What is a "Power Chord"?
The easiest rock chords to play on the guitar. [Beginner Lesson]
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This article takes a look at something many beginner guitarists start off using when they are learning the guitar. They are called “power chords” or “rock chords”. They are fairly easy to play, and all you really needed to know is the shape of the chord and the locations of the root notes on the 5th and 6th strings.
Beginner Lesson
Power chords are empowering!
We called them called "Power Chords". Honestly, I have no idea why they were called this or where the name originated. Others call them "Five" chords, meaning the root and the 5th are used to make the chord. To me, power chords meant “rock” chords. It meant that you plugged your Fender Stratocaster into your amp, set the distortion gain for "crunch" on your foot pedal and turned up the volume. Power chords sounded really cool! They were used in thousands of rock songs, and they are easy to play.
Why are they called "five" chords?
Okay so, what is required to make any chord?
The answer: "Two or more notes played together".
What two notes sound the best together?
The answer: "The root and its fifth".
As kids, we didn't necessarily learn how to play the guitar by practicing basic music theory. We didn't really know what “one's” and “five's” even were. All we knew was that these two notes played together sounded really cool. All we needed to know was the root note on the 5th or 6th string. What I didn't know at the time was that power chords are really, just shorter versions of "barre" chords, without having to actually "barre" the strings. "Barre" chords were difficult to play, so we used an easier way, by only playing the bottom two notes, or "the bass" notes of the chord. Rock music was very forgiving this way, especially when you had so much distortion running through your amplifier to hide the mistakes.
Some basic theory.
We need to understand where the "five" actually comes from. In every key in music, there is a group of seven notes. These seven notes come from the first seven letters of the alphabet. Without getting too far into the theory, all total, there are “twelve notes in music”. However, each key only uses seven of these twelve notes in a specific order.
For example: The key of C major uses the notes: C, D, E, F, G, A and B. Each note also has its own corresponding (Roman) number. C = I, D - II, E = III and so on. That means the fifth note (or the "V") in the key of C major is the "G".
The power chord for "C" requires the "C" as the root note and the "G" on the next string as the "fifth", to form the C power chord.
To make this chord, place your first finger on the 5th string (A string), 3rd fret [the low C note]. Then place either your third or fourth finger on the 4th string (D string), 5th fret [the middle G note]. Play both notes together like you would any other chord, but don't play any of the other strings. Just play the two notes being used to make the power chord.
The key of G major uses the notes: G, A, B, C, D, E and F#. Each note has its own corresponding (Roman) number. G = I, A - II, B = III and so on. That means the fifth note or the "V" in the key of G major is the "D". The power chord for "G" requires the "G" as the root note and the "D" on the next string as the "fifth", to form the G power chord. To make this chord, place your first finger on the 6th string (E string), 3rd fret [the low G note]. Then place either your third or fourth finger on the 5th string (A string), 5th fret [the low D note]. Play both notes together like you would any other chord, but don't play any of the other strings. Just play the two notes being used to make the power chord.
To better understand where and how we can use power chords, we need to think like a "bass" guitar player. What does the bassist do in music? They usually play the low or the root notes of a chord being played in the progression of a song. (This isn't always true for every genre of music. Jazz sometimes uses other note/scale arrangements for bass that utilize outlining the chords in the progression). Since we're talking about rock chord progressions, it will be far less complicated than jazz.
Let's say the progression of a song is in 4/4 time at 90 bpm in the key of C. The chord progression is: I - V - vi - IV or C - G - A - F. These are the notes the bassist would normally play in the progression. The power chords are based on the same notes the bassist is playing. The first finger of the power chord shape is the bass root note for the chords.
Why do power chords work so well and sound so good in rock music?
One simple answer: There are no "3rd's" in "5" chords to indicate whether or not it is a major or a minor chord. If the progression is using both major and minor chords (like in the previous progression above for example), the "I", "IV" and "V" chords would normally be the major chords, and the "vi" would be the minor chord in the progression. Power chords use only the root note and the 5th of the root note in the chord. Without a major or minor 3rd in the structure, there is a lot more freedom to pick and choose a wide range of melody lines over the progression. The melody would not be limited to a major or a minor scale. Both scales could be used equally. Of course, some scales will sound better than others, depending on the actual chord progression in the song.
Power chords are mostly used in rock and blues music. It is difficult to get away with using power chords in jazz music, because jazz uses many more notes and extended chords that go outside of the structures in rock chord progressions. Power chords are fun to play because so many rock songs use these types of chords.
Are there any other kinds of power chords?
Answer: Yes.
There is another chord that is used in rock music called a "3" chord. It is a sort of backwards structured chord where the root note is the higher note in the structure and the lower notes is the major 3rd, and not the 5th.
For example, if we play the "E" power chord (x79xxx), which will be the "I" in the progression, then we play the "V" chord which would normally be the "B" power chord (79xxxx), we can change that B5 chord to a B3 power chord by moving just one finger from the original E power chord.
All we have to do is start at the E power chord (x79xxx),
then for the B3 chord, move just the first finger on the 7th fret of string 5, to the 6th fret of string 5 - B3 (x69xxx).
The 6th fret note is D#, or the 3rd of B, and the B that remains on the 9th fret of the 4th string becomes the root note of the chord.
If you listen to the song "Hold on loosely" from the band .38 Special, you will hear this type of progression in the song.
Power chords are so easy to play because all of them are completely movable anywhere on the fret board, as long as the root notes are on the 5th and 6th strings for the "5" chords, and the root notes are on the 4th and 5th strings for the "3" chords.
Playing the open string power chords "E" and "A".
In order to play the open string power chords, we need to use the two lowest (E6 and A5) strings as the root notes for the power chord shape. This means that we only need to use one finger to make the chord. I find it easiest to simply use my first finger for the note that will be played on the 2nd fret of the chord. That way, I have the other three fingers available for moving to other shapes in the progression more quickly.
Here is the open string “E” power chord:
and here is the open string “A” power chord:
Using easy to play power chords is a good technique to improve your skills in playing rhythm, and it will help strengthen your hand so that "barre" chords will eventually become much easier to play.