They sound cool and everything, but it seems kind of. . "informal" per-say to make a whole song around and with 5th chords. Should I keep a nice sounding riff I made (with power chords) and part of a form of a C pentatonic scale, or switch to C Major chords and scales? It seems to me if I use major scales and chords on an electric guitar (especially major chords) even with the little distortion my band plays with can really have dramatic effect on sound. Regular chords seem to just have a little too much "oomph" so to speak and power chords make the song seemingly sound 10x better. Why is this and should I just go with major chords anyway?

power chords are not major or minor therefore they are slightly more versitile than triads where distortion is consened is the first thing that pops into my mind about the subject. also because they are two notes they don't get as "muddy" with all the gain of a distortion channel.

Then that would defiantly explain why when I play acoustics I generally use chords and when I use electrics, I use bar chords and power chords.

I use power chords and bar chords, as well as many E chords, on electrics and all the other types of chords on acoustics, but as far as I've seen, bands like Nirvana and Greenday are big on power chords. Why is it that some bands (and some Nirvana songs) don't use them? How do they still get the same effect?

The sound? as power chords with open chords is what im assuming
well there is typically a bass and treble part to each chord.
the thicker heavier strings are those. take for example a
open G, E, C chord. you strum all 6 or all 5 strings to make
the chords sound. but like a power chord if you only strum the thickest 3
strings it will still sound pretty heavy and rockin and throw in
some palm muting and you could be the next taylor swift!

Good one civicstar !

Cheers,

GuitarZen

civicstar98 wrote:

throw in
some palm muting and you could be the next taylor swift!