Power Chord Stylings

This is a basic lesson on Power Chord Stylings, which will help you produce good power chord runs when writing a song.

1: Keep The Position!

This is the easiest and most common technique. It is used in songs like the chorus of Rockstar (Nickelback). It is just keeping your fingers the same distance apart, but changing what frets they're on. Eg:

-----------9-10-7-5----
-----------7-8--5-3----
-----------------------
-----------------------
-3-4-5-7---------------
-1-2-3-5---------------

You can experiment on diffrent strings and frets.

2: In And Out I:

This is what I use when I write more heavy songs. It's just starting at one fret, then going to a higher fretted power chord, then a power chord that is somewhere in the middle. The next example I used in one of my songs.

--------------------------------
--------------------------------
--------------------------------
--------------------------------
--3-5-4-1-0-2-1--3-5-4-1-7-9-8--
--3-5-4-1-0-2-1--3-5-4-1-7-9-8--

It can also have a wider range of fret space, like:

---------------------------------
---------------------------------
---------------------------------
---------------------------------
-3-7-5-1-5-9-7-3-7-11-9-5--------
-3-7-5-1-5-9-7-3-7-11-9-5--------

3:up And Down

If you listen to T.N.T by AC/DC, at the end, you will hear sort of like a scale of power chords. Well, this is one of the easiest power chord techniques. All you do is go up for a rise in pitch, or down for a decrease in pitch on the fretboard. Eg:

-----------------
-----------------
-----------------
-----------------
-2-3-4-5-4-3-2---
-0-1-2-3-2-1-0---

For more of a change in pitch, just skip some frets.

--------------
--------------
--------------
--------------
-2-4-6-8-6-4-2
-0-2-4-6-4-2-0

If you want to combine these two, go ahead!

--------------
--------------
--------------
--------------
-2-4-5-7-6-5-3
-0-2-3-5-4-3-1

4: In And Out II:

This is an In and Out, except going in and out with the strings.

---------2----------
-------2-0-2--------
-----2-0---0-2------
---2-0-------0-2----
-2-0-----------0-2--
-0---------------0--

If you combine this with the up and down...

---------6--------
-------5-4-5------
-----4-3---3-4----
---3-2-------2-3--
-2-1-----------1-2
-0---------------0

And throw in a bit of in and out I...

---------7----------
-------5-5-5--------
-----3-3---3-3------
---4-1-------1-4----
-2-2-----------2-2--
-0---------------0--

And that's it! But, as a bonus, here is a little excersice for you using these techniques. (S=Slide)

---------------9s8-10-9-12-11-----
-----------7---7s8-10-9-12-11-----
-------5---5-8--------------------
---3---3-6---6--------------------
-2-1-4---4------------------------
-0---2----------------------------

Comments

[Led_Zeppelin992]

UG really is letting in some crappy lessons.

[aceofspades10]

Led_Zeppelin992 wrote:

UG really is letting in some crappy lessons.

and some crappy criticism

it's a good beginner lesson, nice job!

[Ninjamonkey767]

You forgot to take into account the tuning difference between G and B. In the last example, you have 5th fret on the G, and 7th on the B. The fret on the B string must be moved up one fret, otherwise you have a tritone, "the devils note".

[Ninjamonkey767]

And to add, the examples where you play the same fret on two strings is NOT a power chord, but something completely different.
You also forgot to mention the octave, which is very common practice by those playing power chords.

Power chord without octave:
e-
B-
G-
D-
A-2
E-0

Power chord with octave:
e-
B-
G-
D-2
A-2
E-0

[-Blue-]

Why isn't the same fret on 2 strings a power chord? It's an octave and its fifth, it's just in reverse order.

[Ninjamonkey767]

-Blue- wrote:

Why isn't the same fret on 2 strings a power chord? It's an octave and its fifth, it's just in reverse order.

Yeah, that's true. It's not very common though, and I think some more clarification could have been useful.

[The Horror!]

aceofspades10 wrote:

Led_Zeppelin992 wrote:

UG really is letting in some crappy lessons.

and some crappy criticism

it's a good beginner lesson, nice job!

Except, it's really not a good lesson at all

-Blue- wrote:

Why isn't the same fret on 2 strings a power chord? It's an octave and its fifth, it's just in reverse order.

If the higher note is the root then it's an inverted 5 chord
If the bottom note is the root then it's a sus 4 chord w/o the 5