In this tutorial we will examine and study the Power Chord. Learn how to play one, how to move from one to another, listen to how it should sound, and how to build a power chord riff, we’ll learn the golden rules, the do’s and the don’ts. And everything else you need to know.

A Power chord (mainly played in Rock and Metal music) is relatively easy to position with your fingers compared to Barre Chords and some open chords.

Finger number 1's on fret 3 on the E string, Finger number 3's on fret 5 on the A string, & Finger number 4's on fret 5 on the D string,

If your familiar with the notes on the fretboard you’ll know that…………………………...

Fret 3 on the E string is a G note,

Fret 5 on the A string is a D note, &

Fret 5 on the D string is a G note also,

Here’s the notes on the fretboard with the notes of the G5 chord ringed in Red,

So this is how to play G5, but one power chord doesn’t make our riff.

We need to move on and learn more power chords.

The important thing to understand about "bare fifth" power chords is that they are governed by four basic rules…………...and they are:

1. Individually they are neither major or minor chords, and the reason for this is that they consist of just a root a fifth and an octave note of the major/minor scales and lack the crucial major 3^rd or minor 3^rd note which added to the root and fifth note define a major or minor chord.

2. They take their shape from playing the root note with finger 1 (or an open string), the fifth by playing two frets up on the next string with finger 3, and the octave on the same fret as finger 3 but on the next string up. With the exception of a chord formed from the D string which takes its shape from playing the root note with finger 1 (or an open string), the fifth by playing two frets up on the G string with finger 3, and the octave by playing three frets up on the G string with finger 3,

3. The root note of the chord is taken from the chromatic scale i.e.: A A# B C C# D D# E F F# G G#, and is played from the E A or D string, although when playing the power chord from the root on the D string it takes on a slightly different shape as explained above and featured later on in this tutorial.

4. The bare fifth power chord is movable and always retains its format or shape i.e.:……..

the important thing to understand is that by keeping your fingers in the same shape formation you can move around between power chords.

And you can do this either by moving the chord shape up or down the neck, keeping the root note of the chord on the same string,

Or by taking the shape and moving it across to another string, i.e.: using either the E, A, or D string

This is how power chords are formed by taking the root note from the E string starting at the nut with the open E as the root note.

And ending at the 12^th fret with the note E as the root note, giving you another E5 chord, but this one is an octave higher than the one at the nut.

This is because we have progressed playing the chords through the whole musical chromatic scale on the E string, in other words we started at E on the open string and went up the fretboard one semitone (or one fret) at a time until we reached the E on the 12^th fret.

And in the same way we can do this on the A string,

This is how power chords are formed by taking the root note from the A string starting at the nut with the open A as the root note, and progressing up one fret at a time through the chromatic scale.

And ending at the 12^th fret with the note A as the root note, giving you another A5 chord, but this one is an octave higher than the one at the nut.

Power Chords can also be formed from the D string.

But because of the nature of the tuning on the 2^nd or B string in relation to the E, A, and D, strings, i.e.: it is tuned a semitone down from them, the chord takes on a slightly different shape when formed and rooted on the D string, and the fourth finger has to compensate for the tuning of the B string and move up to the next fret.

The same three fingers are used, but the chord is formed as in the diagram below,

starting at the nut with the open D as the root note. We’ll work through the chromatic scale up to the 12^th fret.

So lets recap,

Power Chords are called Bare fifth chords, they consist of three notes, the first, fifth, and octave of the major or minor scale.

They can be played by taking the root note from the E, A, or D string, and are defined by the chromatic scale, and are labelled with the letter of the chord and the digit (5) i.e : A5 A#5 B5 C5 C#5 D5 D#5 E5 F5 F#5 G5 G#5 back to A5 and completing the chromatic scale of the chord.

Building a Riff, by movement and techniques with Power Chords

As I said in the first part of this tutorial the finger positioning and formation of a power chord is relatively easy, once you have mastered this and understand the notes and positioning of chords on the fretboard, you can move on to learn how to use power chords to create great rock and metal riffs, using palm muting & timing techniques to inject rhythm, pace, and drive into your music,

There are many aspects to being able to successfully play the guitar, in my opinion rhythm and timing are probably the most important of all, and its important to play along with drums and bass whenever possible, besides it makes learning more interesting to do this.

Lets get started……………...

Lets first of all look at Guitar Tablature, or Tab for short.

Guitar Tab is a method of writing and reading instructions of what to play and how to play it on your Guitar,

Its an alternative to sheet music, and is quite easy to understand once you get to know how it works and learn the various symbols it uses.

We’ll use Tab as well as fretboard diagrams to learn our riff.

Lets find out how it works………………...

Tab looks like this…..

The lines above represent the strings on your guitar.

As you can see they’re labelled E A D G B E in the same way your guitar is tuned.

Its like looking at your guitar on its side but without the frets drawn in.

If a chord, or a power chord is to be played or a situation where more than one note is to be played at once, the tab will look like this.

If you recognise this as a G5 power chord you’re starting to understand tab.

And the tab below would be D5

An important point to remember when reading a chord from tab is, only play what the tab tells you to play, when a string is left empty it doesn’t mean play it open, in the tab above you just play the three notes, ie: the 5^th fret on the A string, the 7^th on the D, and the 7^th on the G string.

Lets move on……………………..

This is a D5 power chord played over a four count.

In other words this is 1 bar (or 4 beats) of a D5 chord. Played in four four time.

And because it lasts for a full bar (4 beats) its duration is the length of a whole note

The symbol for a chord lasting for a bar or (4 beats) is  

So on tab demo 2 MP3 would look as above

to listen demo3 MP3 file.

This is D5 played on each of the 4 beats of the bar, lasting one beat per chord.

Which means each chord lasts a quarter of a bar, or a quarter note duration.

The symbol for a chord lasting for 1 beat or a quarter note duration is

So on tab demo 3 MP3 would look as above

to listen to demo 4 MP3 file.

This is D5 played eight times over the course of a bar, or twice to every beat

Which means each chord lasts an eighth of a bar, or a eighth note duration.

The symbol for a chord being played 2 times per beat or an eighth note duration is

So on tab demo 3 MP3 would look as above

In track 4 the chords are played with a dampening technique added, this is known as Palm muting, which we will now look at,

This would be shown on tab by the initials P.M. written above each note or chord.

Or sometimes a symbol would be used. Instead of the normal symbol.

Which would make Track 4 look as follows………………………..

Dampening the strings, or Palm muting is achieved by using the outside of your picking hand and resting it lightly on the edge of the bridge, as shown below,

Try playing a D5 chord with your hand resting in this way,

Palm muting is quite tricky and sometimes takes a lot of practice to achieve.

The object of the exercise is not to completely stop the chord working.  You need to retain the pitch and colour of the chord, but just stop it sustaining, this gives the chord definition when played in a rhythm pattern, like the one in

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Lets go on to the cool part…………………...

Lets build a riff………….

Firstly we need to choose some chords

Here we have four power chords just played one after another in this order, F5, A#5, G#5, & C#5

Add a click track to it and you get

On tab it looks like this,

Add some Drums and Bass and it sounds like

On tab it looks like this,

Palm Muting can be accented,

Meaning you can mute and release the strings to form different rhythm patterns, and add pushes and accents to the riff.

Click here to listen to

And by using a different plectrum technique and a more diverse rhythm pattern you achieve a style like

is 60 Bars of the bass & drums at 120 bpm, which is for you to use to practice the riff which have been working with.

Over the past few pages of this Chapter of the E book we have taken things one step at a time regarding power chords and riffs and how they are shown on tab,

When starting to learn to play the guitar as a beginner its important not to try and rush things too much.

In one on one lessons which I give at my studio, my students achieve great results by using this approach.

This tutorial on power chords is just one of a series of chapter’s on learning to play the guitar.

Contact me for details at chrissummers6@hotmail.co.uk

I hope this tutorial has been helpful, comments and views are welcome, please email the above

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