Power Chord
Two notes, a root and a fifth: C and G, usually with the C doubled an octave up. There is no third, so it is neither major nor minor, and that gap is the reason it survives distortion when a full chord turns to soup.
- 2 notes
- 1 5
- neutral
which styles use it
- Rock & folk
- Metal
- Punk
- Grunge
Which notes are in a power chord?
Just the root and the fifth. In C: C and G, usually with another C on top. You also see it written C(no3).
Strictly it is not a chord at all, since a chord needs three different notes. In practice nobody minds.
Why does distortion ruin other chords but not this one?
A distorting amplifier is not linear. It does not only add overtones to each note, it lets the notes act on each other, producing new frequencies at the sum and the difference of everything you feed it.
Play an A at 110 Hz and an E at roughly 165 Hz and the difference is 55 Hz, exactly an octave below that A. The amp invents a bass note nobody played. It works because the perfect fifth is almost exactly a 3:2 ratio, so those invented frequencies land on top of overtones that were already there. Everything reinforces everything, and the result is heavier and more coherent than what you played.
Add a third and that stops. In equal temperament the major third is about fourteen cents wider than the pure one, and distortion does not hide that error, it multiplies it. Every new frequency inherits the mistuning and lands just beside a note instead of on it, which you hear as beating and mud. That is the same mechanism as in consonance and dissonance, and it is why maj7 and m9 voicings are close to unusable with heavy gain while a bare fifth is not.
What do you get for leaving the third out?
Range. A C5 works under C major, C minor, C dorian and C mixolydian, because it takes no position on any of them. The melody decides the colour and the guitar stays out of the argument.
That is the same reason sus chords and stacked fifths turn up so often in modal music and in ambient: harmony that leaves the question open.
C5, C or Cm?
One note is the whole difference, and here it is about whether you want one at all.
- C5 (C G) - No third. Fits over anything, and takes distortion without falling apart.
- C (C E G) - Major third. Bright, and a deadline for the amp settings.
- Cm (C Eb G) - Minor third. Dark, and just as fragile under heavy gain.
Common mistakes
- Calling it a major chord
It has no third, so it is neither. That is the point of it.
- Playing it clean and expecting weight
Without distortion there are no sum and difference tones, so a bare fifth just sounds thin. The heaviness is made by the amplifier, not by the interval on its own.