Power chord

In music, a power chord is a bare fifth, or a similar chord, usually played on electric guitar with distortion.

Although the use of the term power chord has, to some extent, spilled over into the vocabulary of other instrumentalists, namely keyboard and synthesiser players, it remains, essentially, a part of rock guitar culture and is most strongly associated with the overdriven electric guitar styles of hard rock, heavy metal, punk rock, and similar genres.

The term "power chord" is used to refer to a perfect fifth (or its inversion, a perfect fourth), with or without octave doubling, in rock music, especially when played on electric guitar with distortion. The same interval is also found in traditional and classical music, played by instruments such as classical guitars, ukuleles, Appalachian dulcimers, mandolins, harps and xylophones; but in that context, it is not usually called a power chord, but just a bare fifth.

It is sometimes notated 5, as in C5 (C power chord).

Definition and background

The term 'power chord' refers to the sonic effect caused by the combination of two notes separated by the interval of a perfect fifth (or its inversion, a perfect fourth) when distorted usually through an overdriven amplifier or an electronic processor such as a fuzz box.

A 'Power Chord' though the name suggests, is not an actual chord, as it only consists of two notes, the octave and perfect fifth.

Rock guitarists use the power chord because it allows for much greater levels of distortion without causing the dissonance associated with other chords that include the interval of a third played at similarly high distortion levels. The power chord preserves the chord's diatonic functionality and produces a distinct sonic effect.

According to an article in paper named Free-Lance Star, the power chord was pioneered by rock and roll guitarist Link Wray ([1]). Blues guitarist Elmore James used power chord with distortion in late 1950s, in the song "I Need You".

Even normally consonant major and minor chords can sometimes sound dissonant and unstable when a high level of distortion is introduced. When minor or major chords are used with distortion, the relative intensities of each note's overtone series combine by non-linear intermodulation to form unpredictable sum and difference frequencies, which results in dissonance.

Performance techniques

Power chords are often performed within a single octave, as this results in the closest matching of overtones. Octave doubling is sometimes done in power chords. Power chords are often pitched in a middle register. If they are too low, they tend to sound unclear and boomy. When played too high they lack depth and power.

Shown are four examples of an F5 chord. A common voicing is the 1-5 perfect fifth (A), to which the octave can be added, 1-5-1 (B). A perfect fourth 5-1 (C) is also a power chord, as it implies the "missing" lower 1 pitch. Either or both of the pitches may be doubled an octave above or below (D is 5-1-5-1), which leads to another common variation, 5-1-5.

Since power chords lack a third, they are ambiguous as to mode. However, the musical context often implies or provides a frame of reference for major or minor. For example, in the progression bVI-bVII-I, the I chord is implied to be minor by the bVI chord, and other instrumental parts may confirm this during the I chord by playing a minor third, or may contradict this by playing a major third. Alternatively, the instrumental or vocal melody or bass line that is performed along with a given power chord may imply a major or minor mode.

A well-known guitarist who is associated with the power chord is Pete Townshend of The Who, famous for loudly smashing out power chords on his guitar with a full roundhouse swoop of his arm, reminiscent of a windmill.

The consecutive fifths criticism

The criticism sometimes levelled at the use of consecutive power chords is that they violate an important rule of voice leading. This rule prohibits the use of consecutive fifths or octaves in certain situations. It applies to the common practice period of classical music, in which chords, originally, were formed as the result of individual parts, such as voices, combining. Following the principle known as voice leading, the individual parts maintain their identities throughout, but if the interval of a fifth or octave is sounded consecutively between any two parts, their individuality may be momentarily lost. This was considered to result in a weakness of harmonic texture and was studiously avoided, especially in the earlier part of this period.

However, power chords are not composed of independent parts that happen to coincide. The component parts depend on each other to produce the required sonority and the presence of consecutive octaves and fifths when the chords are heard in succession is seen merely as doubling - a technique often applied in classical music as a way of strengthening or 'colouring' parts that are not being contrasted against each other in harmony.

Moreover, unlike the prohibition against consecutive octaves, the prohibition against consecutive fifths is better viewed as a matter of style. During the common practice period of European classical music, the popular music of Europe made frequent use of consecutive fifths; the avoidance of the consecutive-fifth texture by composers of music for aristocratic, religious, and middle class audiences was at least in part a matter of differentiating "serious" music from that of the peasantry and uneducated lower classes. Given the fact that rock, blues and other music in which power chords are likely to occur tends to ally itself unabashedly with the music of such marginalized groups, the stylistic argument against consecutive fifths becomes irrelevant.

Fingering

Powerchord example

On a standard tuned guitar, power chords with the bass note on the sixth or fifth string are played with one or two fingers pressing the next two higher strings two frets higher. If the bass note is on the fourth string, the little finger plays the note an octave above the bass three frets higher than the bass note. (Obviously a bare fifth without octave doubling is the same, except that the highest of the three strings, in parentheses below, is not played. A bare fifth with the bass note on the second string has the same fingering as one on the fifth or sixth string.)

     E5      F5      A5      B5      D5
E||--------------------------------------|
B||---------------------------------(3)--|
G||-----------------(2)-----(4)------2---|
D||-(2)-----(3)------2-------4-------0---|
A||--2-------3-------0-------2-----------|
E||--0-------1---------------------------|

     E5      G5      A5      B5      C5
|-----------(3)-----(5)------2-------3-----
|---(5)------3-------5-------0-------1-----
|----4-------0-------2---------------------
|----2-------------------------------------
|------------------------------------------
|------------------------------------------

An inverted bare fifth, i.e. a bare fourth, can be played with one finger, as in the example below, from the riff in Smoke on the Water by Deep Purple:

     G5/D Bb5/F C5/G   G5/D Bb5/F Db5/Ab C5/G
E||------------------------|----------------------|
B||------------------------|----------------------|
G||*--0----3----5----x--0--|----3----6--5----x----|
D||*--0----3----5-------0--|----3----6--5---------|
A||------------------------|----------------------|
E||------------------------|----------------------|

|-----------------------|---------------------||
|-----------------------|---------------------||
|--0----3----5----x--3--|----0----------x----*||
|--0----3----5-------3--|----0---------------*||
|-----------------------|---------------------||
|-----------------------|---------------------||

Another common variation is to add a low fifth to a standard (1-5) power chord

E||----------------------------------9---|
B||--------------------------8-------7---|
G||------------------5-------5------(6)--|
D||--2-------4-------3------(5)----------|
A||--0-------2------(3)------------------|
E||-(0)-----(2)--------------------------|

With the drop D tuning, power chords with the base on the sixth string can be played with one finger, and D power chords can be played on three open strings.

     D5      E5
E||----------------
B||----------------
G||----------------
D||--0-------2-----
A||--0-------2-----
D||--0-------2-----

Occasionally, open, "stacked" power chords with more than three notes are used in drop D.

E||--7-------1-------0-------6-------5---
B||--7-------3-------3-------6-------5---
G||--7-------3-------2-------6-------2---
D||--9-------1-------0-------4-------2---
A||--9-------1-------0-------4-------0---
D||--9-------1-------0-------4-------0---

First hits

The first hit song built around power chords is "You Really Got Me" by the Kinks, released in 1964 (Walser 1993, p.9):

The Kinks' "You Really Got Me" guitar riff

Early heavy metal bands such as Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin also helped to popularize power chords.

Sources

• Walser, Robert (1993). Running with the Devil: Power, Gender, and Madness in Heavy Metal Music. Wesleyan University Press. ISBN 0-8195-6260-2.
• Fredericksburg Free-Lance Star. Fredericksburg, VA "Fredericksburg Offered up Fertile Spot for Rock's Roots" December 20, 2005.
• Edith A. H. Crawshaw (1939). What's Wrong with Consecutive Fifths?. The Musical Times, Vol. 80, No. 1154. (Apr., 1939), pp. 256-257.

[2]

See also

• List of major chord shapes for guitar
• Overtone
• Intermodulation