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Power Chords

Learn how to play power chords

Date : 18/04/2014

Author Information

Darius

Uploaded by : Darius
Uploaded on : 18/04/2014
Subject : Guitar Electric

Power chords can be a very cool addition to your chord library. They consist of only two notes ( without going too deep into music theory - this is the perfect fifth interval). You can hear it in a countless number of recordings and across many different music genres (but commonly used in heavy metal and hard rock music). Because of their simple structure, it is very easy to use power chords. These type of chords are neither major or minor - they can be both so you can easily replace some major or minor chords in a song. There is only one problem, with this however, as the power chord only has two notes, it may sound a bit weak but you can give power chords a full and rich sound by simply using overdrive or distortion (normal major minor chords may sound a bit muddy though ). To play the chord, position your first finger on the 5th fret, 5th string and third finger on the 7th fret, 4th string (and you play only those two notes ). In this example, the name of the chord comes from the 5th fret, 5th string. We call this position, the root note (and the root note in this example is the note D), so the name of the chord is D5. If you move this chord to the 7th fret, 5th string the name will be E5 - because that is the note E. But what happens if you want to play the power chord in an open position?

Now the root note (the place from which the chord takes its name ) is on the open 5th string. So to play this chord, you need to position your first finger on the 2nd fret, 4th string and then play the open 5th and 4th strings. The shapes are movable and you can play them from the 6th, 5th, 4th and 2nd string (the root note is on these strings) , if you play from the 3rd string (because string B is tuned differently), you will have to slightly alter the shape (the second note has to be played one fret higher). One example of power chords in action is the song “Cocaine” by Eric Clapton .

This resource was uploaded by: Darius