http://guitaringenuity.com/how-to-play-power-chords-on-guitar-power-chord-guitar-tutorial/
I referred to an article in the video a few times. As I had mentioned, it would make the most sense if you take a couple of minutes and read the whole thing. The link is above. That way, this video will just make more sense rather than watching it on its own. Because it’s actually part of a little series of articles and videos I did around power chords.
So, just to recap what we discussed in the video and to give you an idea what I covered in the article: the purpose of this video demonstration was not to show you “how to play 100 easy power chord songs on guitar in 5 minutes”. There are plenty of those already out there on YouTube and some of them are actually really good and fun to watch. Instead, the spirit of this video, if you will, was to show you just a handful of cool power chord riffs used in some popular tunes that probably all of us have heard at some point.
There are so many songs using power chords, as a matter of fact, power chords are the foundation of those tunes. Sure, in theory, all of those songs could be played with other chords, such as major bar chords, but they wouldn’t sound the same. By the way, we touch upon this very point several times in the article where I show you exactly, what power chords are and how to play them. Because there are actually several ways to play these easy beginner power chords songs by using different kinds of power chords. What do I mean by that? Let’s just pause here and quickly discuss this in a little bit more detail.
As you will learn in the referenced article, there are essentially three ways to play power chords (I’m on purpose excluding inversions here, that’s for a different lesson). You can play them by using the root note and the fifth. That’s super easy because you essentially only need two notes. Then, you could alternatively add an octave to your root by using the pinky. Again, very easy and not too much of a challenge. And lastly, you could play the root with a so called bare fourth – remember, that’s what I demonstrated in the video using the Smoke on the Water example. That one right there is probably the prime example of all beginner power chord songs.
Now, in the video, only showed you a few examples and some people might say that this is not necessarily a great representation of good power chord songs. But the problem is, there are just way too many of them. So, I picked the ones that just came to mind, realizing that I would leave out a host of other great examples. Therefore, while I fully acknowledge that some of you would not necessarily consider my video as a good selection of the best power chord songs in general terms, please keep in mind what the actual purpose of this video was.
Alright, I think we got most of it covered. Oh, just one more thing that I put quite a bit of emphasize on in my article. Yes, power chords, in general are easy to learn and to play. But with that being said, that doesn’t mean that they don’t require the adequate level of accuracy and control. Because it’s easy to butcher a cool riff or song with power chords. That’s where things like palm muting, etc. are something that you should look at a little bit closer. Again, all that is explained in detail in the article.
Good, again, the purpose of all this was to share with you just a couple of examples of easy power chord songs to play on guitar. Now, go ahead and try it out for yourself and have FUN!
If you have any question, just post them in the comment box below. Again, thank you very much for watching, I do appreciate it.
