How frequently do you look up the bill for your favorite song and find a page of difficult looking power chords?
For some unknown reason years back in the “land of TAB” some clever fellow made a decision to make power chords hard to play by making all power chords 3 finger formations.
I don’t have any idea why they did this, as you’ll discover shortly … Two of the notes in the formation are exactly the same letter name.
Since 2 of the notes in the 3 note power chord share identical letter name no additional harmony is formed, thus you can successfully drop one of these notes and create a far more user friendly 2 finger power chord shape.
The 2 Finger Power Chord :
After a large amount of trial-error guitarists discover the best and most “powerful” sound was created by playing two notes together, therefore the name “power chord”. Speaking technically 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 3 note power chords.
The First and the 5th :
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 5th note is “D” when these two notes are played together they produce a “G” power chord.
Often power chords are written with a number five after the letter name i.e, G5 is an alternative 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 5th note is “E” when these 2 notes are played together they produce a “A” power chord.
2 Note Power Chord vs The 3 Note Power Chord :
The notes in a 2 note G5 chord are G & D
The notes in a 3 note G5 chord G,D and G
Can you see the duplication?
So, do not make things hard for yourself …carting that additional note all over the fingerboard is like pulling and elephant up a hill, make it straightforward and play the 2 note version, it’ll sound a whole lot better.
left handed guitar lessons – If you liked this article there are more to be found on Simple Guitar Chords For Beginners