Amateurs Guitar Lessons – Execute Power Chords The Quick Way
February 28, 2011How often do you look up the bill for your favorite song and find a page full of tricky looking power chords?
For whatever reason years ago in the “land of TAB” some clever fellow decided to make power chords hard to play by making all power chords 3 finger formations.
I haven’t any idea why they did this, as you will discover directly … Two of the notes in the formation are exactly the same letter name.
Since a couple of the notes in the three note power chord share the same letter name no additional harmony is created, so you can successfully drop one of these notes and create a far more easy to use two finger power chord shape.
The 2 Finger Power Chord :
After a lot of trial-error guitarists discover the best and most “powerful” sound was made by playing two notes together, therefore the name “power chord”. Technically a chord is three different notes played together, but new music requires new theoretical terminology to describe the sounds.
A fine example of power chords is the introduction to “Smoke On The Water” by Deep Purple … Please note these are 2 note power chords frequently wrongly written as three note power chords.
The 1st and the Fifth :
The 2 notes that produce the most satisfactory results are the first and 5th notes.
Here’s some examples for you to try …
Scale of G : G,A,B,C,D,E,F,G
First note is “G” and the fifth note is “D” when these two notes are played together they produce a “G” power chord.
Frequently power chords are written with a number five after the letter name i.e, G5 is another way of writing a “G” power chord.
Here is an example in the key of D.
Scale of D : D,E,F,G,A,B,C,D
First note is “D” and the fifth note is “A” when these 2 notes are played together they produce a “D” power chord.
And another example in the key of A.
Scale of A : A,B,C,D,E,F,G,A
First note is “A” and the fifth note is “E” when these two notes are played together they produce a “A” power chord.
2 Note Power Chord vs The Three Note Power Chord :
The notes in a 2 note G5 chord are G & D
The notes in a three note G5 chord G,D and G
Are you able to see the duplication?
So, don’t make things hard for yourself …carting that additional note all over the fingerboard is like pulling and elephant up a hill, make it simple and play the 2 note version, it will sound a heap better.
Read more about guitar lessons for left handed people and Simple Guitar Chords For Beginners here.
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