Lesson Three

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Guitar Lesson Three - Music

Music

Below, is a diagram of our old friend, the power chord:

Notice that I have gone to the trouble to put the notes that are being played at the bottom of the diagram. You know from the last lesson, that the C on the D-string is merely the OCTAVE of the C on the E-string and is, therefore, entirely optional.

If we leave the note off, we get this:

Now, before you decide that things can't get much more simple, let me show you a concept known as INVERSION.

INVERSION simply means turning something upside down or playing it backwards.

When you invert a chord it means that you no longer use the ROOT (in this case, C) as the lowest note in the chord. Since a power chord has only two different notes, they are very easy to invert:

The left hand technique for playing this guy is to take a finger (any one you like) and flatten it across both strings. If you want to play another one, you can use a different finger or keep the same finger and just move to the new position.(Now that's easy!)

An inverted power chord doesn't have quite the same sound as a normal power chord. Therefore, they are used a little differently and are not always interchangable.

Below is the opening of Smoke On The Water by Deep Purple, using regular power chords:

And, here's an MP3 of Ritchie Blackmore with Deep Purple:

Smoke On The Water

If you listen closely, you'll hear that it doesn't quite sound the same (I'm not talking about whether or not YOU sound like Ritchie Blackmore. I'm refering to the sound of the chords you are using.)

There are two things that he does to get the sound you hear (besides playing a Strat through a Marshall stack).

The first is, instead of picking the notes, use the middle and ring fingers of your right hand to "pluck" the notes like a classical guitar player would. (another form of right hand ARTICULATION)

The second involves playing INVERTED power chords on the D and G-strings.

Here is the correct way to play Smoke On the Water:

Here's Balls To The Wall by Accept which uses INVERTED power chords on the A and D-strings with an ocassional note on the E-string to fill out the riff. (This can be tricky for the right hand. practice it slowly until you get a "feel" for it.):

The red line with the S over it means to play the note at the 12th fret of the A-string and immediately slide your hand down the string. Keep the string pressed down to the fingerboard, so that you get a nifty sort of airplane sound.

Here's an MP3:

Balls To The Wall

Finally, here's another '70s relic, Ted Nugent's Cat Scratch Fever, currently being brought back from the grave by Pantera:

As to the BEND and RELEASE (marked B and R) in the first and last measures, just slap your ring finger across the G and B-strings at the 4th fret, pick the notes, then pull both strings toward the floor so the notes go up in pitch slightly and then immediately relax the hand enough to allow the notes to return to their original pitch. You only pick once.

It sounds like this:

Cat Scratch fever

Take your time with this lesson. There's a lot of stuff here that is really important.

And remember, always go forward, never go straight.

This lesson is divided into four parts

Theory

Technique - Left Hand

Technique - Right Hand

Music

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