How to play Seven Nation Army by the White Stripes
Seven Nation Army by the White Stripes is the big global hit from their 2003 album Elephant. Based on a simple seven-note riff it, became the White Stripes’ most enduring hit and remains popular around the world on radio, television and streaming formats. The riff, repeated in power chords, and the solo based on the same tune make it a perfect choice for developing electric guitarists.
Chords: E5 in 1st & 7th positions, G5 in 3rd & 10th positions, A5, D5, C5 and B5
Pick or Fingers? Pick - it’s Rock and you need the pick the create the strong tone of the original.
Acoustic or Electric?: Electric, electric, electric! (Sorry kids, its really not an acoustic thing!)
Power chords: These are all ‘root 5’ chords; they create a sharper tone with the overdrive/distortion effect. The easiest way to read them in TAB is to follow the bottom number; the number on the 5th string tells you the position of the chord. If you’re finding them difficult you can reduce these power chords to just two strings; the 5th and 4th strings give you the essential sound you need but, once you are are comfortable with that add the 3rd string back in to create the full chord tone.
How do I play the solo? The first half is in the 9th position and the second half in the 12th position. Start on your index finger on the 3rd string, 9th fret and then move on to the 3rd finger in the 12 the fret. Use at least two fingers - the 2nd & 3rd fingers - to control the bending on the 3rd string. On the 1st string, 12th position it’s best if you use your 1st, 2nd & 3rd fingers together to control the bending at the 15th fret.
Relevant pages in Modern Guitar Chord Styles 2 : To learn more about major bar-chords, Rock rhythms and power-chords work on pages 4 - 6, then 8 - 9. Thess will give you a good grounding with the most common chords used in Rock and Electric guitar in general, and gives you a good foundation for all the other common bar-chord forms.
Relevant pages in Electric Guitar Solo Style 1 : To learn more about the solo techniques in Seven Nation Army check out pages 19, 25 - 26 and 32.
Need a bit of help?
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Electric Guitar Solo Style 1 is a gently graded course, full of techniques, licks, riffs, scales with heaps of TAB to make life easy for beginners. The book is suitable for absolute beginners but progresses towards grade 3 level guitar by the end. Great for young students 12 and up and adult beginners!