Originally written on April, 4, 2015.
“Shape of My Heart” is the tenth track on Sting’s fourth solo album, Ten Summoner’s Tales. Sting co-wrote the song with Dominic Miller, who has played over a thousand concerts with Sting since 1990. Sting wrote the lyrics himself.
The profound lyrics deal with the consequences of hiding one’s persona and emotions behind a mask that is never removed. In the world of a poker player, such a tactic yields results, but in human relationships, people find themselves in trouble if they behave this way. Sting uses perfect contrasts to demonstrate this: the faceless poker player versus the lover. In my opinion, it is a brilliant text.
I play the song by fingerpicking the accompaniment during the verses but strumming the chords during the chorus (”I know that the spades...”). As an intro, I fingerpick the verse accompaniment once before I begin singing. In the video below, Miller plays the melody on the B string, though he sometimes plays it on the G string, as in the original recording. It could also be played on the high E string, which would naturally be the simplest way. If you click the image to the side, a PDF should open with the chords and notation where the melody is played on the B string.
Unless you are particularly nimble-fingered, it can take some time to master the stretch in the fretting hand. Measures one, nine, and eleven require an overstretch, but with patience as your weapon, it can be done. Measure eleven is the most difficult; there, the middle finger must hammer the B note on the fourth fret of the third string while the index finger holds the A note on the second string. It can take time to get the B to ring out properly. It is important to let the last note in each measure ring long enough, so care should be taken not to rush the chord changes. We want a good flow in the music, not a staccato feel to the performance.
