Power Chords



Power chords are very important to anyone who wants to play rock oriented music. A power chord is a 2 note chords that is used in most of todays music.(that includes the 80s hair metal bands and most any punk too.)

Power chords are named X5.(X being what the chord is. [A,B,C,...etc.]) The first note(root note) of the power chord is always the name of it.

For example:
If the root note is an E, the chord would be an E5.
If the root note is a G, the chord would be a G5.
If the root note is an A, the chord would be an A5

Hopefully you get the idea now. Power chords are generally only used on the top four strings. Now let me show you what the power chord looks like.

NOTE:I will show you a couple places to play each power chord.

.....A5.....
e----------
B----------
G--2-------
D--2---7---
A--0---7---
E------5---

.....B5.....
e----------
B----------
G--4-------
D--4---9---
A--2---9---
E------7---

.....C5.....
e----------
B----------
G--5-------
D--5---10--
A--3---10--
E------8---

.....D5.....
e----------
B----------
G--7-------
D--7---12--
A--5---12--
E------10--

.....E5.....
e----------
B----------
G--9-------
D--9---2---
A--7---2---
E------0---

.....F5.....
e----------
B----------
G--10------
D--10--3---
A--8---3---
E------1---

.....G5.....
e----------
B----------
G--12------
D--12---5--
A--10---5--
E-------3--

 Notice that I said 2 notes in a power chord. What do you see with each of these? Look at each power chord. What are the names of each note? take E5 for example. The first note is an open string on the E string, which is an E. The next note is the second fret on the A sting, which is a B. And the third note is...an E. So there is only two notes in each power chord. Often times people will play a power chord, but they leave off the last note, this is still a power chord and works just as good as the 'three note' power chord. It is the same thing, except you take off the last note.

For example:

A 'G' power chord is the notes: 'G', 'D', and 'G'. if you take off the last 'G', you will have a power chord with only two notes. 'G' and 'D'.

A 'D' power chord is the notes 'D', 'A', and 'D'. If you take off the last note you'd have: 'D' and 'A'.

It is that simple. If you have any trouble understanding this, feel free to email me, or note my guestbook. I will be back soon to show you how to play a song.

-Zack-