The Guitar Power Chord

The guitar power chord is used in hundreds of rock, metal and pop songs. Bands like Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Feeder and Metallica all use power chords somewhere in probably most, if not all of their songs.

Once you have learned the power chord shape then there is nothing stopping you from rocking out with some cool newly learned tunes!

A power chord is made up of 2 notes, for example, by taking the C Major scale (notes of this are C D E F G A B C) and playing the first C note (low C) and putting it together with G (the 5th note of the scale).

These 2 notes can be played anywhere on the guitar, as long as they follow this shape -

Power chords are known as ‘5th Chords’, on a chord chart you will see them shown as E5 or C5 (depending on the root note of the chord).

Here is an example that you can use to practice playing power chords...

For heavier sounding power chords, add a bit of distortion and tune your guitar down to dropped D. You’ll be amazed at how cool it sounds… I know when I first learned this I spent hours strumming out big fat chords and jumping around my bedroom!

To play power chords you don’t need to know any of the scales behind them, but it helps to know some of the music theory if you want to write new songs. Some guitarists shy away from the theory side of music, but it’s not difficult once you get the hang of it. If you really want to hear some Amazing Guitar Secrets then go see Dan Denley's guitar course .