Guitar Theory - Power Chord - The Perfect 5th - 7 half-steps

In this video, we practice the Perfect 5th double-stop, which is a 2 note chord, consisting of the root note and the note that is 7 half-steps above the root note.Show more

This is a very important chord shape to learn.

To put in perspective, if the root and octave notes were the 2 most important notes,

Then the Perfect 4th and Perfect 5th are the next 2 most important notes.

The perfect 5th double stop is called the power chord,

And its invention is attributed to a man named Link Wray in his song Rumble

https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5021946

Metallica uses a lot of power chords...

Since the power chord is 7 half steps, and we are on a journey of 12 half steps, we are 7/12ths of the way there.

This power chord shape will bring your ring finger into a position that its not used to being in, and your entire arm will have to adjust, from the shoulder, to forearm, to wrist, in order to get your ring finger where it needs to be...

But the good news is, not only is this chord important to learn for its own sake, but its also a chord that can be a stepping stone onto onto other chords.

This root-p5 shape will allow you to think about music differently, with your ring finger being the lead note, and the pointer finger being the follow note.

In other words, don’t think of your pointer finger as the root or anchor, and the ring finger in relation to that anchor... but rather, think of the ring finger as the anchor, and let the pointer finger find itself in relation to the ring finger.

By slowing moving your anchor points from one finger to the next, you eventually hope to develop all 4 fingers equally, so that any finger could be an anchor, and you can seamlessly move from anchor point to anchor point.

The first few notes of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star are the root and the perfect 5th