Any Guitar Players Out there? (page 2)

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Although drop D is the obvious clue and the simple single finger power bar chords, the actual harmony is just a series of stacked perfect 4ths (possible Root, perfect 4th and flattened 7th) This could even be interpreted in a very modern 'out there' jazz style in the style of Mccoy Tyner. (John Coltrane's piano player). I love these chords.. I find their inherent instability and dissonance very satisfying.

Played at the 5th fret any of these could be the chord name:

A7sus4	A 7th Suspended 4th
Dsus4/A	D/A Suspended 4th
Gsus2/A	G/A Suspended 2nd

James Brown

Hello little socrates.

I admire your understanding of theory.

I have about 50 guitars and am building a recording studio.

I have been playing since the beatles came out in the 60's.

I have never used a power chord.

I don't think they existed back in the 60's

Or as you infer whether they exist at all.

I always thought people that used them did not know how to play the guitar or were lazy.

For the most part I never cared for bands that used power chords or how the guitar sounded in them.

I don't think Hendrix, Beck, Clapton, the Stones or the Beatles, Steely Dan, Dire Straits, Pink Floyd, Satriani

ever used them.

Van Halen did, and that is where I drew the line.

They took the perfect Rock song You really got me

and ruined it with power Chords.

I don't think the Kinks used Power chords on the original.

What do you think?

Oubliette

JB: I don't think Hendrix, Beck, Clapton, the Stones or the Beatles, Steely Dan, Dire Straits, Pink Floyd, Satriani ever used them.

You would be wrong.

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I don't think they existed back in the 60's

Or as you infer whether they exist at all.

These chords including the so called 'power chords' are as old as tertial harmony itself and have been in use for going on 500 years. Certainly long before '70's pop & rock' musicians think they invented them. These are not even true power chords if such a thing even exists. True power chords consist of just a root, a 5th and usually a second stacked root an octave higher.

Quote:
Theorists are divided on whether a power chord can be considered a chord in the traditional sense, with some requiring a 'chord' to contain a minimum of three degrees of the scale. When the same interval is found in traditional and classical music, it would not usually be called a "chord", and may be considered to be a dyad (separated by an interval ). However, the term is accepted as a pop and rock music term, most strongly associated with the overdriven electric guitar styles of hard rock , heavy metal , punk rock , and similar genres. The use of the term "power chord" has, to some extent, spilled over into the vocabulary of other instrumentalists, such as keyboard and synthesizer players.

James Brown

They might have existed for 500 years.

But I was not aware or exposed to them until I heard Van Halen.

And the Ramones.

James Brown

JB: I don't think Hendrix, Beck, Clapton, the Stones or the Beatles, Steely Dan, Dire Straits, Pink Floyd, Satriani ever used them.

You would be wrong.

Oubliette you may be right. That is one thing about playing the guitar I learn something new all the time.

Tell me on what songs did the above use power chords so I can check it out.

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But I was not aware or exposed to them until I heard Van Halen.

The first hit song built around power chords was The Kinks's "You Really Got Me" released in 1964 (Walser 1993, p.9):

little_Socrates

"I always thought people that used them did not know how to play the guitar or were lazy.?"

When I first starting learning to play... I figured everything that was easy enough for me to figure out must not have been very musical. Great musicans had this amazing skill that I couldn't match. If they played something I could emulate they must be useless hacks!

I have grown in persepctive now. I realize that much of the great music we listen to is acutally quite simple. As a matter of fact it takes a great musician to take something very simple and make it really sound good. It is almost like the sketch artists that can draw a likelness of you in 5 minutes. There is art in the simplicity. Also overly complext music is often usless wankery by the artest. Music is not a completition it is an art!

(can somebody explain how to do quotes here?)

James Brown

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I just googled the kinks live playing you really got me and it appears Dave is playing bar chords.

I did not know that back in the 60's.

I was a big kinks fan and had all their music.

The music books showed the chords as standard.

I guess I was miss informed.

I always played it with full bar chords.

little_Socrates

JB how many guitarists are there? Perhaps one is playing power chords and the others are filling in the harmony. So when you play it at home you play the full chords to make it sound like the full band?

Any Guitar Players Out there?

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