Acoustic Lesson 12 - Power Chords

Power chords have played a significant part in the development of popular music. Power chords are extensively used in rock and punk music but don’t let the name deceive you as they are not actual chords. A chord is composed of three or more different notes and the power chord consists of only two different notes. A more accurate name for the power chord is the “5 chord”, because it contains only the first and the fifth of a chord. Power chords are good to learn though as an introductory to barre chords. Power chords are easy to play and give you wider access to chords outside of the first three frets. Just don’t let power chords become your go to. They are a good introduction to more advanced chords but many players get stuck playing power chords and never develop their playing to included more advanced chords.

The power chord consists of one shape which can be moved up and down the neck to change its chord. The shape consists of three notes (the first, the fifth, and the first again) which can be played with two or three fingers. Here is the shape in the first fret.

G Power Chords

Notice that only the first three strings are used and strummed. The other three strings are muted. The root of the chords is located on the low E so if we are in the 3rd fret we are playing a G chord. Because the power chord has no 3rd it can be used to play major or minor chords, though it is neither major nor minor. Here are a few other examples of power chords.

Power Chords

Power chords can be a quick route to learning some of your favorite songs and come in handy in a pinch. The also can provide just that right sound when couple with distortion for that heavy chord sound but we do not want to let power chords be the only trick in our bag.