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  #16  
Old 07-01-2020, 08:09 PM
mc1 mc1 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Lee Callicutt View Post
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."
Those things aren't mutually exclusive. Power double-stop just doesn't have the right ring to it.
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  #17  
Old 07-01-2020, 09:57 PM
Chipotle Chipotle is offline
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Originally Posted by Kittoon View Post
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!..
I use "power chords" on acoustic all the time as well. That form (also written with a "5" after the root note, eg. C5 for a C without the third) works perfectly well on acoustic guitars, in the right settings.

Sometimes you want sparse chords. Maybe they don't get in the way of vocals or other instruments as much, maybe they just fit the feel of a certain song better. You don't always need 6 notes to make a chord... less can be more.
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  #18  
Old 07-01-2020, 11:18 PM
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Doug Young Doug Young is offline
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Power chords work well with overdrive, since 3rds can sound nasty with distortion - distortion creates overtones/harmonics, which are fairly pure when you just have root and 5th, but get into dissonances once you add in a 3rd.

They also work great with rock since they're ambiguous, and you can play pentatonic, bluesy leads over them, without clashing against the 3rd. it's also just a simpler part that works well with a band, where you don't want to clash with others. There's a somewhat related approach in jazz, where instead of full chords, the guitar player uses "Freddie Green" chords, which are just root, 3rd and 7th, which tends to outline the harmony without clashing with the pianist or horns. Same basic idea - minimalism, just that rock is even simpler than the jazz approach.

For acoustic, they should work fine as a rhythm part with a band as well. On a clean acoustic, you can also play, in some cases, with open strings ringing against them to create "interesting" (i.e. probably dissonant) ringing chords.
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  #19  
Old 07-02-2020, 08:11 AM
mercy mercy is offline
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two notes played together are an interval therefore power chords do not exist.
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  #20  
Old 07-02-2020, 09:04 AM
srbell srbell is offline
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Power chords on electric sound good, particularly if you're using a lot of distortion. Often when using a lot of distortion the full chord will just sound too muddy and not focused. Just playing the root and fifth clears it up a lot. Plus, "power chords" are dead simple to play as you can play 2 finger or 1 finger versions (although the 1 finger version has the 1 and 5 they are inverted). Yeah, they may not really be a chord as in a triad or diatonic extension, but the distortion fills it out and since they are so stinking easy to play you can do som fast runs with them. I do use them some on acoustic as well as they are good for a quick transition chord if you're moving quickly between chords.
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  #21  
Old 07-02-2020, 10:59 AM
Chipotle Chipotle is offline
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Originally Posted by mercy View Post
two notes played together are an interval therefore power chords do not exist.
But my power chords have three notes! It just so happens that two of them are the same.
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  #22  
Old 07-02-2020, 11:14 AM
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In Country Blues, especially on a single cone resonator, I use the heck out of power chords. For me the "why" I use them is to plug into an amp that's breaking up, not even crazy overdriven, and start playing full first position open "cowboy chords".

If you're at all like me, you'll quickly notice even without thinking about it that you start omitting strings. For myself, I'll often mute the 5th string on the classic G chord even though it's a B. and not playing the 1st even though it's a G. For some reason, I like the 2nd string B if it's just a little gritty. The more distortion, the less strings I like.

Years ago I got heavily in to John Lee Hooker. Maybe because of his country blues and Open A and E (G or D for me, I don't tune up or capo), even his standard tunning playing is power chord based. And his basic tone is beautifully hairy so it fits perfectly.
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  #23  
Old 07-02-2020, 02:57 PM
Rick Jones Rick Jones is offline
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They’re a huge part of my playing... that and moving the root-fifth-octave shape around and muting the fifth on odd parts of a sort of melody using them, often pedalled against an open string.

The more I hang around AGF lately, the more I feel like a complete heathen. I seem to do or use all of the things most of the posters on here think of as primitive or lacking sophistication.

Still, I like my own playing enough to want to keep doing it, and that’s what matters!
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  #24  
Old 07-02-2020, 03:27 PM
blue blue is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Snorse View Post
The more I hang around AGF lately, the more I feel like a complete heathen. I seem to do or use all of the things most of the posters on here think of as primitive or lacking sophistication.

Still, I like my own playing enough to want to keep doing it, and that’s what matters!
I'm with you except I don't feel judged. I went from trying to play like Alex De Grassi to wanting to BE John Lee Hooker.

I used to grind for hours to nail a passage, or smoothly transition between weird chords.

Now I have no idea where the time went or where what I'm playing came from and I'm swinging with whatever I'm playing. I'm being fancy if there are chord changes

Exaggerating a bit. I still play Slack Key and Celtic stuff that I spend hours picking out and trying to nail. But most of the time I start someplace random in my country blues repertoire, and just take off free form after 15 or 20 minutes.
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  #25  
Old 07-02-2020, 04:45 PM
tonyo tonyo is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Kittoon View Post
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!..
Any videos available of you or any other of the acoustic players playing such chords?
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