Lesson 3.9: Power Chords!!!

punk music has 3 essentials for guitarists:

turn up your amp, spike your hair, and play power chords!!!!

BUT power chords are not just for punks…it’s a great fundamental for everyone and is usually found as at least a layer in rock music and a foundation for blues shuffle riffs.  -

a power chord is also labelled as a “5″ chord.  meaning, if you look in a book, an “G power chord” for instance will be labelled G5.

the 5 refers to the 5th note of the major scale (or minor scale)….so, to play a 5 chord or a power chord, you play the 1 (the root note) and the 5 (5th note of that root’s scale).

take the G major scale (pattern 4) to create the power chord…

e—————————————————————————–

b—————————————————————————–

g—————————————————————————–

d————————————————————————(5)-<–octave

a—————2–3—5————————————————5—–

e——3—-5———————yielding the power chord–>–3—-

you can do the same thing with the root on the A string…

e—————————————————————————–

b—————————————————————————–

g—————————————————————-(5)-<–octave

d————-2–3–5——————————————5——————-

a—–3—5—————————————————–3—–

e—————————yielding the power chord–>——–

the notes of the power chords are usually played with the index and ring finger. and you can add the octave of the root with your pinky finger, if you’d like a fuller sound.

if you play a few, you’ll quickly notice that the ring finger is 2 frets higher in pitch than the index finger.  so you can apply this power chord technique on every string (except on the G and the B strings together – in this case there will be 3 frets in between).

now let’s try it with an open string as the root…

E              A               D               G                B

e—————————————(3)——-(2)———-

b—————————-(3)——–3———0———–

g—————(2)———-2———0———————–

d—-(2)——–2———–0———————————

a—–2———0——————————————-

e—–0—————————————————-

with these open string power chords you can play the higher note (instead of the lower note) with your index finger, leaving your ring finger (and pinky finger) free to toggle on some other notes. which leads us to the blues shuffle.

here’s a video showing you how to do it (much more interesting than all this talk)…

so now turn on some Green Day, Social Distortion, the Ramones, or even some blues and listen for power chords in action!

Quick Review:

Power Chords, a.k.a. “5 chords”, are made of 2 different notes (and you can even add the octave if you want).  they are frequently used in punk and rock.  but set the foundation for blues shuffles and even for barre chords (shape 2 and 4), which you’ll learn about in upcoming Chords lessons.

MOVE ON TO LESSON 4: CHORDS

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