Power Chord

Power Chords are one of the most basic chords for every rock or metal player but they are one of the coolest chords too! So if you’re just starting with the guitar you must learn how to play power chords and know what they are.

Legendary guitar riffs were created with just this simple chord, from Black Sabbath to modern rock and metal bands.

What is a Power Chord?
A Power Chord is two notes: a root and its fifth. The notation is this “E5″, “A5″, “B5″ and so on. The root (low note) of E5 is the note E and the fifth its a B.

So play this tab and you’ll have an E5:

x – - – - – - – - – - – - – e
x – - – - – - – - – - – - – B
x – - – - – - – - – - – - – G
x – - – - – - – - – - – - – D
2 – - – - – - – - – - – - – A
0 – - – - – - – - – - – - – E

For a G5 just play this tab:

x – - – - – - – - – - – - – e
x – - – - – - – - – - – - – B
x – - – - – - – - – - – - – G
x – - – - – - – - – - – - – D
5- – - – - – - – - – - – - A
3 – - – - – - – - – - – - – E

Here’s a chart with the most common Power Chords in guitar:

Notice that you can play Power Chords without thinking in the “root and fifth” stuff if you just play a note in a string and then add two frets in the lower string. (G5 = low E string 3th fret and A string 5th fret), you can go all along your fretboard with this!

Now look for tabs for this songs and learn how to play the Power Chord riffs:
1) Black Sabbath – Paranoid

2) Judas Priest – Breaking the Law

They’re easy and they sound great!

You can find this tabs in our 50.000+ free tabs post: Download 50.000+ Guitar Pro tabs with just one click!

Leave a comment and let us know if this post has helped you or if you need more info.

Related posts:

1. Learn how to play Inverted Power Chords in guitar
2. Learn How to Play Major Chords in Guitar
3. Learn How to Play Minor Chords in Guitar
4. Learn How to Play Arpeggios on Guitar
5. Power Chords in Drop D Guitar Tuning

Tags: guitar, guitar lessons

This entry was posted on Monday, June 22nd, 2009 at 1:05 am and is filed under Guitar Lessons. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.