Originally Posted by: 6strngs_2hmbkrstechnically speaking, a chord is three or more notes. a power chord only uses two notes (a root and a 5th). Power chords are mainly used when you're playing with plenty of distortion due to the fact that with alot of distortion, playing three or more notes can be kinda jumbled sounding, so power chords only play two and it sounds good. most modern rock uses powerchords almost exclusively in their music. And yes, you can technically play a power chord on any string(s) you want to, but I don't think most would call it a powerchord if it were on, say, the e and B strings. At that point it'd just be two notes that sound good together :cool: maybe jolly can give a better description.

Only 2 notes? most powerchords i come by are structured like so

7 9
7 or 9
5 7

so these aren't powerchords?

sure there are metallica riffs like in for whom the bell tolls that use powerchords like so

2 4
0 and 2


Or have i totally confused myself.