Shape of My Heart Guitar Lesson: Tips and Tricks for Success

Looking to add a beautifully hypnotizing fingerpicking song to your repertoire? 

Well, this guitar lesson for “Shape Of My Heart” has you covered. 

Who wrote Shape of My Heart?

"Shape of My Heart" was co-written by two incredible musicians Sting and Dominic Miller. It was first released as the fifth single from Sting’s fourth solo album, Ten Summoner’s Tales in August of 1993. 

The song features a captivating chord progression and also incredible harmonica playing from Larry Adler. The following year the song even landed itself in the French action-thriller film Léon: The Professional.

How hard is it to play Shape of My Heart on guitar?

Let’s get straight to it, in this post I’ll break down the main 8-bar chord progression and fingerpicking patterns used by Dominic Miller in the nylon string guitar part.

Dominic Milled uses a classical guitar and spread chord voicings, which we’ll dive into below, to create a big open-sounding guitar part and provide the perfect accompaniment for Sting’s vocal melody. 

But with that said “Shape of My Heart” is not easy to play. The chords are stretchy, the rhythm is syncopated, and the fingerpicking hand requires a decent amount of independent control to be developed for each finger to operate on its own.

Shape Of My Heart Chords

Before diving into the fingerstyle part of the song, it's important to familiarize yourself with the chord shapes you’ll need. "Shape of My Heart" uses 11 different chords and some of them are not typical guitar chord shapes. A lot of the shapes used are what I call “spread chord voicings.” The basic idea here is that to create a spread triad you take the middle note of a standard triad and raise it by an octave. Miller uses this beautifully in a combination of basic and more advanced chords.  

Here they are in order of appearance in the song. 

F#m, E6, D6, C#7sus4, C#7

D/F#, A5, C#, D, G#m7, F#m

Once you have the chord shapes next you’ll want to put them into the chord progression.

Here’s an overview of how long to stay on each chord.

F#m, E6 (1 bar)

D6, C#7sus4, C#7 (1 bar)

Then this pattern repeats again but you swap out the F#m for a D/F#.

It’s just one note different but it creates a beautiful sound.

D/F#, E6 (1 bar)

D6, C#7sus4, C#7 (1 bar)

Then the next 4 bars look like this:

D6 (1 bar)

A5, C# (1 bar)

D, G#m7 (1 bar)

F#m (1 bar)

Adding in the fingerpicking

Once you have the chords down, it's time to focus on the fingerpicking patterns. In the fingerpicking hand, I am only using my thumb, index, and middle fingers. As a general pattern to follow my thumb covers the notes on the 5th and 6th strings – these are typically the bass notes of each chord – my index covers the notes on the 3rd string, and finally, my middle fingers cover the notes on the 2nd and 1st strings.

This is meant as just a general guide, but it will give you a 3-finger framework to start to know what fingers to use on each string as you pluck out the notes in the riff.

I’m also using a thumbpick in the video above but this can be played with just fingers as well.

In Example 1 we’ll start out on the F#m chord in the 6th position. Often Miller in this style landed on strong beats hitting the highest note in the spread voicing. He often placed the bass notes on a 16th note before the strong beats. This gives the style a syncopated feel and adds a forward momentum to the music.

In Example 2, there are 3 chords. First, the D6 which lasts for 2 beats, and then the C#7sus4 and C#7 last for just 1 beat each.

From there repeat the first two examples again but this time trade out the F#m for the D/F# chord like this:

Next, we’ll spend an entire measure on just the D6 chord. Here we’ll also bring in the 5th fret on the 1st string. This chord is expanding on the D6 chord shape from above.

From there we’ll play a double-stop embellishment around the A5 chord shape. Notice how the bass note is on the 5th fret of the 6th string. Then we’ll arpeggiate through another spread chord voicing for C#.

Then we can finish it all off with rolling through a D chord (spread triad), a half-note pinch on the G#m7, and then one final strum on an F#m bar chord at the 2nd fret.

All together it should match this: 

F#m, E6 (1 bar)

D6, C#7sus4, C#7 (1 bar)

D/F#, E6 (1 bar)

D6, C#7sus4, C#7 (1 bar)

D6 (1 bar)

A5, C# (1 bar)

D, G#m7 (1 bar)

F#m (1 bar) 

Put all those 8 bars together and then repeat back to the top and you’ve got it!

Conclusion:

In conclusion, learning how to play "Shape of My Heart" by Sting on guitar can be a challenging but incredibly rewarding experience. Take your time with this song, and be patient with your fretting hand as it will need time to develop the muscle memory for new chord shapes.

The intricate fingerpicking patterns and chord progressions may take time to master, but the effort you put in will be well worth it in the end. Miller’s guitar part in this song has a classical guitar-like quality, and it's a great opportunity for players to explore fingerstyle accompaniment and dynamics.

One of the most striking aspects of the guitar part in "Shape of My Heart" is how it almost sounds like a classical guitar piece. This is due in part to the nylon string guitar, the spread chord voicings, and the overall clean technique, which creates a delicate and intricate sound. The use of fingerpicking also allows the player to bring out the nuances of the melody and create a more expressive and emotive performance.

As you continue to work on your fingerpicking skills, remember it won’t be perfect at first. But focus on the precision and timing of each note. Also, pay close attention to the subtleties of the song's phrasing. Practice playing each measure slowly and deliberately, gradually increasing the tempo as you become more comfortable with the patterns and movements.

One useful exercise to improve your fingerpicking skills is just to try to play other songs you already know with a pick but now play them with your fingers. This will help you develop more control and get used to using your fingers instead of a pick. 

Remember, learning to play "Shape of My Heart" is just the beginning. As you become more proficient with the song, you'll be able to incorporate new techniques and ideas you've learned to create your own unique sound. So keep practicing, keep exploring and for another great fingerpicking lesson check out “Boogie Chillen” next!