Power Chords Guitar Lesson For Rock & Heavy Metal
Dear fellow guitarist,
I can’t think of even one guitar god who can play innovative, inspiring guitar solos and doesn’t possess the ability to play killer rhythm guitar, either.
Can you?
I mean, I know of guitar players like Stevie Ray Vaughn, who was able to play burning blues solos without knowing how to read and write music, or guitarists like Jimi Hendrix, who didn’t know much about music theory but was a great inspirational guitarist.
A great soloist with no less than excellent rhythm guitar???
I can’t find one…
Anyway, the subject of this 4th lesson is Guitar Power Chords.
As a young guitarist, it was one of the most exciting things to learn because it gave me the sound and the ability to play the music I listened to at that time, which was Rock and Heavy metal.
Music I knew from the start that I wanted to play and that the common beginner guitar open chords weren’t enough for playing it.
Electric guitar power chords got their name for a reason.
They can add POWER and intensity to your playing, and not just in rock or metal genres; you can use them on any popular music.
I use them in my groove playing, fast blues rhythm playing, and also in pop music.
Mastering guitar power chords is a challenge. Not because of the shapes, those are easy.
But because of the fast riffs that you usually play with these chords.
A great piece of advice is to listen to bands who know their shit about jaw-dropping, high-energy power chords and riff playing.
And also to heavy metal solo guitarists who made the guitar power chords an art form. (Check them out, too)…
I’ve divided the power chords into two groups in the guitar power chords shape chart downloadable free PDF below.
The first group contains only two pressing points ( shape #1 or #3, for example ).
This group will be best suited for fast riff playing because it’s easier for the hand to jump from one chord to another when there are only two pressing points.
Despite that, sometimes you’d like a “thicker” sound, and you can get it by adding the pinkie to the shape.
(shape#2 or shape#4, for example).
That’s the second group I’ve mentioned.
Usually, the fuller version of the guitar power chords (second group) is used in grange music and softer or slow rock (but not only).
I’ve also added shapes and chord forms for the DIMINISHED power chords (flat 5), which are slightly less common.
Let’s start,
Some Guitar Power Chords Technical stuff and Facts:
- Playing Excellent Power chord rhythms requires good control over Palm-muting.
- Guitar Power chords are written like this: capital letter + the number 5 to its right. For example, G5, A5, etc.
- In diminished power chords, the fifth is flat(b).
- Power chords consist of two notes or chord degrees, the 1st and the fifth notes. So, for the G5 power chord, you will have the notes G and D.
- As mentioned before, sometimes you add a higher first degree to get a fatter sound. In our example G5, the notes will be G, D, G.
- Please be aware that because power chords are built with only two notes, It’s sometimes hard to determine what key they are.
Of course. We’re missing the most important degree in a chord, the one that determines if the chord is minor or major. THE THIRD DEGREE!
See, how are you supposed to improvise a solo if you don’t know if it’s a major or minor chord? What scales would you use?
Two solutions:
- Learn some chord degrees theory to put chords in a scale degrees context.
- Experience, experience.
That’s why I’ve built the exercises for this lesson the way I did.
Every exercise has the original minor or major chord progression and the same passage, but only with power chords.
This will do two things for you.
First, It will help you develop a good ear for the chord type since you see them one next to the other, and second, you’ll be able to determine the scale.
Download the exercises + shapes + instructions for free!
Practice it, kill it, and start rocking now!
Last thing…
This article is about the guitar power chords and is the fourth and final lesson in the beginner guitar chords mini-course I present here.
Other three lessons:
2. Simple way to change a chord to a 7th chord – Beginner guitar chords lesson
3. Guitar Bar Chords (barre) made easy – Beginner guitar chords lesson