Power chord

In music, a power chord is a chord (really an interval) that consists only of two notes that are either a perfect fourth, five semitones, or a perfect fifth, seven semitones apart. These two intervals become each other if inverted and are thus the same.

Power chords are commonly used in various forms of rock music including hard rock, metal, and punk (and, less commonly, other genres), as the sound of a power chord is not dissonant when distorted, for example by a fuzzbox when played on an electric guitar. Examples of power chords with C as the root note are C4-F4, C4-G4, and C4-F4-C5 (where the numbers after each note name signify the octave). These of course can be inverted to get, say, F4-C5, G4-C5, and F4-C5-F5.

See also:

• Heavy metal music
• List of major chord shapes for guitar