Does anyone know where the term power chord originated? All it is, is an interval of a 5th played as a double stop. The 1st notes of the Chuck Berry rock n roll riff. I think it sounds pretty wimpy compaired to an explosive full chord w/a major or minor 3rd. Ala! Pete Townshend

Those cats from the 70's Page, Townshend ect. used full chords. open your ears n listen. The root & 5 thing was used for the standard rock rhythm switchin back n forth w/t 5th & 6th. Yea Townsend playin 2 note windmills. Give me a break. My ears cringe when my new students & metal studs cover those tunes w/that wimpy $@! so called "power chord". I think there used cuz nobody wants to practice to have enuff hand strength to play full chords through an entire song.

While a power chord is just the I and V, that doesn't mean you can only play two strings at a time. Like the Wiki link said, typically you double up the root. The most common power chord uses the low E, A, and D strings (the bottom half of an "E" shape grand barre chord with the top 3 strings muted, or in Drop D tuning a petite barre of the bottom 3 strings with the top three muted). That's basically why a power chord can be thought of as a "chord" rather than just an interval /double-stop -- 3 or more pitches, with one or more of the pitches being octave doublings.

You can triple the I and double up the V. Townshend often plays grand barre power chords by muting the third. With an "E" shape grand barre chord, you just don't squeeze down on the G string, or let the side of the finger on the D string mute the G string. (So at the fifth position it's 3 A's and 2 E's.) It's easy to windmill that sort of power chord.

An example of a power chord using all six strings is the E5 chord in "China Grove". Open low E, E at the 7th fret on the A string, B at the 9th fret on the D string, E on the 9th fret of the G string, open B, open high E. So four I's and two V's, some in unison, others as octaves. (A fairly common power chord -- Nugent's "Stanglehold", lots of Kiss songs, etc, but I think of it as the "China Grove" chord since that's where I learned it way back when.)

Other than "Smoke On the Water" (second inversion power chord with the V as the lower pitch), 2-string-only power chords are very uncommon. But second inversion power chords have an unstable "growl" to them that doesn't need octave/unison doubling to sound thick. (Ritchie thinks of it as playing fourth intervals, but it can be seen as a second inversion chord without a third.) If you play SOTW with major or minor chords it sounds ludicrously wrong.

"If you open your ears" you'll hear that a lot of rock chords are ambiguous -- not really major or minor. In equal tempered tunings thirds can sound pretty ugly with a lot of distortion. Bands from Kiss to Soundgarden know that and leave out the third most of the time.

Townshend does use a lot of major and minor chords, but he uses a lot of power chords as well. Even when he windmills.

punk would like a word with you.

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Melvins
The Jesus Lizard
Cows
Big Business
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Minutemen
Flight
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Scratch Acid
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Pixies

Another example: Cream's "Crossroads". In the first few measures Clapton plays an A power chord -- open A, E on the D string, A on the G string. Then he adds in the C# on the B string and you can hear the chord's voicing suddenly go from ambiguous to major. For the rest of the song he goes back to voicing the A as a power chord.

A power chord probably got its name around the time guitarists were experimenting with distortion for the first time. Some guy (or lady) played an interval of 5th and heard the chord rip and sustain through all the distortion and exclaimed, "Now that sounds powerful!" Of course, this is just a theory, hopefully the true story of the power chord's origins is much more exciting and, well, powerful Something like the Big Bang occurred when God created the power chord <_<

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I traded my car in for a microphone.

Johnny Ramone RIP is rolling over in his grave.


And James Hetfield would like a word with you about the 'power' in power chord.

I could go on and on, but I don't want to waste my time. I read your other post about the picks and member status descriptions. Sounds like you signed up here just to troll.

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Obligatory gear list: Fender, Rickenbacker, Gibson, Gretsch, Vox, Martin, and more Fender.

RBU

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No no and no

There is one very very simple and worthwhile reason that power chords exist.


TO BRING THE DAMN HOUSE DOWN!!!

Thirds are out of tune - and you're a troll.

I'd certainly like to hear the Berklee students take on Pythagorean and Syntonic commas

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No no and no

iw as thinkng more along the lines of 80's "SoCal" punk... descendents (milo aukerman is the nerd king of punk), germs, etc.... im quite possibly the only punk fan on the planet that doesnt like the ramones or the clash that much...

was gonna give an example but youtube is shot to hell right now....

_________________
Favorite bands:

Melvins
The Jesus Lizard
Cows
Big Business
R***man
Minutemen
Flight
Minor Threat
Big Black
Shellac
Karp
Scratch Acid
Wipers
Pixies

>_> I grow tired of the power chord somewhat too. When a song is nothing but power chords, the band best have have some really good lyrics or an excellent bass player or drummer (Usually the best punk and metal bands have very good bass players) or I will be bored quickly ^^ That being said, I don't think it is "wimpy" unless it is overused and abused to the point where it loses its, well, power (Which I think one can apply to any chord for that matter).

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I traded my car in for a microphone.

yeah, i agree with what you say, but that problem isn't 'to do' with power chords specifically. it has to do with under talented players who use them exclusively, not for their unique sonic characteristics, but for the ease in fingering them, which shows a laziness that also carries into unimaginative progressions and arrangements. You'll see this from bands who just slide the basic shape around. there is much much more to the art of the power chord than this.

What people who misuse them fail to understand and fail to utilize properly is that fact that a chord without a third is neither major nor minor, and they don't see the added possibilities that offers to an arrangement.

(PS> dyads have been around as long as melodic music has existed, they have a definite place, just not everywhere and all the time.)

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I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

Capo well said. I shouldn't of discribed it as wimpy. Like you said It becomes boring and looses it's power when over used. It just seems to be overused alot. I'm not a distortion player, I just like hearing some edge. Kinda what Scolfield or Holdsworth gets. I find when I use alot of overdrive, because of the ambiguity of the 3rd I limit myself to what I can play chordwise and end up having to play 5th's. It does make leadwork easier for most, but I feel more comfortable without it because it makes me work the guitar harder, thats where I want the sound to develop and draw emotion from, not from a cascade of op amps or preamp tubes. It just doesn't work well for the sound I'm trying to go for.