Before you begin Beginner lessons

Fretboard notes Guitar chords Chord formulas Major scales Minor scales

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Buying a guitar The parts of the guitar How to tune the guitar How to read tablature and chord diagrams

1. Introduction, positioning, chords D, C, G 2. Simple strumming, technique, A, A7, E, E7, easy songs 3. Arpegio, strumming technique, Bob Marley, Dm Am Em F 4. Chord progressions and fretting exercises 5. Chord and scale theory, C7, B7 (H7), D7, G7 6. Fingerpicking and arpegio exercises 7. Powerchords, 5th chords, arpegio, Nirvana 8. Rock n roll, Knockin' on heaven's door, m7, M7 9. Bar chords, (A and E shapes), Wild Thing, About a girl 10. Bar chord shapes (D and C shapes), 7, m7 and M7 11. CAGED system, G bar chord shape, Pearl jam 12. Wonderwall by Oasis

7. Powerchords, 5th chords, arpegio, Nirvana

You will learn...

• A quick repetition of chords learned so far
• A very important part of guitar playing, neglected in some courses - powerchords
• Polly by Nirvana
• The notes on the low (and high) E strings, and the A string - this will make your learning of bar chords much easier.
• Another arpegio piece composed by me for practise.

This is a very important lesson that prepares you for learning bar chords.

Tune the guitar!

First you have to tune your guitar, otherwise it will sound horrible. =)Tune with a computerized guitar, Click here

Reminder...

One last reminder (maybe the last time?):

It is very important... however, enough thumb-yapping - time to learn powerchords (this is when you are supposed to scream "Yay! Finally.")

Kvintackord / Powerchords / Rockackord

Now you are going to learn something which for many guitarists has been a real mood-lifter! The great Steve Morse (of Deep Purple) said himself that it wasn't until he learned these simple chords that he felt that his guitar playing really took off.

In Swedish we also refer to these as "rock chords", because they are so widely used in rock. Any AC/DC song, practically, would just not function without these chords.

These chords have pecial feature compared to the chords you previously encountered: you can grab them anywhere on the fretboard, and the root note of the chord is always on the string closest to your chin, i.e. the top string of the chord (if you don't play like Hendrix style with the guitar on your neck).

Here are the four different powerchord patterns, in this case demonstrated with the root on the third fret of each top string of the chord (the most common patterns are the first two with the root note on the low E string and A string respectively):

355XXX (A5)

X355XX (C5)

XX356X (F5)

XXX366 (Bb5)

In the following diagram I am showing the chords on random frets. The color is matched to the same pattern as the chords above, however in the diagram it would look messy if I put them all on the same fret.

Once you fret a certain pattern, you can move it anywhere as long as the spacing between your fingers is constans (i e maintain the pattern!). You should always try and have your index on the root note.

When I learned these chords I usually just played around a little to hear what sounded good or not - it is a great way to get to know your guitar:). In principle, you can play the backing track of nearly all songs with these chords, although to get the full harmony you need to play complete major/minor chords.

Så länge du behåller ackordformen (dvs håller rätt finger på rätt sträng med rätt band-avstånd från varandra). Rockackorden som är skrivna ovan är således dina första flyttbara ackord - grattis=).

Naming the powerchords - know what you are playing

If you want to know what chords you are playing you need to know which notes lie where on the fretboard. There is agood guide on how to memorize the fretboard - click here - I would strongly advise you to look at it.

For now, however, it suffices for you to learn at least the E, A and D strings' note names.

A good way of keeping track of the chromatic scale and remembering where there is no "signed" halfstep between the natural notes is simply repeating the chromatic scale up and down for yourself, over and over again. Go to lesson 5 to read about musical signs and the chromatic scale if you have no clue about what I'm talking about.

When talking "chromatically", say the sharps when you go up, and the flats when you go down the scale - ie

From A, up (red notes)

A, A sharp, B, C, C sharp, etc.
A --A#/B♭--B-- C-- C #/D♭-- D--D #/E♭-- E --F --F#/G♭-- G --G#/A♭--(A)

From A, down (green notes)

A, A flat, G, G flat, F, E, etc
A--A♭/G#-- G--G♭/F# -F --E--E♭/D #-- D--D♭/C #--C---B--B♭/A#--(A)

Here are all of the notes on the fretboard in a nice diagram. The numbers correspond to the frets, and you can see which string is which at the far right and left (fret 12 and 0 respectively)

Här kommer alla tonerna på greppbrädan. Diagrammet visar alltså vilka toner som ligger på vilket band (som en gitarr sedd ovanifrån).

Remember that the chromatic scale, no matter which note you start on, always repeats at the 13th note.

Click on the picture for a bigger version

(You can always find this handy diagram under tools - fretboard notes)

Now - back to the powerchords. As I said above the root note is always (or should always be) on your index finger of the fretting hand. You then name the chord accordingly:

Root note + a 5

Grundtonen ligger alltid på pekfingret (om ni tar ackorden som mig och majoriteten). Ackordet heter då grundtonen + en 5.

Therefore the following chord    -     X133XX

Is called A#5 (or Bb5)

and this chord                           -      355XXX

Is called G5

Feel the power!

So far you have only been able to play simple chords that did not stretch further than the 3rd fret of the guitar. And now, all of the sudden, you have the ability to play on the entire fretboard with these simple chords!

I use the word simple, because these chords only consist of a root note, and the 5th note of the major scale! As I mentioned in lesson 5 - true chords have at least 3 different notes (triads). Despite this, powerchords are very handy and sound good - they just do not have neither major nor minor harmony.

If all of this seems very complicated, or even boring, I think you will change your mind if you have a look at the video:)

here are the chords that I posted earlier once again:

355XXX

X355XX

XX356X

XXX366

 

Right, now I think it's time to play some proper music with these chords, don't you?

look, listen, learn!

Nirvana - Polly

A very nice song by Nirvana.

Tabulature
verse
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
---------------0--77-X-5---5-X-0-----o--
-2--X--0--55-X-0--77-X-5---5-X-0-----o--
-2--X--0--55-X-0--55-X-3---3-X-0--------
-0--X--0--33-X-----------------0--------

chorus
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
--77-X-5--5--X--0-------3---3--X-0---o--
--77-X-5--5--X--0--55-X-3---3--X-0---o--
--55-X-3--3--X--0--55-X-1---1--X-0------
----------------0--33-X----------0------

In the bridge there is a bass that plays the following:

-------------------------
-------------------------
--------------55-3-333---
-00-0--33-3--------------

Demonstration:
First I will play it in 4/4 tempo, and then like Kurt (as the tab shows), both fast and slow. I hope you have been practising the right-hand techniques shown in Lesson 3.

Click here for song lyrics.

Green Day - When I Come Around

Green Day music is quite centered around powerchords, which is why they are a good example:)

I only show the verse for the song, because it introduces a new playing technique: palm muting.

---pm->----pm----------->---pm----->
--------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------7----------9-X--5---5---555-------o-
--------5---------------- 7----------9-X--5---5---555--0----o-
--------5-----------5--5--5--5-5---7-7-X--3---3---333--0------
---3--3-3---3-3----------------------------------------0------

Click here for lyrics.

Pm stands for palm muting.

Palm muting is a technique in which you mute a string by putting your palm across the strings ca. 1-2 cm from the bridge, while you pluck one or more strings. The sound produced by palm muting is most conspicuous on a distorted electric guitar. I will demonstrate this in the video.

Try listening to more Green Day songs in order to learn your powerchords better:)

 

 

 

Bonus songs

Here are some bonus songs with instructions in order for you to practise your powerchord playing.

AC/DC - TNT
Deep Purple - Smoke on the water
The White Stripes - Hypnotize

Arpegio

Now you will learn a simple arpegio piece that I have composed myself! It will be a little bit difficult in the beginning, but if you practised the previous arpegio patterns you should have no trouble mastering this piece!

It is composed of two parts that are each repeated twice, and then with an easy finish.

Video demonstration, and audio+ txt files are found beneath the tabulature.

 

repeat 2x
E||-----------2--------------------------|-----------0--------------------------|
B||--------3-----3-----------3--------3--|--------3-----3-----------3--------3--|
G||-----2-----------2-----0--------0-----|-----2-----------2-----0--------0-----|
D||--0-----------------------------------|--0-----------------------------------|
A||--------------------3--------2--------|--------------------3--------2--------|
E||--------------------------------------|--------------------------------------|

-----------2--------------------------|-----------3-----------------3---------||
--------3-----3-----------3--------3--|--------3-----3-----------3-----3------||
-----2-----------2-----0--------0-----|-----0-----------0-----0-----------0--o||
--0-----------------------------------|--------------------------------------o||
--------------------3--------2--------|--------------------2------------------||
--------------------------------------|--3------------------------------------||

repeat 2x
---------------------------------------|-----------------------------0---------||
------------0-----------------1--------|-----------0--------------0-----0------||
*--------2-----2-----------2-----2-----|--------0-----0--------0-----------0--o||
*-----2-----------------2-----------2--|-----2-----------2--------------------o||
---0--------------2--3-----------------|--------------------2------------------||
---------------------------------------|--0------------------------------------||

finish
-----------2--------------------------|--3----------------||
--------3-----3-----------3--------3--|--3----------------||
-----2-----------2-----0--------0-----|--0----------------||
--0-----------------------------------|--0----------------||
--------------------3--------2--------|--2----------------||
--------------------------------------|--3----------------||

MIDI:
Slow | Normal | Fast

Guitarpro4-fil
TXT-fil

I show you in the video

 

Allright...

That's all for this lesson, before you move on to the next...

• check your thumb, however this should not be an issue anymore
• practise playing the powerchords everywhere on the fretboard - this will make the next lesson so much easier
• if not yet learned, then learn all the chords that were in the repition at the beginning of this lesson
• don't forget to warm up before you play!