Andy Summers is the guitar player in the band The Police. And one guitar chord he plays over and over in many songs is a particular sus2 chord voicing. In this video guitar lesson I’m going to show you this magic Andy Summers sus2 chord.
You’ll even learn how to play the main guitar riff to one of the most popular songs by the Police called “Message in a Bottle”, which uses this sus2 guitar chord.
(Video Guitar Lesson)
- Check out my Rhythm Guitar Mastery course to help you build your guitar chord vocabulary as well as master strumming and rhythms.
Moveable sus2 Guitar Chord Charts
Here are the guitar chord charts for this Andy Summers sus2 chord form. One with the root on the 6th string and one with the root on the 5th string. The root is just the primary note that a chord is named after.
If you were to play the root at the 6th string form of this sus2 chord so that your 1st finger was playing the 6th string 5th fret, then that would be an Asus2 chord. Because the 6th string 5th fret is an A note. “A” would be the root of the chord.
If you played the root on the 5th string sus2 chord below at the 5th string 5th fret, it would be a Dsus2 chord. These are moveable chord forms, so you can really play them anywhere on the neck of the guitar.
Message in a Bottle Tab
A great example of how Andy Summers made use of this sus2 guitar chord form was in the song “Message in a Bottle”. This Police guitar riff uses only this moveable sus2 chord played in different positions on the neck. The chords are C#sus2 with the root on the 5th string. Then Asus2, Bsus2, and F#sus2 with the root on the 6th string. Then you are just picking out the notes individually rather than strumming the chords.
There is also a guitar slide between the last 2 notes of this guitar riff.
- See the Guitar Lesson Downloads sections lower on this page to download 6 different MP3 Jam Tracks to practice the “Message in a Bottle” guitar riff with. I have 3 different speeds… 100, 125, and 150 beats per minute. And versions with the guitar part and without.
sus2 Chords as a Substitute for Major and Minor
A great use of sus2 chords on the guitar is as a substitute for any major or minor chord. A sus2 chord is neither major or minor sounding. It’s gender free 🙂 For you music theory buffs a sus2 chords is just made up of the 1st, 2nd and 5th degrees of a major scale. So for instance in the guitar chord progression below there are the chords A, F#m, D and E. All barre chords in this case.
Guitar Chord Progression #1 – Major and Minor Chords
But one thing you could do is play all sus2 chords instead like in the chord progression below. You could even play the 2 chord progressions at the same time and they would work well together.
Guitar Chord Progression #2 – sus2 Chords
Guitar Lesson Downloads
Below are 6 MP3 Jam Tracks and a PDF file you can print out with the guitar tablature and chord charts for this lesson.
The 6 Mp3 Jam Tracks are in 1 zip file. Just save the file to your computer and unzip it there. There are 3 different speeds both with the guitar part and without.
(Right Click the links below and choose “Save As” or “Save Target As” or “Download Linked Files As”)
Message in the Bottle Intro mp3 Jam Tracks
Andy Summers Police sus2 Chord Guitar Lesson PDF
I have an entire chapter in my Rhythm Guitar Mastery course that covers all of the common sus2 chord forms on the guitar. Check out that course to help you build your chord vocabulary, and all about guitar strumming and rhythms.
