The Story Of The Walking On The Moon Chord
by Greg Danielak
dum dum dum . . . DING!!!!!!!
Where where you when you first heard the chiming, cascading ring of the "Walking On The Moon" chord? Wherever you where, you knew that this was IT- you got chills and goosebumps all over, and realized the Police rule. This is what music was made for, for pure and ultimate expression, like this song . . .
So how did the band write it? And how did Andy come up with "the chord"?
I Needed Inspiration . . .
It all started one night with Sting. He said in "L'Historia Bandidio" (1981), "I was drunk in a hotel room in Munich, slumped on the bed with the whirling pit when this riff came into my head. I got up and started walking round the room, singing 'Walking round the room, ya, ya, walking round the room'. That was all. In the cool light of morning I remembered what had happened and I wrote the riff down. But 'Walking Round the Room' was a stupid title so I thought of something even more stupid which was Walking On the Moon."
Rocking On The Moon
The band then started to experiment with Sting's arrangement, trying it out in all sorts of styles and ways. "Walking On The Moon took us a lot of work," Stewart Copleand said in "L'Historia Bandidio". "It started out as a rocker but we finally changed it right around."
Chord Artistry Cures Depression"When Sting brought in the basic chord, it was a D minor," Andy Summers told Guitar World in December 1997. "But if I'd just play a minor triad, we'd have been down in the dumps. So I constructed an extended chord that would be a cry of joy and surprise, a clear declaration of the song's intention. I put a G note on top of a Dm7 chord, which is actually a Dm11(no9) . . .
(Note: This chord was transcribed wrong in "Message In A Box: The Complete Transcriptions.")
Moonwalker
The note Andy added is the G on the 3rd fret of the high E string. "It's the esscence of the moon- your basic lunar chord. The sentiment behind "Walking On The Moon" is very happy and dreamy- you imagine the guy springing around outer space. The G adds the elastic tension and makes it joyful. The sound of an 11th is very happy and positive. The chord is minor and major at the same time, so it's got a sense of ambiguity. And it seemed to get at what the whole song was about. When I played it for Sting there was no argument. I decided I should just outline the bass riff, rather than go down and hit the C chord, which would have cluttered things up. Then I added chorus and a little delay for coloration."
Play this chord with the G on top, then play it without the G to see all the difference one note in a chord can make. Then try messing around with other chords- removing notes, adding notes from their relative scales . . . there is a chord sequence to match every single experience you can have. With that in mind, you're not likely to run out of ideas.
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
