Turn It Up To 11! Part 1

Powerchords

It’s time to take a big step into rock, pop and punk guitar by learning our first powerchord shape. These chord shapes will take you out of the open position chords and open up a new world of guitar songs, so let’s get learning! We will begin by learning the two-fingered versions of E string powerchord, which can be found in the fretboard diagrams.

Moving The Shape

The great thing about this shape is that you can move it up and down the fretboard to get different powerchords. All you need to know are the notes on the E string. In the fretboard diagrams are examples of 5 different powerchords, reached by just moving the shape up and down the neck.

Riff 1 Tutorial

Your first task is to watch the playthrough and get a good understanding of the track. Once you're ready, move on to the next lesson!

Riff 1

We will now put our new powerchord shape into practice with this cool riff! First things first, let's take a look at the chords in the fretboard diagrams.

A String Powerchords

Next up, we will look at the A string shape for the powerchords. The shape is exactly the same as the first one, with the only difference being that it starts on the A string. This means that you need to be careful and block the low E string with the top of your first finger to stop it from ringing out. The chord shapes can be found in the fretboard diagrams.

Moving The Shape

The great thing about this shape is that you can move it up and down the fretboard to get different powerchords. All you need to know are the notes on the A string. In the fretboard diagrams are examples of 5 different powerchords, created by just moving the shape up and down the neck.

Riff 2

Your first task is to watch the play-through and get a good understanding of the track. Once you're ready, move on to the next lesson!

The Verse

The first thing we will look at is the verse part of the riff. The verse uses the following chords in the order shown in the fretboard diagrams.

The Chorus

In the chorus, we are using even more powerchord shapes, plus one very cool major chord shape. We also lose the muted notes and just go for all-out thrashing at powerchords. The chords can be found in the fretboard diagrams.