How to Play "Bring On The Night"
by Greg Danielak
Classical Influences
In the early 70's, when Andy Summers was enrolled at the California State University of Northridge's classical guitar program, he would practice 20th century guitar pieces for about 10 hours a day. This period of exploration left an unerasable mark upon Andy's playing. One of the most influential players Andy discovered was a Brazilian classical guitarist/composer named Hector Villa-Lobos. Andy told Vic Gabriani in the November '97 issue of of Guitar World: "Hector Villa-Lobos was a truly great Brazilian composer who wrote on the guitar. He was obviously limited as a guitarist, but between what he found under his hands and his skill as a composer, it's miraculous what he pulled off. He would blend a lyrical sensibility based on the Brazilian "Choro", which is a combination of African, South American and European music, with an almost jazzy sense of European harmony. You could say that his music has a savage sophistication about it. He would do things like play parallel 9ths up and down the guitar against the open E string. You can hear his influence most obviously on "Bring On The Night", but it's everywhere in my playing, really."
With that in mind, let's check out the main riff in "Bring On The Night".
The correct way to play this riff is to use your pick and fingers to sound the notes. Use your pick to hit every note on the D string, your middle finger to hit the notes on the B string, and your ring finger to hit the open E string. This is a great tune to get your fingerpicking/classical chops up.
Typical Andy- 8 Harmonies Out Of Only 5 Chords?
Notice the way the riff moves. The C6 figure used to start it, becomes used again in the 4rth measure as an "unsure" feeling, and then at the end to resolve to the sad Em. The amazing thing about this riff is that there are 8 different harmonies in the 4 measures- out of only 5 chords! See, you don't need a different chord every time to express a different feeling. Andy's riff relies only on Sting's bass and voice to add all other harmonies in, but it is such a huge sounding song. Less is More!
Copyright 1979 Gordon M. Sumner Published by Magnetic Publishing Ltd. (PRS) Represented by Blue Turtle Music, Administered by Almo Music Corp. (ASCAP) in the U.S. and Canada International Copyright Secured
All Rights Reserved
Lesson by Greg Danielak - 2000
