Power Chords, In need of help with power chords Options

[RandomMan134]

Hey there GMC! I am a beginner and have only been playing guitar for a few weeks now. I have been working on how to play power chords. My problem is that whenever I try to play one I either don't strum the strings fast enough, making it sound like 2 separate notes, or I strum and then hit a string I wasn't supposed to hit with my downstroke. Any tips on how I can correct this problem and how to strum them correctly?

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[JeroenKole]

I had the same problem when I started out.

play the chords slowly and focus on your picking hand. When playing faster experience is the key, your hand still has to learn the distance between the strings and that takes some time. When your hand has learned the distance you will notice that picking itself will be much easier.

until that time play your chords slowly and speed up slowly, you´ll notice you´ll get more and more used to it.

also here is another tip to learn the distance between strings

take any chord, or no chord at all.

for this example we'll take a D chord. put one finger on the second fret of the high E string, We'll call this string 1. Put another finger on the third fret of the B string, We'll call it 2. put the last finger on the second fret of the G string, we'll call it the third string. We'll call the D string 4.

now play the following picking pattern while fingering the D chord:

1,2,1,3,1,4,1,3,1,2,1,3,1,4,1,3,1,2,1,3,1,4 etc practice this pattern for 5 minutes each week and take another chord and use a similar pattern. I am certain that if you practice this 5 minutes for a whole month you will never have to look at your picking hand again for strumming chords or picking single strings.


Und remember, Ulways, Ulways, Ulways! Use alternate picking! Othervise I vill strangle you!

at least, for this exercise


ps. sorry for borrowing the line from one of your instructional video's Kris

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This post has been edited by JeroenKole: Aug 16 2008, 02:17 PM

[RandomMan134]

Thanks a lot for the help, I appreciate it. And yes I always make myself alternate pick so that I get used to it. Thanks again!

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[Ivan Milenkovic]

Don't worry it's a usual problem. The trick is to practice everything really slow with metronome, and on those really slow tempos you can practice to strumm sharply with your right hand.

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[Ramiro Delforte]

Playing an instrument requiers a muscular memory. The problem is that your brain didn't memorize the distance bewteen the strings so when you play it sounds like two separate notes because you can't strum them together.
My advice is: put your left hand dumping the strings and concentrate only in your right hand and play unltil your hand gets the right movement. Once you get to strum the two strings wright you can focus on the left hand as well.
I hope it was usefull.

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[Ian Bushell]

Students that i have taught from day one have also had this problem.
Best thing to do is what Ivan suggested.
What may also help is playing songs or pieces that use powerchords, the more you practice/play them
the quicker you'll get them down.
Hope that helps:)

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[fatb0t]

Alwaysssss use a metronome. I wish I knew this before I joined GMC, I'd be Buckethead by now.

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[JVM]

Alwaysssss use a metronome. I wish I knew this before I joined GMC, I'd be Buckethead by now.

I think metronomes help out early on, but IMO it really doesn't make a difference past the beginner stage. A guitarist also needs to learn to keep rhythm without a metronome, without drums, anything but by himself. I pretty much never use a metronome since after I learned to do the above, it works fine, especially if you jam with a drummer or jam to songs often. Marcus (Lavendell) I think said he hardly ever uses a metronome too, seems to work fine for him

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