A good example of an octave-doubled single-note "stomp groove" that uses quite a bit of silence is the riff that begins "The Ocean" [Houses of the Holy] (see Figure 1). I played this riff fingerstyle. As with many other Zeppelin riffs, I originally came up with this figure on the electric bass guitar while jamming with John Bonham. It's one of those tricky parts that was conceived using a great deal of eye contact between the two of us. Notice the pervasive use of silence in this figure, especially the gaping hole created by the half-note rest on beats 3 and 4 of the first bar. These rests helped provide the syncopation and allowed the riff to breathe while Bonzo continued to lay down the beat. (Page's verse riff in 4/4, the one comprised of the chords D5-C5-A5-G5-A5-D5, also employs rests very effectively.)

Also note that the second bar of FIGURE 1 is in 7/8 meter. Dropping half a beat from the two-bar phrase sounded good to our ears, so we just went ahead and did it. We actually wrote a lot of riffs and grooves that way-by experimenting with different variations on parts until something clicked.

Another good example of this type of writing is the intro/verse riff to "The Wanton Song" [Physical Graffiti] (see Figure 2), which also came to me whilst jamming with Bonzo. (I played this bassline fingerstyle as well.) Looking at the first measure, notice that beats 1 and 2 are comprised entirely of 16th notes (the G octaves), while beats 3 and 4 are completely empty (except, of course, for the drums). The last 16th note of beat 2 (the high G) is accented to enhance the feeling of syncopation and make the "hole" that immediately follows on beat 3 sound more dramatic.

You may recall that during beats 3 and 4 of the fourth bar of this riff Page plays a punchy chord fill (F-F#) with the drums. I felt that it was more effective for me not to double the F-F# walk-up and instead lay out until beat 1 of the next bar. Keep in mind that what you don't play is just as important as what you do play.

For the break riff (see Figure 3), I used the G minor-blues scale (G-Bb-C-Db-D-F) and a lot of syncopated 16th-note rhythms and rests to help create a funky, powerful-sounding phrase with lots of "kicks." Notice in the final bar of this figure (the descending part of the phrase) how each G-string note is repeated an octave lower on the A string. Playing the notes this way-in alternating octaves-really helped accentuate the syncopation of the line and gave it a very angular and interesting contour. We'll explore other effective uses of octaves next month. See you then.