Monday 20 May 2013

Advanced Guitar Power Chords

In our last post we looked at using guitar power chords and moving these around the neck as an easy way to play rock guitar.

Today we'll look at some much less common ways of playing power chords, including fat power chords that are played using all six strings and some more unusual inversions.

In the last guitar power chord post, we played some 3 note power chords that doubled up on the root note, repeating it one octave higher:

A5 guitar power chord
A5 guitar power chord



In this inversion the 5th has been doubled. The root note is on the A string giving us a C Power Chord. Mixing up root position and inverted power chords gives some interesting riffs and can be a really easy way of changing between power chords on the guitar.

C5 guitar power chord
C5 guitar power chord



Playing this inversion on the A, D and G strings uses exactly the same fingering. Here on the 5th fret with the root on the D string we can play a G Power Chord.
G5 guitar power chord
G5 guitar power chord


We have to adjust the fingering a little to play the inversion on the D, G and B strings. Here we play a Bb Power Chord on the guitar's 3rd fret:
Bb5 guitar power chord
Bb5 guitar power chord


It's also possible to play four string power chords on the guitar to get an even fatter sound:
G5 guitar power chord
G5 guitar power chord


Using open strings, six string power chords are possible too (the easiest way to play this chord is to barre across the second fret with your first finger to play the D and G strings and lay your little finger across the B and E strings at the 5th fret:
A5 guitar power chord
A5 guitar power chord


Try incorporating some of these more advanced rock guitar chords into your playing and check back soon for another guitar chord of the day.