Guitar Power Chords

Power chords are usually played on electric guitars because they can give a full, loud, sound going through an amplifier with distortation, the perfect sound for rock music. the chords are played on the 6th and 5th strings and or the 5th and 4th strings and are based on the a or e form Barre Chords. a normal chord is made up of three notes, the 1st, 3rd, and 5th, so for a C chord that would be the C, e and G notes. a Power chord uses just the 1st and 5th note so for C it would be the Cand G notes, this is why they are notated 5 or C5, the root C note and the fifth G note. Power Chords are movable chords because they are closed chords, you are only playing the two strings and your fingers are on both of them. You can just stay on on set of two strings and shift your fingers up and down the fret board or what most people do to is shift from the 6th string chords to the 5th strings chords. this is more efficient and allows for quicker chord changes.
5th String Power Chords

6th String Power Chords

Chord Structure
Chord a Chord B Chord C Chord d Chord e Chord F Chord G Chord root Note I a B C d e F G 3 C# d# e F# G# a B 5 e F# G a B C d

root Note

F5
5th Note

root Note

G C

B5 C5
Fret 5

C
5th Note

G5

a d example of how you can play the I, Iv, v blues progression using Power Chords
Fret 3

d G

a5
Fret 7

d5

B e G C

e a

B5 C5
Iv Chord

G5
I Chord

e5
F#

F B G C

C5

F5

d G

d G

d5
a

d5
e a
Fret 12

v Chord

G5
a d

e5
B E A D G B E
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a5
e

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