How To Play Perfect Power Chords


Published on 26 January 2016
For more info from the source site for this video please visit: http://secretguitarteacher.com/youtube/beginner/electric/OzqGSnX9p9c/83569069-how-to-play-perfect-power-chords.php This is a sample lesson from the Secret Guitar Teacher site (see link above). It is for BEGINNERS. Power chords are great fun to get into because with just one or two shapes they give you a way of playing literally thousands of tunes across the metal, rock and grunge spectrum of guitar music.So let's get playing some power chords! To make life easy we are going to play our first power chord high on the neck at fret 10. First finger on fret 10 on the E string. Third finger fret 12 on the A string.Play these two strings in one picking action like this. Now one problem we may have to address is that it is quite hard to hit just two strings and if we hit three or more we get a sound something like this.. To guard against this we need to go back to what we are doing with the fretting hand. Ok, so practice getting that just right and then have a go at this little exercise to help develop the ability to move this shape around and also to strengthen and stretch the fingers. Let's just show you that in close-up.Stress keeping fingers behind frets. Once you have got used to that try the same shape rooted on the A string like this.Practice moving that one around as well.Often you'll be using these two shapes in combination with each other so to prepare for that try this exercise There is one more two-note shape you may need to know about -- it's actually the easiest to play, but, because of it's slightly less powerful sound, it is rarely used. If you want to play Smoke on the Water however then that is one song where this shape works really well! It's called the inverted 5th shape. We'll explain the name in a minute but first here's how to play it: Finally let's look at the three-note power chord shape. Slightly more difficult, but slightly fuller sound so worth learning: Now, if you can play all those chord shapes and move them around quite easily, then you are well set up to play the rhythm parts of a whole lot of songs, particularly by bands like Metallica, Nirvana and Greenday. The last part of the lesson I thought we would just explain a little more about what exactly a power chord is, why it's called a fifth chord and how to work out the name of each type of power chord. A power chord differs from other chords in that it only uses two different notes. In the case of the three note chord one of these notes is doubled up -- played an octave higher to thicken the sound. Why Fifth chords? The numbers used in chord symbols refer to steps on the major scale. Here's a typical major scale pattern on the guitar. You can see that the key note is marked in red and the rest of the notes are numbered in the order they are played. Power chords are always made from the first and fifth notes of the major scale. Here's a diagram showing the three types of chord shapes we have looked at in the first part of the lesson. You can see that each shape uses only the Key note and the fifth note from the major scale pattern. You can also see that the root notes of the chord are the same as the key notes of the scale they come from. Now these root notes give the chord its name so when we play this shape... ...at the third fret here we get a G Fifth chord because this root note is a G.....If I move it up a fret it becomes a G#5, A5th etc.. If you are unsure how to name these notes then check back to the chromatic scale lesson. Notice that when we play the second shape, the root note is actually the higher of the two note we are playing. That's why it's called an inverted fifth because it's upside down. That's also why it sounds a little thinner in effect than the others. Finally, notice that the three-note power chord shape is really a combination of the other two shapes.. Ok that's all about power chords for the time being. If you're ready to try these out and want to learn a new song then a great place to start is the version of Teenage Kicks that I'll show you in the next lesson. See you then!