 Hello everyone and welcome to Blackstar Potential. My name is Lee Fuge and I'm here today with musicteacher.com and in this video we're gonna be talking about how to use power chords. So if you're new to guitar playing, power chords are an essential part of rock, punk and metal guitar. They're really simple chords that you can play with two or three notes. So in this video we're gonna talk about what power chords are, how you can get started with the shape of a power chord and then I'll show you some exercises you can use to get used to moving power chords around in some different styles. So all the tones you're hearing in this video today are coming from my Jackson Adrian Smith SDX guitar which is plugged into the Blackstar HT20 Mark II which I've got running on the Drive channel. So the first question you're probably asking is what is a power chord? So let's have a talk about that first of all. So a power chord is a type of chord like I said that is used a lot in rock, metal and punk music but it does go across every style of music imaginable. A power chord is actually neither major or minor. So if you're new on your guitar journey you're probably learning major and minor chords but a power chord does not actually fit into either of those categories. The reason for this, and there's a bit of theory here is it does not contain a note called a major or minor third. The third in a chord is the note that makes it major or minor. So a power chord is actually made up of three notes but actually one of those notes is a duplicate of the other one we're playing. So if we talk about power chords on a theoretic level let's start with a G note here. So the third fret of the low E string is a G. This is what's called my root note. The other note I'm gonna be adding to a power chord is a note called the fifth. So in this case it's gonna be the fifth fret of the A string. The reason this note is called the fifth is not because it's on the fifth fret but it's the fifth note of the major scale. So if you know any theory about chord construction that is where that terminology comes from. It's the fifth interval of the scale. Don't worry too much if you don't know any of that stuff yet because there'll be plenty of time to catch up with that later on. For now let's just think about this as a shape. So we've got our root note, our fifth. So that's a simple power chord there that we can play with two notes. We could play that together by playing both notes at the same time. Notice I'm just moving that shape back and forth. The good thing with this is it's a transposable shape so I can literally move that all around the fretboard if I want to. The other thing I can do is I can add another note at the top. This is an octave of the first note. It's just a duplicate of the lowest note in the chord so this would be the G which is the root. I'm playing a D note here which is the fifth and then another G which is the octave. This just gives the power chord a little more depth. You don't have to play that additional note if you don't want to. Now you'll notice there I'm playing this with my index finger, my third finger and my little finger. You don't have to follow this finger format if you don't want to. You can bar those two notes there with the third finger. All the way that I usually play this is I actually bar those two notes with my little finger. So you may see me playing power chords like this. But you may also play them this way or this way. There's no right or wrong way to play them. It's just whatever way is comfortable. So that is a transposable shape. This works when you root the note from the E string or the A string. So we've got power chords rooted from the E and the A. We can also root power chords from the D string, but this shape doesn't actually work. The reason for this is the distance between the G and B strings is slightly different when it comes to tuning. So the highest note is actually not full octave away from the lowest note. What I need to do there is move that note up by a distance of one fret. And then I get my octave. So my power chord shape when it's rooted from the D string is like this. So if I'm playing from the third fret, I'm playing three, five and six. Not three, five and five. Because that's slightly out of tune because that lowest note is a semi tone flat. So again, very transposable. I can just move that around as I need to. So here's a quick power chord moving exercise you can use. So I'm going to use the third, fifth and seventh frets of the E string. Then I'm going to drop it to the A string and then down to the D string. So the whole idea with that exercise is just to get used to shifting power chords along the string and also crossing to adjacent strings. We can also do power chords rooted off open notes as well. So if I'm playing a power chord rooted off an open low E string, my notes would be the second fret on the A and the second fret on the D. Now again, you can play this with two fingers or you can play it with one finger. This is also true on the A string. If I'm doing it from the D string, once again, I need to move that higher note up. So now I've written four very simple riffs that are based around power chords in a few different styles for you guys to use in your practice with your power chords. So the first riff is a punk style riff and it goes like this. ["Punk Style Riff"] So here I'm playing power chords on the third fret of the E string, A, and the fifth fret of the A. I'm playing each of those chords on the first beat of the bar. But then for the remainder of the bar, I'm playing eighth notes, which is two notes per beat, on a palm-muted root note. So I'm going one, which is the chord head, and then from the end of one and two and three end, I'm palm-muting the root note. ["Punk Style Riff"] So I'm repeating that rhythm for each of the chords. ["Punk Style Riff"] The second riff is a moving power chord rock style riff and it goes like this. So this is a useful riff because this deals with some big position shifts because I'm starting up here on the seventh fret of the A before coming down to the third of the A. Then I'm doing a drop down to the third of the E before going back to the fifth on the A. Notice that quick little shift back there. On the second repeat, I'm doing the same thing. But then I'm going to eighth notes on the third and fifth of the low E. The third riff is a slightly faster paced rock style riff that's based around an A power chord and an open low A string that gets palm-muted between other moving chords. So this is typical of some hard rock style riffs. This is really great for your coordination when getting power chords on and off a string very quickly. ["Punk Style Riff"] So the chords I'm using here in the first bar is the A power chord and then the third fret and the fifth fret of the A string power chords. And the second bar I'm using the open A again with the third and the second. Rhythmically, I'm just playing eighth note here, one and two and three and four and. After the A power chord which lands on the one beat, I'm doing two open A palm-muted notes. Before hitting the third fret power chord, I'm doing two more. Then the fifth and one more. The second bar is the same thing but I go to the second fret instead of the fifth. That's really useful as I said for getting used to shifting in and out of power chords very, very quickly. The fourth and final riff is a little bit more on the heavy metal side. This is like a classic 80s metal style riff. So this uses power chords that move around rooted on the A string and fast picked open low E strings which are going to be palm-muted. So this riff, we're using all power chords on the A string. I'm using the seventh, the fifth, the third, and the second. And with the picking hand, I'm doing these fast low E palm-muted notes in between. So there's six of them there. These start from the end of the beats after the chord. So the first chord hits on the one beat and then I'm doing the six palm-muted notes and a two E and a. The next chord lands on the third beat and then the open low E strings come on from the end of the three up to the end of the bar. So it's three and a four E and a. So we've got one and a two E and a three and a four E and a. The next bar comes down to the third fret. So it's the same thing again. But then I'm changing it up slightly on the final bit. I'm going three and a, four and a. Then I'm doing an and a after the four. Back to the start. So there you go. There are some tips to get you guys started with power chords. These are essential chords. If you're playing rock, punk and metal music, you're going to definitely want to be learning these and using them in your playing. So have some fun with those. Let me know down below in the comments what your favorite power chord riffs are because power chords make up a lot of classic riffs. So throw your favorite power chord riffs down below in the comments as well. Don't forget to check out Black Star Amplification on YouTube for more free video lessons just like this one. And if you're looking for a music teacher in your local area, please check out musicteacher.com and check out the database of great music teachers all around the country. Thank you guys for watching and I'll see you soon.