Power Chords Overview
Power chords are indispensable in the Rock & Metal genres of music. Power chords are often played with a distorted sound from the Amplifier &/or also by using Distortion Stomp Boxes/Analog Pedals. These chords create a "heavy & big" sound that all Rock/Metal guitar players adore.
Power chords became famous through riffs in Rock songs like You really got me by The Kinks, Baba O Riley by The Who & Smoke on the Water by English Rock band Deep Purple. Guitarists like Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, Tommy Iommi of Black Sabbath also used Power chords to make unforgettable Riffs in the late 60's & were instrumental in making them a favorite rhythm tool for other Guitar players.
Power chords became famous through riffs in Rock songs like You really got me by The Kinks, Baba O Riley by The Who & Smoke on the Water by English Rock band Deep Purple. Guitarists like Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, Tommy Iommi of Black Sabbath also used Power chords to make unforgettable Riffs in the late 60's & were instrumental in making them a favorite rhythm tool for other Guitar players.
Power Chord Formation
Power chord has one of the most simplest formation, as it uses only two notes which is the Root and its Perfect fifth interval (5th note in the Major scale formed on a certain Root). Eg; The C Power chord is formed by playing the C & G together. Over the years there have been various inversions used to play a power chord also known as the 5th Chord. A chord with the number 5 next to it indicates a power chord. Eg; C5
Power Chord Exercises
The exercises below shows various ways of playing the Power Chord by emphasising techniques like Palm Muting, percussive playing using Ghost notes (please go to the techniques section incase you dont know how to Palm Mute & play Ghost notes) & Alternate picking. There are syncopated exercises which will help you gain knowledge about creating groovy riffs with different Root notes.All these exercises are sure to get you Rocking in no time!
Use the Audio player below to hear each exercise before you read the PDF TAB given below.
Please note that the Tempo for all the Exercises is 130. (You will hear 4 clicks before the start of every section.)
Use the Audio player below to hear each exercise before you read the PDF TAB given below.
Please note that the Tempo for all the Exercises is 130. (You will hear 4 clicks before the start of every section.)
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Ex 1
Ex 4
Ex 7
Ex 10
Ex 13
Ex 16
Ex 19
Ex 22
Ex 25
Ex 28
Ex 31
Ex 34
Ex 37
Ex 40
Ex 43
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Ex 2
Ex 5
Ex 8
Ex 11
Ex 14
Ex 17
Ex 20
Ex 23
Ex 26
Ex 29
Ex 32
Ex 35
Ex 38
Ex 41
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Ex 3
Ex 6
Ex 9
Ex 12
Ex 15
Ex 18
Ex 21
Ex 24
Ex 27
Ex 30
Ex 33
Ex 36
Ex 39
Ex 42
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Drum Loops To Jam
Practicing with drum loops apart from being a lot of fun also helps you get a feel of playing with a band. Once you can play each Riff mentioned above at least for 8 bars without making a mistake try playing the same with the Drum loops given below. Each drum loop is 16 bars long at three different tempos. (100-115-130). Try out each Exercise at a tempo of 100 Bpm and gradually build it up to 130 Bpm.
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Rock Drum Loop Tempo 100 (4/4)
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Rock Drum Loop Tempo 115 (4/4)
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Rock Drum Loop Tempo 130 (4/4)
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The PDF below contains all the 43 Power chord exercises you've heard in the audio player above along with multiple shapes of playing each power chord.