Simple Ways to Do More with Power Chords

First, the purpose of this column is to help you do more with your power chord progressions.^[1]

If you think it’s over-simplified or over-complicated, then please consider the possibility that it’s simply mismatched with your skill level, before you comment.

We also must consider the context of the information. Power chords are fairly simple.

So all we want to do is expand their usefulness.

To begin, consider the most basic power chord form:

What exactly is this? A power chord, yes, but what’s it made up of?

01. Root Note
02. Perfect Fifth (Interval)

The note at the third fret is our root (G), and the note at the fifth fret is our interval (D). We won’t discuss perfect fifth intervals here, but you can always read a more thorough explanation.^[2]

This chord can also be called a G5.

So what can we do with this chord? What’s the application?

Obvious to most is that we can move the shape, thus combining chords and creating progressions.

But if we know just a little bit about the makeup of this chord and the notes around it, we can manipulate the shape to get additional sounds and musical pieces, that can be used, without even having to break from our root note.

Let’s start simple.

01. Move the interval note.

Before you go moving the entire chord, the interval is moveable on its own. Try the following pattern:

The notes on the fifth string become your melody and the root G holds as your bass note. If you want the entire pattern to function as a melody over a bass line in the key of G, move it to a higher register where your root note doesn’t change.

For example:

Now, instead of having a stagnant power