Transcribing Notes From John Neil (Head Transcriber)
Shape of My Heart – Sting – Song Breakdown
Melody
A nice Sting melody with the range of C#3 to D4. It tells of a card player who gambles not to win but to find some kind of mystical logic to luck.
Download the Melody Music Here
Keyboard
For keyboards, what I hear mostly is cello that appears on occasion. I notated that (or what I could make of it), and also put some in other verses in just the left hand, so there is something to do. There is also a harmonica part (including the solo), which I assigned to the keyboards as well.
Download the Keyboard Sheet Music Here
Rhythm/Lead Guitar
This is the main acoustic guitar part, which is a picking part. It does basically the same thing over and over, but with some variations. And then in the solo it modulates up a 5th.
Download the Lead Guitar Tab Here
Strum Guitar
There isn’t a strum guitar in this song, so a part was made up, done at capo 2. There are some more complicated chords, but shouldn’t be too difficult to play.
Download the Strum Tab Here
Bass
Sting’s bass part. Some subtle slide work and octave riffs here. In live performances he does more of a walking down line through the main progression sometimes (which changes the chords), but this is the studio rendition.
Download the Bass Tab Here
Drums
In the recording there are both hi-hat and shaker driving the beat. As the shaker is a pretty important part, I did this tab more like a live recording I found, where the hi-hat does more of a constant 16 note part. I retained some accents of the studio recording, as well as kept the 16th note pulse at the breaks between the verses etc (while the live recording drops to quarter note hi-hat).
Download the Drum Music Here
Download the Lead Sheet Here
