Power Chords

Learning Power Chords - can sonically help you in your guitar playing... letting you fly high with expression and spirit into the sunrise.

First... let's not confuse POWER CHORDS with BARRE CHORDS.

Learning these CHORDS first will help you in your endeavor to playing barre CHORDS. POWER CHORDS - you only play the 2 to 3 notes in the POWER chord. The rest of the strings are muted...

Peter Townsend of The Who is probably more responsible for the term "POWER Chord" than any other player. These were CHORDS played primarily on the bass strings of the guitar with high gain or distortion and usually held or sustained. Now, most people play the 5 chord.

POWER CHORDS contain only the root of the chord and the perfect fifth of the chord. They are sometimes written as X5 CHORDS, where the X is the root. However, you may add the root(X)octave note to make a 3 note Power Chord.

EXAMPLE: So the easiest and most common way to play this chord "G5" is exactly example below:

e--X---- muted High String

b--X--- muted

g--X--- muted

d--5-- (OCTAVE NOTE = same note higher up the scale)

a--5-- Only play the top three strings.

E--3-- Low String (palm muting is good for chords

like these).

OR:

e--X---- muted

b--X---- muted

g--X---- muted

d--X---- muted

a--5-- Only play the top 2 strings.

E--3--

The above CHORDS are movable too, so if you want to play an A5 chord, just move the whole thing up 2 frets so the note on the low E string is an A.

Power Chords work well with Rock, Grunge, and Metal. Progressive Country player use these type of CHORDS all the time too.

However... Heavy Metal got it's sound by musicians playing these chords. Black Sabbath's, Metallica, Scorpion's, Judiest Priest's and Ozzy's guitarist used POWER CHORDS extensively in there song writing,and playing.

Guitar Lesson - Rock Power Chords - You will learn Power chords! Plus, i will show a really cool palm muting technique! Have Fun!

Power Chords

What Are Power Chords?

Power chords can be fun and easy to play. You can hear them in all types of music, but most people associate them with hard rock styles of music.

Power chords are not really chords. Chords are 3 notes or more, whereas power chords only have 2 different notes. A more correct name would be "power intervals" because they only contain two different notes. Usually power chords are composed of the root, a perfect 5th interval, and the root note doubled at a higher pitch (called an octave). Basically they are just like playing perfect 5th intervals and doubling up a note or two.

Power Chords

NPR Radio: Remembering Guitarist Link Wray - Father of the Power chord

Guitarist Link Wray died on November 5 at the age of 76. He's credited with inventing the power chord in the 1950s. His first big recording hit was the 1958 instrumental Rumble. When he went to record the song, he wasn't happy with the sound on the amp, so he pierced holes in the speaker cone to create additional distortion. Guitarists including Pete Townshend and John Lennon were influenced by his work. Wray's other hits include Rawhide and the Batman theme.Remembering Guitarist Link Wray - Father of the Power chord

If you like this article, you might like this one too! What are Barre-Chordz

Hal Leonard Guitar Chord Songbook Rock N Roll

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Power Chords

Updated: 12/26/06