Rockschool:
The White Stripes – Seven nation army
Recorded as the opening track for the band’s fourth studio album Elephant, Seven Nation Army is littered with Jack White’s dazzling guitar wizardry, from blistering overdriven chords through slide solos to the track’s earworm riff. White played the track on a semiacoustic guitar through a Digitech Whammy pedal – a pitch shifting device which gives the song its enormous bass sound.
The riff is re-imagined here for beginner guitarists in Rockschool’s
Grade One version for acoustic guitar, making use of the open-position E minor scale. You can tackle this fingerstyle or with a pick, but aim for a clear sound, cutting off the open G on beat 3 of bar 1 with the fretting hand by the time the next note is sounded. At bar 21, be sure to play the repeated ‘G’ eighth notes with a strong attack from the picking hand, and take care in transitioning to the two-string A5 chord in bar 22. These two bars are crucial to the build up in the song’s tension!