Metal Rhythm Guitar: The Extended Powerchord \m/

Powerchords- the staple diet of all rock rhythm guitarists. If you haven’t already read about and understood the powerchord and it’s basic shapes, then I suggest you read up on that first. This lesson is going to be about how metal has taken the basic powerchord, and turned it into something heavier, fatter, and much more advanced.

…hold on to your (metal) hats!

The Basic Chord

As I explained in a previous rhythm guitar article, the powerchord is different from a major or minor chord in that it doesn’t have a third. It’s not “major” or “minor”…it’s simply “POWER!”. Here’s the basic powerchord shape (if you didn’t know it already):


e -----
B -----
G -----
D --5--
A --3--
E -----

This example is a C5 chord (or “C powerchord”). The two notes there are the root (C, third fret A string) and the 5th (G, fifth fret D string).

Changing Shape

So why are these chords even useful? Well, have you ever tried to play a full chord with the amounts of distortion that you’ll find in a metal song? Right, all the notes kinda mush together and clash…

…so only playing two notes kinda avoids this problem, producing a more “focused” sound…

…but…what if you want the sound of a major or minor chord? What then?

Well, here is the powerchord shape extended out to a full major arpeggio (with thirds in brackets):


e -------------
B -------------
G -------------
D -(2)---5-----
A -----3---(7)-
E -------------

The major third of this chord (E) can either be added on the second fret D, or the 7th fret A string. Whichever one you use, you can now pick two notes from this shape and create “third powerchords”- they’ll still only be two notes, but one of those notes is the third.

For example:


e -----
B -----
G -----
D --5--
A --7--
E -----

Here we have an E and a G- they still kinda imply a C major chord (which would be C, E and G)- especially if the bass plays a C underneath- but they clash less than the full C chord.

Here is another example:


e -----
B -----
G -----
D --2--
A --3--
E -----

Here I’ve added the third on the D string. The notes here are C and E- which still implies a C major chord, but without playing the full chord. If you want either of these shapes to imply minor chords instead, just lower the 3rd by one fret (although you might notice that the two shapes will be the same, although different parts of the chord).

Using these types of chord shape ideas can allow you- as a rhythm guitarist- to play powerchords with heavy distortion and still imply major or minor chords or chord progressions.

Examples

If you want to hear good examples of this kind of thing in action, definitely check out Metallica. Some good moments include: the intro to “Orion” (after the bass part, when the guitars come in they follow a chord progression); the intro to “Creeping Death” (notice how on the third and fourth repeat the chords seem to “fatten out” a bit?).

There are countless other examples in metal, see if you can spot them yourself. I hope this has given you some ideas for your own playing.
Rob.

June 7, 2011 at 11:00 pm | Guitar Chords, Rhythm Guitar | No comments