Seven Nation Army — The White Stripes (2003)

Why it's in this book

This is December's anchor song and the one you record at the end of the first term. It opens the family of songs where the riff, not the chords, is in charge: Smoke on the Water, Oye como va and, in June, Billie Jean come after it. In the room with no instruments you sing it all the way through, with the riff in your voice and the bass drum in your foot; with ukuleles, E minor is enough for the riff, plus C and D to accompany; in the music room the bass carries the riff, the drums hold the beat and the electric guitar takes its first improvised solo on the E minor pentatonic. It used to be played in Year 9 too; now it is yours alone, because here the band hour counts for more and there is room for a solo. The second voice is a stadium's: everyone sings the riff in unison.

Why this song

If you have ever been to a football match, you already know it. "Oh, oh-oh-oh-oh, oh, oh". The crowd sings those seven notes before a goal, after a goal and when their team is losing.

Hardly anyone singing them knows they come from a 2003 rock song. And hardly anyone who knows the song knows that what you hear at the start is not a bass guitar.

Historical context

The White Stripes were two people: Jack White on vocals and guitar, and Meg White on drums. They had no bass player. At a time when rock records were stacked with layer upon layer of sound, they played almost bare.

Jack came up with the riff in Melbourne, Australia, in January 2002, during a soundcheck. He liked it so much that he saved it for something special: he wanted to use it if he was ever asked to write a James Bond theme. Since that seemed unlikely, he used it in a band song instead. Five years later, as it happens, he did get to write a Bond song.

They recorded it in London, at Toe Rag Studios. Jack called it a "little experiment": he wanted a song that worked without a sung chorus.

Foto: Jason, CC BY 2.0, vía Wikimedia Commons

This is the trick. It is a DigiTech Whammy, the same kind of effects pedal Jack used. It shifts the pitch of whatever the guitar plays. Set one octave down, the guitar sounds as low as a bass. That is why the band did not need a bass player.

Football came on its own. In October 2003, at a Champions League match in Milan, fans of the Belgian club Brugge started singing the riff. Roma fans copied it, then Italy's national team supporters, and when Italy won the 2006 World Cup the "po po po po po" rang through the streets of Rome. Jack put it like this: nothing is more beautiful in music than when people take a melody and turn it into folk music.

Musical characteristics

A riff that repeats. A riff is a short, easy-to-recognise phrase that repeats many times and holds up the whole song. This one has seven notes: one long and six short. First it goes up, then it steps down. Because it repeats non-stop, it is also an ostinato: a figure that keeps insisting.

A fake bass. Listen to how low the riff sounds. It seems like a bass guitar, but it is a guitar through the Whammy pedal. For the class band this is good news: the riff fits on a real bass, and on the keyboard with the left hand.

Drums like a heartbeat. Meg plays one bass-drum hit per beat, like a heart. In the verses the drums stay on that heartbeat and add almost nothing. The tension grows because the loud part is saved for later.

A chorus with no words. When the song explodes, Jack does not sing: he plays the riff on distorted guitar while Meg hits the cymbals. The "chorus" is the riff at full volume. That is why stadiums sing it with "oh": it is a melody with no lyrics.

Two new chords. Before each explosion there is a passage that climbs to two chords, G and A. It is the only moment the song leaves E.

Where the solo goes. The riff is built from notes of the E minor pentatonic scale: E, G, A, B, D. With those five notes, any phrase fits on top. That is improvising with a safety net: there are no wrong notes.

Hard facts: E minor, 4/4, 124 beats per minute (the published sheet music says 120), 3:52. The form: intro with the riff, verse, pre-chorus, instrumental blast, verse, pre-chorus, guitar solo, final blast.

Guided listening

Play the music video. At first you only hear the low riff and the bass drum. Count the notes of the riff on your fingers: you should get seven.

When the voice comes in, listen to the drums. Has anything changed? Listen for whether it is the same heartbeat or whether a new hit has joined in.

When the voice climbs and the chords change, get ready. The blast is coming: distorted guitar and cymbals. Check that what you hear is the riff again, now high and loud.

In the guitar solo, listen to how Jack bends and twists the notes. Then compare: what does the solo have in common with the riff?

Trivia and curiosities

• The title comes from a childhood mistake. As a boy in Detroit, Jack White heard "Seven Nation Army" when people said "Salvation Army". It was a placeholder title, but it stuck.

• In the music video, Meg had a broken left wrist. They placed a tom in front of her to hide the cast.

• The record label did not want it as the album's first single. Jack insisted. It won a Grammy.

• The riff works in a stadium because anyone can sing it: it stays within one octave and moves mostly by step. A hard melody would never have been adopted by a football crowd.

Classroom activities

• Sing the riff. Room with no instruments: the whole class sings the riff on "oh" and taps the bass drum with their feet, one hit per beat. Half the class sings, the other half keeps the heartbeat. Then swap.

• Play the riff. Bass and keyboard (left hand): E, E, G, E, D, C, B. Ukulele: the note E on the first string, or an E minor chord on every beat. Whoever accompanies with chords plays C and D in the pre-chorus of the class version.

• First solo. Electric guitar and keyboard improvise two bars on the E minor pentatonic while everyone else keeps the riff going. Take turns, without stopping the music.

• Analyse. Does this song have a chorus? Answer in one sentence and back it up with what you heard: where there is singing, where there is not, and what takes its place.

Key vocabulary

• Riff — riff: frase corta que se repite y sostiene la canción
• Ostinato — ostinato
• Pentatonic scale — escala pentatónica: escala de cinco notas
• Improvising — improvisar
• Unison — unísono: todos cantan la misma melodía a la misma altura

Resources

Official music video — A tunnel of triangles that never ends. Notice how the video speeds up as the music builds.

Guitar tutorial — JustinGuitar. The riff in an easy version, explained slowly.

Ukulele tutorial — Ukulele Cheats. To play the riff and the chords along with the recording.

Piano tutorial — PHianonize. An easy keyboard version.

Drum tutorial — LearnSomeDrums. An easy lesson, made for beginners.

Bass tutorial — Andy Guitar. Made for people picking up a bass for the first time.

• Harmonic analysis — Hooktheory, section by section: https://www.hooktheory.com/theorytab/view/the-white-stripes/seven-nation-army