Intermediate
Intermediate
• Get familiar with power chords on every string set
• Create new sounds with tried-and-true shapes
• Use the entire neck with compelling power-chord-based lines
We all know that grip, but power chords actually come in many forms and sizes, and they fit equally well in a powerful riff or a more ethereal-sounding part. This lesson presents a handful of examples aimed at extending your power-chord vocabulary, with particular attention to range and orchestration.
Power chords represent a true staple for many of us guitarists. Accessible yet captivating, they provide the foundation for a lot of music we love. I still remember the countless hours spent playing Nirvana or Green Day riffs when I first picked up the guitar. Fast-forwarding to my current career as a session player, I’ve found myself extending the use of power chords to many different purposes and styles.
Power chords indeed come in many shapes, making for a comprehensive tool to have in your arsenal. In this lesson I’m going to focus on a few key aspects:
- No matter where and how you play them, power chords always sound tight, economical, and effective, tracking really well even when using large amounts of distortion, reverb, or delay.
- Power chords are well known for delivering dynamic, high-energy parts in the low/mid register, but they work equally well for creating textures in the higher portion of the fretboard.
- Power chords are versatile, and they feel “at home” in a wide variety of genres and styles.
The first part of the lesson focuses on extending our knowledge of power chord shapes across the fretboard, and is made up of four preparatory exercises, each one focusing on a specific key, set of strings, or guitar arrangement. The second part of the lesson is aimed at providing six practical applications of these concepts, spanning different styles of music.
The main goal of this exercise is to develop familiarity with power chord shapes that start from the 5th of a given chord (5-1-5), instead of just the root (1-5-1). When combining the two, it is possible to play multiple iterations of the same chord progression up and down the neck on a string-set of your choice, providing more flexibility in terms of range and voicing. Ex. 1 illustrates a I-V-VI-IV chord progression in the key of E, to be executed using three-note power chords on the 6th, 5th, and 4th strings. The style chosen for this sequence is fairly common to a lot of rock and pop-rock applications.
Ex. 2 is structured exactly as Ex. 1, but changing the key, string set, and guitar arrangement. Here you’ll find a I-V-VI-IV chord progression in the key of A, played using three-note power chords on the 5th, 4th, and 3rd strings. The style chosen for this example is a palm-muted arpeggio with a nostalgic, ’80s feel and sound. Notice how, despite the key, the shapes of each chord are the same as the ones in Ex. 1.
Ex. 3 is another iteration of the same concept. This example illustrates a I-V-VI-IV chord progression in the key of D, to be played using three-note power chords on the 4th, 3rd, and 2nd strings. The sequence is executed using a syncopated funk pattern. You’ll notice how the two basic power-chord shapes (1-5-1 and 5-1-5) present a different fingering on this specific string set compared to the previous two exercises, but the interval structure of the chords does not change.
As the last preparatory exercise, Ex. 4 is a I-V-VI-IV progression in the key of G, to be played using three-note power chords on the 3rd, 2nd, and 1st strings. The style for this one is a classic palm-muted arpeggio using a dotted-eighth-note delay. These shapes might feel a little unconventional, but they make for a great resource when playing textures in the upper register of the guitar.
Ex. 5 is what I call “fake drop tuning.” I find this application to be extremely helpful to add depth to riffs in the lower register, especially for heavier styles of music. The idea is to substitute in standard tuning any power chord in root position (1-5-1) with its inversion starting from the 5th degree (5-1-5), allowing us to “simulate” the sound of a drop tuning (drop D on this example).
Ex. 6 implements power-chord shapes on different sets of strings, allowing us to play a high-register/textural part conveniently contained in a box between the 12th and 17th frets. Some passages of this exercise include notes that aren’t just roots and fifths, albeit still in line with the diatonic nature of the harmonic sequence.
Ex. 7 features a different way of articulating a two-note power chord (1-5), by playing the fifth not on the string right next to where the root is, but skipping to the next highest one instead. The end result is a leaner-sounding alternative to a standard shape, and can be quite helpful when playing chord melodies in the mid-to-high register of the guitar.
Using a similar approach to Ex. 6, Ex. 8 implements power-chord shapes on different sets of strings to craft a fast-paced funk guitar part in the style of Cory Wong. Notice how the entire chord progression is contained in a total of six frets.
Ex. 9 shows a way to use two-note power chords to imply a certain harmonic sequence over a pedal point. On this specific instance, the pedal is provided by an open D string, with power-chord shapes on the 2nd and 3rd strings layered on top, configured both as 1-5 and 5-1.
Ex. 10 is one last arrangement featuring a combination of power-chord shapes in a box. The goal stays the same: to create a guitar part that sits in a specific part of the mix, providing a distinctive sonic quality. All chords are embellished with notes that aren’t just roots and 5ths, but still in line with the diatonic nature of the progression.
I hope these examples were able to provide some fresh new ideas on how to use power chords in a variety of settings. I encourage you to make these concepts your own, and to try to apply them when crafting a new guitar part. You might find the simplicity of power chords refreshing and, ultimately, inspiring.
An uncommon approach to shaping vintage fuzz sounds results in unexpected surprises.
Unique fuzz sounds with mid-’60s spirit and unconventional tweakability. Beautiful and well-built.
Many players will find basic ’60s fuzz sounds elusive.
$249
Fish Circuits Lunatique
fishcircuits.com
Some things you can take at face value. Consider the Fish Circuits Lunatique fuzz. Fish’s choice of “Lunatique” as a name for this beguiling gated, ring-modulating, octave fuzz is not an empty promise. Many of the savage, spitty, crispy, crumbly sounds that emit from this unit sound like a little berserker wrestling bats in the belfry amid a swarm of bees.
But if tone madness is among Lunatique’s first orders of business, there are also many tones here that sound merely nuts rather than rabidly bonkers. The four simple controls interact in ways that produce unexpected, unique results, and its voices vary wildly depending on the pickups and guitars you pair it with and where you set your guitar’s tone and volume controls. For any player, producer, or recordist interested in fuzz’s potential beyond the same old beer-commercial hook or solo, the super-stylish Lunatique is a fun, intriguing alternative that has roots in mid-’60s tonalities and branches that spread much further.
Ground Control to Sonic Station
The Lunatique looks and feels awesome. The bright blue enclosure evokes the candy-store appeal of old Colorsound pedals, and I love the screen-printed metal control panel. The Lunatique has the comforting heft of vintage electronics, too. But while it might look like a space hog, the Lunatique is only about a 1/4" wider than a Boss pedal and about 30-percent longer. The control array looks simple, and for the most part it is. But unless you are unabashedly spontaneous and cool with mayhem and unknown outcomes, the chaos control demands a bit of study. It’s the key to the pedal’s multiple personalities.
Essentially, it enables you to dial in how much octave and ring modulation interacts with the fuzz circuit. As you add more octave, your guitar signal hits the fuzz circuit less hard, which also has the effect of activating the gate a little sooner. That control dynamic and the pedal’s response will find many mistaking the chaos control for a bias knob. The chaos pot also controls a low-pass filter, situated after the fuzz circuit, that cuts high frequencies as you turn it clockwise. In a basic sense, the left side of noon has little octave-up content, a heap of treble, and the fuzz is less likely to gate. On the right side of noon, you hear a lot of octave and ring modulation, the treble is less spiky, and the fuzz will gate a bit more. In the many overlapping layers of these effects, there are scores of fuzz colors to explore.
"In the Lunatique, neither gain mode is especially ‘nice.’"
A Balm for Option Fatigue
One of my favorite idiosyncrasies in the Lunatique’s design are the 2-position Fuzz and Body switches which take the place of the variable knobs most builders would use for gain and tone. According to Mike Poisson (the big fish, if you will, behind the Lunatique), this was partly the product of aesthetic concerns—a preference for switches where possible rather than a clutter of knobs. But in the case of the gain switch, the two positions represent specific gain levels that felt and sounded right to Poisson. He found that a rotary knob offered little additional nuance. And personally, I wasn’t left wanting for additional levels other than the two provided here. It’s an interesting, effective solution.
Those familiar with Fish Circuit’s Model One overdrive will find parallels with that pedal’s “nice” and “nasty” modes. Though in the Lunatique, neither gain mode is especially nice. Both bristle with attitude and a punky, feral mid-’60s personality. In the lower-gain setting and in the thinner body mode, the fuzz tends to sound ferocious without feeling dominating. It’ll slot easily into a distinctive place in most mixes and offers cool contrast for tasks like doubling bass riffs. Garage-psych nuts that quest for the gnarliest lo-fi fuzz tones from the deepest recesses of the Pebbles compilation LPs will be in heaven too.
In the full-body mode, the pedal is arguably at its most conventional. Single-note lines sound fat and complex, if spitty. Fleet-fingered solos that don’t leave space for the splintered decay artifacts you hear in more spacious contexts, benefit from the sharp, defined attack and less corpulent, overtone-rich sustain, which lends clarity to otherwise filthy melodic leads. Punky power chords also benefit from the tighter decay and can sound powerful, extremely focused, and very much in their own lane in a mix. I would love to record a really nasty garage-hardcore record with this sound.
At most settings, pitch irregularities—even those from finger vibrato—will cause the signal to fracture and crumble sooner. On the other hand, minimizing vibrato lends many tones an almost synth-like linearity that sounds pretty cool in contexts apart from traditional rock guitar, particularly when you add volume swells. Such sounds can be spooky and alien stuff, particularly with modulation effects. Oh, and it bears keeping in mind that the Lunatique will get loud. There’s no shortage of volume ceiling here.
The Verdict
As I said at the top, “Lunatique” is a fair representation of what this fuzz is and does. By no means will it be every player’s bag, and the reader should take my relatively enthused scores with a grain of salt (I like chaos). But players that like the attitude of a Jordan Boss Tone, Maestro FZ-1, or Mosrite Fuzzrite yet are weary of canonical sounds, and who prefer more tunability, more surprises, and more distinctive tones will savor the way the interactive controls for this unique circuit can mutate and recast the mid-’60s fuzz template. That it’s a truly beautiful little pedal, too, only enhances its wild appeal.
Understand key facts and definitions of the popular CAGED guitar chord system with our simple guide.
What is the CAGED system?
The CAGED system is based on five chords—C, A, G, E, and D—and provides a way to organize a guitar’s neck into five different sections, which can be linked together to play melodies, major scales, and arpeggios across the entire fretboard. The shapes of those chords can also be used anywhere on the fretboard to play any major chord in any key.
Why is it called the CAGED system?
For starters, that name contains each of the five chords used in the system, but it also helpfully alludes to the order in which the chords connect up and down the neck.
Is the CAGED system hard?
If you can play basic C, A, G, E, and D chords, you’re essentially all set. It involves some manipulation and extra fingerwork to make the chords as you move up the neck, but you’ve already got the essentials.
Why is the CAGED system useful?
The CAGED system lets you create and explore different, unique chord voicings up and down the neck. It introduces new sounds to your repertoire, and gives you new ways to be expressive in your playing.
How is the CAGED system different from barre or power chords?
In the CAGED system, your index finger often forms a barre, mimicking your guitar’s nut in relation to your open C, A, G, E, and D chords. But while barre and power chords are discreet, individual units, CAGED chords link directly and logically to one another. They can also sound more dynamic and open than traditional barre or power chords.
Can you do the CAGED system in open tunings?
No, the CAGED system only works in standard tunings.
