what am I missing about power chords ?

[HFox]

Being in "the Target age" of the "never happened before scourge" , I'm spending more time than normal trying to learn "new" methods of playing my guitars.
So..... I brought up a chart of "Power Chords" and began to learn them because I've always heard that I can sound like Keith Richards and go on to fame and glory as a rock star.
I'm a fair acoustic guitar player with a bit of self taught style and can do a bit of finger picking and my Barre chords are not bad. I am playing old Martins and Santa Cruz and Taylor 12 strings.....But the power chords sound so incomplete and empty compared to "compete" fingering ....
What am I missing here/hear ??

[Trent in WA]

Power chords need distortion or overdrive to generate some of the overtones that supplant the missing thirds and to sound full and musical.

[jrb715]

You're missing an amp and volume--and from what you write, an electric guitar. Are you playing them on an acoustic? Possible, you can chunk along with them in the right song. But they're the stuff of electric guitar--and as Trent writes, they come to life with overdrive and distortion.

[MartinGibsonFan]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_chord

[mc1]

You're also missing the rest of the band.

I think Keith (mainly?) uses a 5 string tele in open G tuning. Which doesn't mean he doesn't use power chords, but not in the "You Really Got Me"/"Iron Man" kind of way.

[donlyn]

Power chords are best understood by simply banging the root after a fifth. Musical taste optional, but good whiskey helps. Amp woodn't hurt either.



Don
.

[Ben M.]

Power chords can be good for shuffle blues or chunking out a rhythm on an acoustic.
If your trying to play lead parts they’re good for learning where your root notes are.
They just don’t have the same effect on an acoustic as they do on an electric with distortion.

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by HFox

…What am I missing here/hear ??

Hi HF

In the electric world, power chords generally imply sustain. If overdriven with enough force, they will sustain for longer than needed. And they are also used percussively in chop-chop-chop fashion.

They have 'texture'.

Old school power chords are only achieved with loud amps. These days, they have been pedal-ized as well.

[HFox]

Thanks Gentlemen......I'll just crawl out of this rabbit hole and go back to practicing those pesky scales !!!

[Mycroft]

If you every get into playing slide in open tunings like Open D, you will find power chords useful in standing in for a minor chord as the ear will sort of "fill in" the missing flatted third. (Better is to play the 1 and flatted 3rd, and let the ear fill in the 5th...)

[Lee Callicutt]

Two words: Pete Townshend.

[Kittoon]

A power chord is a chord missing the “3rd”. Usually, just the root note and the 5th. With no 3rd, the chord is undefined. Neither major or minor! The “ear” fills the “gap”! ...I use power chords a lot. I have not touched an electric guitar in 30 years!..

[Wags]

Which begs the question, is it really a chord with only two scale tones?

[mc1]

Originally Posted by Wags

Which begs the question, is it really a chord with only two scale tones?

It is not! More of as poser chord, really.

Also, I feel unable to not post this:

[Lee Callicutt]

I had a teacher a while back tell me, "That's not a chord," and I kept on playing it, thinking to myself, "Yeah, but it sounds right."