Break It Down: “Them Bones” by Alice In Chains

By Jarred McAdams

With “Them Bones” by Alice in Chains, we’re featuring a song that plays with our sense of rhythm by using an odd time signature for much of this song. The song’s main riff is in 7/8 time, which means there are only seven beats where you’d usually expect there to be eight. This helps give the listener a constant sense of surprise, with the riff sometimes seeming to start over before it feels quite finished.

“Them Bones” also features a lot of chromatic motion, moving up the neck one fret at a time rather than skipping around to different tones in the scale. This line occurs in both the guitar and bass parts, with guitar playing power chords over the bass line’s single notes. This, combined with the odd-metered rhythm, gives this main verse riff an aura of Sisyphean futility, rising and rising but never quite reaching its destination.

In the guitar parts, the intro and post choruses are palm muted versions of the verse with a slightly different chord, while the verse is a simpler sustained version. The bass keeps the driving 8th note rhythm in both sections, alternating between the root and the 7th of the chord on the downbeat of every other measure.

The song also features a very tasteful blues-infused solo over the heavy odd-timed verse groove. It makes good use of some notes outside of the blues scale, including the 9th and the minor 6th, both borrowed from the Aeolian mode, and all inflected with lots of vibrato, bends, palm mutes, and other stylistic embellishment.

Fun fact: The verse and chorus riffs of this song were the basis for the music in “Barrels O’ Fun” level in the game Doom II, although the time signature was simplified. The influence seems very clear!

Jarred McAdams joined the Rocksmith team in 2011. He studied composition at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and hold a Master's degree in composition from Mills College. Jarred has served as a composer, performer, writer, and video producer for a wide variety of artistic and commercial projects, and has worked on a number of music game franchises since 2008.

"Alice in Chains at the Paradise in Boston, Sept. 7, 2009" by xrayspx is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0