Mr Brightside guitar riff...

[Robertb]

I play this for our band, and while I can play the guitar riff fine I can only play it sitting down which looks a bit rubbish in a gig!

Standing up, I cannot bridge over the high strings and end up touching them with my little finger and they don't ring properly.

Any tips? (other than play something else!)

i know you can do it by capo'ing but that changes the sound of it.

[cherryowen]

Fair dues on playing that riff! I find it fiendishly hard!

The only thing I can suggest is strapping up higher. Andy Summers (of Police fame) used to play eye-watering left hand stretches for riffs like Message In a Bottle (stacked 5ths IIRC), and his Tele was positioned around his midriff (unlike near his knees like Page).

[Chubbyross]

I second the idea of strapping up higher. I played for years with a low-slung strap because...well, it's rock and roll. I've long since stopped caring about what others think of me now and I started playing with the guitar much, much higher. What a difference! Everything is so much easier.

[Robertb]

Its a beast... always a relief to get to the chorus sections and outro!

Great idea on adjusting the strap, I'll see if I can mirror the position the guitar is in when I play seated.

I've tried to do much more practice playing standing up as it always feels a bit odd and I have to say its really helped, as has practicing songs for gigs properly by playing them all the way through with FX changes etc as I've tended to just drill the tricky bits.