Are power chords used in blues? (2024)

Are power chords used in blues?

One of the most common types of guitar chords that can be heard across musical styles ranging from classic to modern rock, blues, metal, and everything in between is the Power Chord.

In its basic form, it is predominantly based on the I, IV, and V chords of a key. Mastery of the blues and rhythm changes are "critical elements for building a jazz repertoire". Typical boogie woogie bassline on twelve-bar blues progression in C, chord roots in red.

The I chord dominates the first four bars; the IV chord typically appears in the second four bars (although in the example below, Elmore James introduces it in the first four bars); and the V chord is played in the third four bars. The lyrics of a 12-bar blues song often follow what's known as an AAB pattern.

Power chords are a key element of many styles of rock, especially heavy metal and punk rock.

No, all rock songs don't use power chords songs, but rock, punk, metal, and blues are the genres that use power chords the most. The reason is that using power chords is convenient to play with distortion.

THE 12-BAR FORM

The primary harmonic structure of the blues is the I-IV-V progression, which derived from church music of the South. Unlike most tonal music, which uses dominant 7th chords (1–3–5–b7) as functional harmony, the blues uses them to add color, most commonly in a 12-bar form (FIGURE 1).

I'll start by going over the form that is the most similar to the major blues progression. This form of the minor blues progression uses 4 chords: the i chord, the iv chord, the v chord, and the V chord. The i, iv, and v chords will all be minor 7th chords, and are therefore indicated by lower case roman numerals.

In whatever key you are in, 12-bar blues uses the same basic sequence of I, IV, and V chords. It is most easily thought of as three 4-bar sections – the first 4, the middle 4, and the last 4 bars. The first 4 bars just use the I chord - I, I, I, I. The middle 4 bars go IV, IV, I, I.

A 12-bar blues progression is a set chord progression that repeats every 12 bars of music. You'll play the 1 chord for four measures, the 4 chord for two measures, the 1 chord for two measures, the 5 chord for one measure, the 4 chord for one measure, the 1 chord for one measure, then the 5 chord for the last measure.

The simple blues progression consists of three dominant 7th chords, I 7, IV 7 and V 7. The measure layout is as follows: I 7 (4 bars), IV 7 (2 bars), I 7 (2 bars), V 7 (1 bar), IV 7 (1 bar) and I 7 (2 bars).

Why are power chords so easy?

They're also one of the easiest as they require the least finger strength of any guitar chords. These two-note treasures (which aren't really chords per se as much as they are bottoms of chords) are so simple in fact that they're sometimes referred to as “cheater” chords.

Use only your 1st, 3rd and 4th fingers as shown, and start by putting your 1st finger in the 3rd fret of the fifth string (the note C). Then put down your 3rd and 4th fingers.

Power chords are maybe the most iconic chords in modern rock and pop music—especially when it comes to anything related to punk and heavy music. It's probably the first bar chord you'll learn on the guitar because it's super easy to play, it sounds good and you can use it anywhere on the guitar neck.

A triad is a chord formed of 3 notes. Only certain chords are triads, for example a power chord is not a triad, as it's made of only 2 notes, and major 7, minor 7 or dominant 7 chords, being made of 4 notes, are not triads either.

Jimi Hendrix didn't play the guitar "upside down" - he played a flipped-over right-handed guitar with the strings reversed so the low E was still physically at the top of the fretboard. Nobody plays "upside down" - more to the point Hendrix barely used powerchords.

The short answer is … because it sounds great! All of that tension embedded into each of these three major chords by adding that minor 7th gives the blues its unique sound.

Dominant seventh chords are a big contributing factor to the overall sound of blues music. While blues music doesn't always use dominant seventh chords, it is still very common to see these chords throughout blues songs. A dominant seventh chord is made by adding a lowered seventh scale degree to a major chord.

Metre, rhythm and tempo

If asked to discuss these elements remember that: blues is usually in 4/4 time.

As already mentioned, blues composer W.C. Handy claimed to have noticed a repetitive chord sequence in the plantation song that inspired him. The chord pattern that Handy noted down is a succession of primary chords in a specific order.

The main features of blues include: specific chord progressions, a walking bass, call and response, dissonant harmonies, syncopation, melisma and flattened 'blue' notes. Blues is known for being microtonal, using pitches between the semitones defined by a piano keyboard.

What is the C blues scale?

What are the notes of the C Major Blues Scale? The notes of the C Major Blues Scale are C D D# E G and A. Like the Minor Blues Scale, you can think of the Major Blues Scale as a modification of the C Major Scale using the following scale degrees: 1, 2, flat 3, 3, 5, and 6.

The 12 bar blues is the structure upon which blues music is built. It has been used since the inception of the genre and appears in almost every iconic blues song ever written. It provides the framework for the blues and will help you learn a wide variety of blues songs, as well as jam confidently with other musicians.

Born in the blues

Notice that the bIII, bVI, and bVII are diatonic chords in a minor key—not in a major key. So when we use these chords in a major-key song, we are borrowing chords from the parallel minor key. In essence, the bIII, bVI, and bVII add a minor-key quality to a major-key song.

Eight-bar blues progressions have more variations than the more rigidly defined twelve bar format. The move to the IV chord usually happens at bar 3 (as opposed to 5 in twelve bar); however, "the I chord moving to the V chord right away, in the second measure, is a characteristic of the eight-bar blues."

Applying dominant 7th chords to the 12 bar blues. To add a bluesy feel to your 12 bar blues structure, you need to play the I, IV and V chords as dominant 7th chords. The good news here, is that by learning just 2 chord shapes, you can play the 12 bar blues using dominant 7th chords, in a whole range of different keys.