Hi! I’m Nate Savage and welcome to video 2 of the Rhythm Guitar Quick-Start Series.
In this lesson, we’re going to go over power chords. Power chords are some of the most
essential guitar chords that you’re going to need to have in your toolbox. So in this
lesson, I’m going to teach you three basic shapes for your power chords and we’re just
going to concentrate on getting those shapes down. Once you have them down, they can be
used pretty much anywhere. Every style of music uses power chords at some point or another
– jazz, rock, reggae, country, you name it.
A power chord is basically a two-note chord with no major or minor quality to it. That’s
because power chords are made up of the root of the chord and the fifth of the chord. The
third of the chord, which usually gives a chord its major or minor quality, is left
out. Don’t worry too much about the theory about that right now. What we’re going to
do is just concentrate in getting these shapes down and getting familiar with them.
Let’s get started with this first power chord shape. Put your index finger on the
third fret of the low E string and when you’re playing power chords, the note you’re playing
with your index finger is always going to be the root note of the chord and that root
note is where we’re going to get the specific name for that specific power chord. In this
case, that note we’re playing with our index finger is a G note, so this is going to be
a G power chord. There’s a little formula that you can use
to finish this power chord shape no matter where you play it and that’s just go up
two frets and over one string and then put your third finger down on that fret, so that
would be the fifth fret of the A string. And that’s your entire shape for this first
power chord shape. What you’re going to do is just come pick or strum those two strings,
just the sixth and the fifth string. And the cool thing about power chords is that
they’re movable. You can move them all around the fretboard. It doesn’t matter where
you move them. Right now what I want you to do is get familiar with the shape and just
practice moving it around anywhere on the sixth string.
Our next power chord shape is based off of this one that we just learned but we’re
going to add extra note to it. It’s still going to be just a two-note chord but we’re
going to be doubling up the root note. I’ll show you what I mean. Let’s get our G power
chord back on here. What we’re going to do is add an octave, one higher octave of
this G note right here on the fifth fret of the D string with your pinkie. So we still have
just a G and a D but now we’re doubling up with another G on top. So you’ll notice
that this three-string version of this power chord is a little bit fatter sounding than
the two-string version. And that’s just another flavor you can use for your power
chords. What I want you to do is just work on getting the shape down so we can go right
to it. Make sure your fingers are right behind the frets and then work on moving it around
the fretboard. The third and final power chord shape that
we’re going to learn is the exact same shape as this last three-string version that we
learned but instead of playing these two notes up here with two different fingers, what we’re
going to do is take our pinkie off and kind of make a little bar with our third finger
right there to play both of those notes. And that may seem a little awkward for you at
first to do that if you’ve never made a bar with your third finger before and it may
take some time and the effort to get that dexterity and strength necessary to do that
but play around with it. It’s a little bit easier to just slap on there than it is to
do the three-finger version. And when I’m making this version of this chord, my finger
collapses a little bit like that. It just helps to push those strings down to make that
shape. So work on getting that shape down and again
move it all around the fretboard. Work on getting all three of these shapes under your
fingers. Different situations will call for different shapes that you want to use. This
is really simple but it’s very important for you to get down right now.
Thanks for watching this lesson. In the next lesson, I’m going to show you how to put
these power chords to work by being able to move them around the fretboard to play any
power chords you like. We’re also going to go over the note names for the sixth and
the fifth strings, so get ready for that. If you have any questions, just leave them
here in the comments or email me nate@guitarsystem.com. See you in the next lesson.