Posted on 02/10/2024 7:41:05 PM PST by nickcarraway
Two notes that get cozy together and produce a third.
I don’t know who invented the power chord but George Thorogood exemplifies it.
You can also add Rory Gallagher to the list; the world’s gratest guitarist that most people never heard of. List to him doing Shin Kicker if you want to hear some guitar.
I did. Next question. :-)
That was not a power chord.
"I don't know much about dancin' / That's why I got this song..."
Anyway now I've got an earworm for the day.
As a guitarist, I was taught to play power chords as root, fifth, root with the second root note being an octave higher than the first. When you add distortion, the resulting harmonics produced will fill in the rest of the chord.
Keith Richards plays a lot in Open G tuning (D-G-D-G-B-D).
With that tuning, the E and A strings are tuned a fourth apart and allow for "typical" power chords on adjacent strings two frets apart. The A and the D strings are tuned a fifth apart and allow for power chords on adjacent strings on the same fret.
“Ah, the five string guitar: it’s five strings, three notes, two hands and one asshole.”
I’d love to meet his tailor!
Drop D tuning where you lower the E string a step but leave everything else the same does let you play one finger power chords. But Keith Richards doesn’t use that tuning as far as I know. You seemed to say that he used Drop D in your earlier post but maybe that’s not what you meant.
You also mentioned Open G tuning, which he does of course use and which involves tuning the low E string down to a D as well as retuning some of the other strings. But unlike Drop D tuning, Open G doesn’t allow a one finger power chord on the E and A strings. As you mentioned in your last post, in Open G those strings are a fourth apart, not a fifth apart, so you have to use the typical power chord fingering.
On top of that, KR likes to remove the low E string altogether when he uses Open G tuning, in which case there’s no way he’s doing any kind of power chords involving the low E string.
That leaves the A and D strings. He could theoretically do a one finger power chord on those strings when he’s in Open G tuning since, as you mentioned, they’re tuned a fifth apart. But he doesn’t do that as far as I know, I think mainly because one finger power chords aren’t really part of his or the Rolling Stones’ style. One finger power chords are more of a grunge and metal thing.
Or to put it another way, can you name a Stones song that features Keith Richards doing one finger power chords? I can’t think of one offhand.
Lol — the always quotable Keef.
yup... 8^)
Off the top of my head, I thought Keith Richards played one finger power chords all over ‘Start Me Up’.
He does play one finger chords all over Start Me Up, but they’re not power chords. They’re full chords that include the third.
My hearing is so bad these days I wonder if I can even tell adjacent notes apart.
Was there ever an FR jam band?
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