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.

Free Online Electric Guitar Lessons

Click the triangle beside Ipaper and you can embed it on your site, share it with friends. If you want to save a copy use this link and then click on save and you’ll have a copy on your desktop.

You will find ten pages of fretbox chord and their variables. This is the best pdf document I found the layout is  better than the others. I urge you to grab a copy and print it asap and tape it somewhere you’ll actually see it.

Hope this helps you out because when I started I had to buy a few disappointing books before I realized every thing is already on the net. Happy fretting and keep me posted of your progress.

C major’s notes are one intercal higher. C minors notes have some flats in them. Knowing the formula you can easily get the scale in the key of your choice.

If you have no idea what scales are you should start by reading “guitar scales”.

Notes On The Fret Board

Finding Scales: Formulas

Major (AKA Ionian):

• Scale formula - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
• Notes in a C major scale - C D E F G A B C

Minor (AKA Aeolia):

• Scale formula - 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7
• Notes in a C minor scale - C D Eb F G Ab Bb C

Major Pentatonic:

• Scale formula - 1 2 3 5 6
• Notes in a C major pentatonic scale - C D E G A C

Minor Pentatonic:

1. Scale formula - 1 b3 4 5 b7

2. Notes in a C minor pentatonic scale - C Eb F G Bb C

Blues:

• Scale formula - 1 b3 4 b5 5 b7

• Notes in a C blues scale - C Eb F Gb G Bb C

Phrygian:

• Scale formula - 1 b2 b3 4 5 b6 b7

• Notes in a C phrygian mode - C Db Eb F G Ab Bb C

Dorian:

• Scale formula - 1 2 b3 4 5 6 b7

• Notes in a C dorian mode - C D Eb F G A Bb C

Lydian:

• Scale formula - 1 2 3 #4 5 6 7

• Notes in a C lydian mode - C D E F# G A B C

Mixolydian:

• Scale formula - 1 2 3 4 5 6 b7

• Notes in a C mixolydian mode - C D E F G A Bb C

Melodic Minor:

• Scale formula - 1 2 b3 4 5 6 7

• Notes in a C melodic minor scale - C D Eb F G A B C

Harmonic Minor:

• Scale formula - 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 7

• Notes in a C harmonic minor scale - C D Eb F G Ab B C

Locrian:

• Scale formula - 1 b2 b3 4 b5 b6 b7

• Notes in a C locrian mode- C Db Eb F Gb Ab Bb C

Whole-Half Diminished:

• Scale formula - 1 2 b3 4 b5 b6 6 7

• Notes in a C whole-half diminished - C D Eb F Gb Ab A B C

Half-Whole Diminished:

• Scale formula - 1 b2 #2 3 #4 5 6 b7

• Notes in a C half-whole diminished - C Db D# E F# G A Bb C

Whole Tone:

• Scale formula - 1 2 3 #4 #5 b7

• Notes in a C whole tone - C D E F# G# A Bb C<

Example:

First lets understand the diagram. We saw that fret boxes are used to display chords now we will use them to display guitar scales.

The strings on the diagram are represented by the vertical lines and the frets are horizontal lines, like if you see your guitar with the headstock pointing upwards.

We don’t always play scales at the first fret so to save some space there is a number to the left to show which fret the scales begins on. No number means first fret of coarse.

It’s important to remember that a scale which does not include any open strings can be moved up or down on the neck. To find a scale all you do is move the root notes (black dots) to the position on the neck that suits your key.

In the examples that we are going the finger number is included to get you to play correctly from the start. When you get better your soloing will be faster with correct finger positioning. Methods and sites don’t always show which finger to use.

How to play a scale

It’s simple if your scale is displayed as a fretbox:

Play the notes on the 6^th string (remember if there is a “0” it means you need to play an open string), then you play the notes on the 5th string and so on.

If your scale is displayed as tabs:

No need to buy scale method books anymore, simply visit Scalerator.com and pick the type of scale you wish to display. You can then print the scales you need, they came with notes and tabs.

6th string open, 6^th string 3^rd fret, 5^th string open, 5^th string 3rd fret, 4th string open, 4^th string second fret…See “Reading Tabs” if you don’t know how to read tabs.

This video will show you how to play a scale.

Its all as simple as basic fractions look at figure 1 and two then read the explanations.

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

Notes:

1 or Whole Note or Semibreve: Represents a whole beat. A whole note is the base to which other fractional notes are related. Look at fig. 1,  there is a 4/4 on the staff. This indicates that in 4/4 time. or 4 beats per whole note.

1/2 Half Notes or Minim: Represents half the duration of a whole note. which is two beats.

1/4 Quarter Notes or Crochets: Represents 1/4 of the duration of a whole note. In 4/4 time quarter meats get 1 beat.

1/8 Eighth Note or Quaver: are one Eighth of a whole beat, they are worth half a beat.

1/16 Sixteenth Note or Semiquaver: Represents 1/16 of a whole note. As you guessed they are worth a quarter of a beat.

Rests: are pauses or silence when you don’t play anything.

Rest 1 beat

half Rest 1/2  beat

Quarter Rest 1/4 beat

Eighth Rest 1/8 beat

When skimming over partitions for the first time look for tempo markings such as:

“lento,” “largo” and “grave” which indicate a very slow tempo between 40 and 60 beats per minute.

“adagio,” “adagietto” and “andante” are for moderately slow tempo that falls between 60 to 100 beats per minute.

“moderato,” “allegretto,” “allegro moderato” and “allegro” are used to indicate lively tempo ranging from 110 to 168 beats per minute.

“vivace,” “presto” and “prestissimo” are very quick tempo that can be as quick as 200 beats per minute.

If there are some parts that don’t seem clear to you leave a comment, we’ll be happy to help you out. Good luck and keep practicing.

* you did know that the little “o’s” are for open strings? You strum them without holding any frets.

These are the basic beginner chords you should learn. These chords are used everyday buy beginners as well as advanced players. By mastering these chords you will be able to play plenty of songs to make learning both exciting and rewarding.

A Bit About Guitar Chords:

• chords are named according to letters going from A to G
• an “m” after a letter means that the chord is a minor chord
• a “7” after the letter means that the chord is a dominant chord
• a letter without “m” or “7” means that the chord is a major chord

This is an intersting video showing you how to play basic guitar chords.

Tabs Will (Usually) Not:

• tell you the note lengths of the notes
• which fingers you use to fret which note
• tell you anything about picking and strumming

To play a song from tabs you need to have heard that song before to figure out the rhythmic strumming and tempo.

Imagine the headstock of your guitar pointing to the left. The smallest string (#1) would then be at the top and the largest (#6) at the bottom.

Reading Tabs

Now that you know the tabs represent your guitar neck playing will be easy.

• The following example tells you to play the second string open.
• Then put a finger on first fret second string and play that note.
• Put finger on second fret third string and play that note.
• Put a finger on the first fret third string.
• And finally play an open third string…

Picking (strumming)

This is not intended to be a strumming lesson (we will also see that later). Tabs sometimes have symbols over the fret numbers indicating weather you should strum up or down.

In this example you play an open string on the first string, like so.

Down, down, down,down, up, up, up, up.

In the last example you can see numbers under the tab. Those numbers are the fingers you are supposed to use to play the notes. Learn to play correctly from the beginning, you’ll be a better musician and pick up more speed.

Sometimes the numbers are indicated below the tabs. These are the number of the finger that should be used to press a string.

Here is a list of markings you should also get familiar with:

• h - hammer on
• p - pull off
• b - bend string up
• r - release bend
• / - slide up
• \ - slide down
• v - vibrato (sometimes written as ~)
• t - right hand tap
• x - play ‘note’ with heavy damping

I suggest reading this blog article if you need some examples of beginner strumming patterns .

Visit the Goodies page to use the Chord finder, tuner, metronome and more!