Nov 05 2008
How To Play Guitar Power Chords
You have probably heard power chords in all sorts of music but especially in rock, punk and grunge music.
Power chords are fun and easy to play but they are not really chords. By definition chords have 3 notes or more, whereas power chords have only 2 different notes. Usually power chords are composed of the root note and the fifth. So a power chord is never major or minor and they are written C5 or F5 and so on.
Power chords come in handy when playing on the electric guitar. If you’re using a lot of distortion power chords sound better and are played faster that a full sounding chord. Power chords are not meant for the acoustic guitar because they wont sound good.
Power chords on the sixth string
Look at the diagram at your left. Note that you only strum the strings that you hold down. The red dot identifies the root or the name of the power chord.
To play a chord, place your first finger on the sixth string on the neck of the guitar. Place your third finger on the fifth string, two frets up from your first finger.
place your fourth finger goes on the fourth string, of the same fret as your third finger. Strum the three notes equally and clearly with a pick. To find other power chords keep the same finger position but slide down the neck or to other strings.
Power chords on the fifth string
The position is the same, except you must not play the sixth string. One way to do this is to touch the tip of the first finger to the sixth string so it doesn’t ring.
The root of this chord is on the fifth string. So you need to know what notes , so you’ll need to know what notes are on this string in to know what chord you are playing. If, for example, you’re playing a fifth string power chord on the fifth fret, you are playing a D power chord. Read “Finding notes on the fretboard” for more info on this subject.
Basic Power Chords:
Do you want to download a complete Printable power chord chart? Remember to play a two note power chord, all you do is remove your last finger.
Check out this video to see how to play power chords.
That’s it for power chords, hope that helps and leave me some comments or some of your YouTube url’s, we’d love to see them.
Power chord song we have in our tabs section: Smoke on the water from Deep Purple, Iron Man and Paranoid from Black Sabbath, One from Metallica, Dick Lips from Blink 182.
