verse figure to
one of his all-time favorite Police tunes. “Oh, to me, the best track we’ve ever
recorded is ‘Message in A Bottle,’” Summers told GP in 1982. “I love that song and
I love the guitar licks at the end. They have a nice, joyful quality. It’s got a
great drum track, too.” Sounding as fresh as the day it was recorded for 1979’s
Reggatta de Blanc, the song, which was used to kick off shows during the bands’
’07-’08 reunion tour, begins with four signature sus2 voicings— note the alternate
voicing for the second chord—played in rapid succession as shown in Ex. 8a
(Gtr. 1). The original studio recording also features Summers’ crafty harmony part
(Gtr. 2), in which he ingeniously employs parallel minor thirds for C# sus2, parallel
major thirds for Asus2, a mix of both for Bsus2, and parallel 5ths for F# sus2.
(Tip: The key to recycling both riffs is that final pinky slide.) Also noteworthy
is Summers’ left-hand fingering, which utilizes the second finger versus the third.
Play this figure 12 times, and then launch the joyously punky, pre-chorus power
chords in Ex. 8b as written. A second pre-chorus figure (not notated)
pumps three rounds of F#m and D chords, each played as a full bar of eighth-notes,
before the song shifts into a halftime feel that frames the minimalistic chorus
chords presented in Ex. 8c. Summers originally played straight
C#mand A barre chords on the recording, but these evolved over years of touring
into the more open-sounding C#m7 and Aadd9 voicings shown here, as did the flurry
of Breau-style harp harmonics Summers began using to extend the last two bars of
F#m9add4. Mmm...heavenly! Mille gratzie, mate!