How To Play Seven Nation Army On Guitar

How To Play Seven Nation Army On Guitar – String Bending & Solo

(Fast-forward to 2:02 of the song for this section)

One really cool point to make about learning how to play seven nation army on guitar is that it teaches us some great songwriting and soloing tips.

Jack White wrote a guitar solo that would reinforce the melody that he had already written.

• The fact that this solo is so straightforward makes it one of the high points of learning how to play seven nation army on guitar.
• There are a number of ways that we can approach this solo, and Jack White performs it with a slide over his finger.

Don’t worry, we’re not going to give you a whole crash course on slide guitar in this article.

Instead, we’re going to look at a technique called string bending.

This is the coolest part of learning how to play seven nation army on guitar.

Skill Tip: String bending is easy – it just takes practice!

Before we begin playing the solo to this section, we’ll want to give this a shot:

Place your ring finger on the fret you want to bend from on the high E string, and your middle finger on the fret behind it.

• For example, if you are bending at the 10th fret, your middle should be on the 9th.

If you like, you can put your index on the fret behind your middle for more strength.

• Pick the note that you’re fretting, and push the string up toward you.
• You’ll want to make sure that your middle and index provide additional support to your ring finger.

This is called a reinforced bend, and we’ll be using them in just a moment.

There are three types of bends we can use:

• ¼ Bend – Vibrates the note but does not completely shift to a higher note
• ½ Bend – Bend far enough that your note climbs up one fret in pitch
• Full Bend – Bend far enough that your note climbs up two frets in pitch

Give these a shot to hear the difference, and look out for them in the tab.

Now that we’ve got a handle on bending, let’s play this solo already!

• This solo starts off with our index finger at the 9th fret of the G string.
• We are going to be playing almost the exact same rhythm from the verse and chorus with a different octave of notes.
• Pay close attention to the flow of the notes in the song, and count along with the tab to see exactly how it’s being played.

We’ve included slides in the tab to help you see where to shift your hand position up to reach the next set of frets.

Slide with your ring finger so you can reach the frets behind with your index.

Check out the first 8 bars:

The smaller fret numbers represent frets that can be used to slide up to another fret with.

This adds some more detail to our technique, and is a nice touch.

The next eight bars can be found below:

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How To Play Seven Nation Army On Guitar – Song Structure

The layout of Seven Nation Army is quite simple, and we’ve laid it out for you in detail below:

• Intro/Verse: Play riff 12 times
• Pre-Chorus: 3rd and 5th fret power chords
• Chorus: With octaves
• Pre-Chorus: 3rd and 5th fret power chords
• Verse: Play riff 12 times
• Pre-Chorus: 3rd and 5th fret power chords
• Solo
• Pre-Chorus: 3rd and 5th fret power chords
• Verse: Play riff 12 times
• Pre-Chorus: 3rd and 5th fret power chords
• Chorus: With octaves
• End by holding 7th fret octave on the A string, then hitting the low E open

Remember when learning how to play seven nation army on guitar that it’s important to practice section to section.

This method of practice will help us understand the structure of the song as a whole.

Bonus: How To Play Seven Nation Army on Guitar – Tone Tips

In this section, we’ll look at a few of the ways we can make our guitar sound like Jack White’s in seven nation army using different pedals.

• If we want to learn how to play seven nation army on guitar with the right tone, the first thing we can experiment with is an Octave pedal.
• Octave pedals are used to digitally drop or raise the pitch of the guitar, and can create some pretty awesome sounds all on their own.

Jack White used a Digitech Whammy pedal to record seven nation army, but any octave pedal will do.

Another key addition to Jack White’s guitar rig on seven nation army is a Fuzz pedal.

• Fuzz pedals come in a variety of shapes and sizes, and are designed to over-distort your guitar signal, resulting in the sound from the name.
• Jack White favors the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff for his fuzzed-out and distorted guitar tone.

Learning about tone can help us better understand the sounds in our head.

Do your research to find out what pedals your favorite guitarists use!

Where do I go from here?

Not yet through with your daily practice and craving more knowledge.

We recommend:

• Get yourself a copy of The Greatest Rock Guitar Riffs TAB Book
• Take a dive through our lesson index to find some more awesome guitar lessons!
• Take frequent breaks to stretch – It’s important to stay flexible.
• Watch a YouTube video of your favourite guitarist.
• Watch It Might Get Loud featuring Jack White, The Edge (U2) and Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin).

Recommended Resources

Want to keep reading? Check out some more free guitar lessons from the National Guitar Academy below:

• What is the Root Note of a Chord?
• 10 Guitar Tips I Wish Someone Had Taught Me
• Learn Electric Guitar in 9 Easy Steps
• 20 Guitar Exercises that Will Make You a Better Guitarist
• Guitar Practice – 10 Essential Tips