Hello and welcome to the Music Theory Series. In todays lesson we will study power chord basics. Let's begin.

Definition:

In music a power chord consists of a root note and the fifth intervall and sometimes we can add a octave. Generally these chords are played on
a electric guitar with distortion.To name a power chord, just take the root note and add a "5" after it. Like E5, A5 etc..

We can play a power chord with different ways.

First way is the common way we know. Let's take a look at this with an example.



-If we look at this chord, we can see that the open note in the E string is the root note of our chord.
-The note in the 2nd fret A string is the fifth interval
-The note in the 2nd fret D string is the octave. This note is written in a paranthesis, because we can play the E5 chord
with or without this note.

Another way is playing the same chord without the root note.



We can play this chord just with 1 finger.

Another way is playing same chord with Drop-D tuning. Then our E5 chord becomes this. We can also play this chord just with 1 finger.



That's it for the power chord basics. If you have any questions feel free to ask me. See you in another lesson of Music
Theory series. Keep rocking!

why are they call power chord, what dif does it make if we had an octave of the tonic on it?

It'd be still a power chord if we have an octave of the root on it. So there isn't so much difference playing the same chord with or without adding an octave. It's just, if you add an octave you can get brighter sounds. And the name "power chord" comes from the powerful sound created by the harmonics of the two notes played simultaneously. Hope that helps

Dogukan,

Just added this one to the knowledge base

http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/wiki/inde...asics_SI_Lesson

Thanks Fran I totally forgot to add this one

Dogukan,