Somewhere along the way I learned that in rock music, if you want to change it up, you do something on the beats “+ 4 +”
It’s everywhere!
Zombie by The Cranberries ends the four chord loop by F# G F# on those beats.
ZZ Top’s Sharp Dressed Man comes in for the guitar solo this way.
Smoke on the Water by Deep Purple has that iconic walk up.
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Of course, there are variations when you play triplets, or if we talk about syncopation. But I feel that a back and forth on the “+ 4 +” is the most common thing. Probably because you just accent the four and it’s easy to do.
This is based on the old 12 bar blues, which is 4 bars of the root (1), followed by two bars of the 4, two bars of the one, then finishes with a bar of the 5, a bar of the 4, and two bars of 1. There are several variations. What you are noticing are the blues baby.
Now that you say it, I have been playing a bunch of blues recently. The +4+ is also the most common strumming pattern to change bars on guitar, I think.
Yes, it seems like a stylistic thing that you can use for almost any jam in rock and blues. I was wondering if I’m just seeing things, or if this is common knowledge.
The cool thing is you can walk up/down or you can go back and forth because it’s a three note phrase that then lands on the one. Maybe it’s nothing, but it felt revelatory to me.
