Power Chords (Am)

goldleaf
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Sun Feb 21, 2010 10:38 pm

From what I've seen in some of Neil's lessons he uses what he calls power chords, basically 2 fingered notes of 3, the 3rd usually left open to get a sound close to what the normal chord would be. I've seen Neil often say as long as you get a sound that is close to what the real song sounds like, since many of the songs really have piano or another instrument playing or vocals, Neil will use a "power chord" not really a chord as has been said to get the sound he wants, if that makes sense, Gary.


BigBear
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Sun Feb 21, 2010 11:44 pm

Steve- since most of the power "chords" I've seen are two notes it means that any two notes that are "harmonically-related" are in fact chords. Diads and triads are just two or three note chords aren't they?

I guess technically power chords are double-stops but I've never seen them called that.

Thanks for weighing in on this subject! :cheer:


gchapel
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Mon Feb 22, 2010 11:09 pm

By definition, a chord is made up of 3 or more tones.

Two tones constitutes an interval. A chord does not necessarily need a 3rd or 5th as stated previously but it does need at least 3 tones because that is the definition of a chord.

A power chord is not really a true chord as it only contains the root and a 5th. The term power chord is just slang and it is really just an interval.


TGSteve
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Tue Feb 23, 2010 7:01 pm

Thanks for the warm welcome d_dog. Where would be the best place to find an interesting avatar?

I think "diad" is kind of like the words Ionian and Aeolian. You hear them in a theory class, but that's typically about it. After that, everyone just says "intervals", "major scales", and "minor scales" respectively, at least in the circles I'm familiar with.

Neil is right on with regard to catching the essence with a power cord. in fact, I will occasionally simply play and E shape bar chord, but lightly lift the middle finger which would be on the G string, thereby making it into a five note power chord with scale degrees 1,5,1,5,1 on strings 6,5,4,2,1 respectively.

Amazing how often that will get you by in a pinch!

BigBear - I'm pretty sure gchapel is correct. I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit that I always thought power cords were just 2 note chords, but it makes sense that they are actually intervals. :blush: I'm a victim of slang!

Anyway, I'll try to keep disinformation to a bare minimum in future posts!


haoli25
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Tue Feb 23, 2010 7:05 pm

tgsteve wrote:
Where would be the best place to find an interesting avatar?




Steve, a picture of that cool looking G&L would be a good start! :)



Bill


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