How often do you look up the TAB for your favorite song and find a
page full of difficult (make that impossible) looking power chords?
For some reason years ago in the "land of TAB" some clever fellow decided to make power chords hard to play by making all power chords three finger formations.
I have no idea why they did this, as you will discover shortly ... two of the notes in the formation are exactly the same letter name.
Since two of the notes in the three note power chord share the same letter name no additional harmony is created, therefore you can successfully drop one of these notes and create a much more user friendly two finger power chord shape.
Before we take a look at the history of power chords and how we are able to design or re-design our power chord shapes depending on the particular musical situation. I would like to draw your attention to the importance of knowing the notes on the guitar fingerboard.
Because the majority of guitarists learn via TAB they have no idea of the names of the individual notes they are playing, therefore it is impossible for them to think through the process of why they are playing something.
Hence, we have the scary situation where many years ago somebody decided to write things a certain way and countless guitar sites all over the Internet continue to churn out the same incorrect stuff without questioning why they are doing something!
As you know, we are in the information age, the problem is the quality of the "source" of the information.
Power chord history:
In the early days of rock and pop music 1950's - 1960's as artists became more popular their management organized bigger gigs in larger venues.
Because of the rapid explosion in popularity of the new music, it caught instrument manufacturers by surprise. Guitar amplifiers that were originally designed for small clubs suddenly found themselves struggling to fill large dance halls and arenas.
As the guitarists pounded away on their guitars trying to be heard over the screaming fans their amplifiers began to distort.
This was the first warning sign to the guitarist that the amplifier was overloading, the second signal was usually smoke billowing from the back of the amplifier followed by a loud crack as the amp gasped it's final chord.
And that was usually the end of that amp, during the performance another amp was quickly set up to replaced the deceased amp. Here's the fun ... part just as the amplifier was burning out it created a really neat overloaded (distorted) guitar sound, unfortunately it only lasted a short time as the amp self destructed moments later.
Guitar players loved this new sound so the instrument manufacturers created a pedal that would re-create the overloaded sound without destroying the amp.
These pedals often referred to as 'distortion' or 'overdrive' pedals were the beginnings of the signal processing equipment used by electric guitarists today.
Now that the distortion pedal allowed the guitarist to play for unlimited periods without fear of equipment failure, the player could now experiment with new techniques.
Remember, previously the amplifier would only last a few minutes before burning out so the guitarist only had a few seconds to experiment.
The first thing guitar players discovered was that open string chords did not work with the distorted sound.
Any one who has ever tried to transfer acoustic guitar techniques to electric guitar will notice that most of the chord shapes do not sound good with the distorted sound.
The two finger power chord:
After a lot of trial and error guitarists discover the best and most "powerful" sound was created by playing two notes together, hence the name "power chord".
Technically speaking a chord is three different notes played together, but new music requires new theoretical terminology to describe the sounds.
A good example of power chords is the introduction to "Smoke On The Water" by Deep Purple ... please note these are two note power chords often incorrectly written as three note power chords.
The first and the fifth:
The two notes that produce the best results are the first and fifth notes.
Here's some examples for you to try ...
Scale of G: G,A,B,C,D,E,F#,G
First note is "G" and the fifth note is "D" when these two notes are played together they produce a "G" power chord.
Often power chords are written with a number 5 after the letter name i.e., G5 is another way of writing a "G" power chord.
Here is an example in the key of D.
Scale of D: D,E,F#,G,A,B,C#,D
First note is "D" and the fifth note is "A" when these two notes are played together they produce a "D" power chord.
And one more example in the key of A.
Scale of A: A,B,C#,D,E,F#,G#,A
First note is "A" and the fifth note is "E" when these two notes are played together they produce a "A" power chord.
Two note power chord vs the three note power chord:
The notes in a two note G5 chord are G & D
The notes in a three note G5 chord G,D and G
Can you see the duplication?
So, don't make things hard for yourself ...carting that extra note all over the fingerboard is like pulling and elephant up a hill, make it easy and play the two note version, it will sound a whole lot better.
For some reason years ago in the "land of TAB" some clever fellow decided to make power chords hard to play by making all power chords three finger formations.
I have no idea why they did this, as you will discover shortly ... two of the notes in the formation are exactly the same letter name.
Since two of the notes in the three note power chord share the same letter name no additional harmony is created, therefore you can successfully drop one of these notes and create a much more user friendly two finger power chord shape.
Before we take a look at the history of power chords and how we are able to design or re-design our power chord shapes depending on the particular musical situation. I would like to draw your attention to the importance of knowing the notes on the guitar fingerboard.
Because the majority of guitarists learn via TAB they have no idea of the names of the individual notes they are playing, therefore it is impossible for them to think through the process of why they are playing something.
Hence, we have the scary situation where many years ago somebody decided to write things a certain way and countless guitar sites all over the Internet continue to churn out the same incorrect stuff without questioning why they are doing something!
As you know, we are in the information age, the problem is the quality of the "source" of the information.
Power chord history:
In the early days of rock and pop music 1950's - 1960's as artists became more popular their management organized bigger gigs in larger venues.
Because of the rapid explosion in popularity of the new music, it caught instrument manufacturers by surprise. Guitar amplifiers that were originally designed for small clubs suddenly found themselves struggling to fill large dance halls and arenas.
As the guitarists pounded away on their guitars trying to be heard over the screaming fans their amplifiers began to distort.
This was the first warning sign to the guitarist that the amplifier was overloading, the second signal was usually smoke billowing from the back of the amplifier followed by a loud crack as the amp gasped it's final chord.
And that was usually the end of that amp, during the performance another amp was quickly set up to replaced the deceased amp. Here's the fun ... part just as the amplifier was burning out it created a really neat overloaded (distorted) guitar sound, unfortunately it only lasted a short time as the amp self destructed moments later.
Guitar players loved this new sound so the instrument manufacturers created a pedal that would re-create the overloaded sound without destroying the amp.
These pedals often referred to as 'distortion' or 'overdrive' pedals were the beginnings of the signal processing equipment used by electric guitarists today.
Now that the distortion pedal allowed the guitarist to play for unlimited periods without fear of equipment failure, the player could now experiment with new techniques.
Remember, previously the amplifier would only last a few minutes before burning out so the guitarist only had a few seconds to experiment.
The first thing guitar players discovered was that open string chords did not work with the distorted sound.
Any one who has ever tried to transfer acoustic guitar techniques to electric guitar will notice that most of the chord shapes do not sound good with the distorted sound.
The two finger power chord:
After a lot of trial and error guitarists discover the best and most "powerful" sound was created by playing two notes together, hence the name "power chord".
Technically speaking a chord is three different notes played together, but new music requires new theoretical terminology to describe the sounds.
A good example of power chords is the introduction to "Smoke On The Water" by Deep Purple ... please note these are two note power chords often incorrectly written as three note power chords.
The first and the fifth:
The two notes that produce the best results are the first and fifth notes.
Here's some examples for you to try ...
Scale of G: G,A,B,C,D,E,F#,G
First note is "G" and the fifth note is "D" when these two notes are played together they produce a "G" power chord.
Often power chords are written with a number 5 after the letter name i.e., G5 is another way of writing a "G" power chord.
Here is an example in the key of D.
Scale of D: D,E,F#,G,A,B,C#,D
First note is "D" and the fifth note is "A" when these two notes are played together they produce a "D" power chord.
And one more example in the key of A.
Scale of A: A,B,C#,D,E,F#,G#,A
First note is "A" and the fifth note is "E" when these two notes are played together they produce a "A" power chord.
Two note power chord vs the three note power chord:
The notes in a two note G5 chord are G & D
The notes in a three note G5 chord G,D and G
Can you see the duplication?
So, don't make things hard for yourself ...carting that extra note all over the fingerboard is like pulling and elephant up a hill, make it easy and play the two note version, it will sound a whole lot better.
