This exercise is from the Core Skills section on Strumming.

A powerchord is otherwise known as 'bare fifth'. They are really just 'partial chords', because only the strongest parts of a chord are played and all the other notes are left out.

Powerchords will be dealt with more in other sections of the site (particularly Palm Muting). However, they are worth mentioning at this point because 2 of the most common powerchords are really just partial barre chords - namely the A and E shapes we were doing in the previous 2 exercises.

Remember that although the shape is E or A - that doesn't mean the chord you are playing is E or A - the actual chord name depends on where you use that shape on the fretboard. For example, the first chord is an A shape, but it is actually a D powerchord, because the first finger is holding the D note. Remember that powerchords / barre chords are just a way of using one 'shape' to play any common chord easily.

When strumming these powerchords you will only be strumming 2 or 3 strings, so they are easier to play than full barre chords. The powerchords we use in this exercise are often used in fast types of rock music and metal.

After the previous two exercises you're sure to recognise that all we use here are the first 3 notes of the E and A barre shapes. The strumming will be faster than we've been playing to date, so make sure to listen and follow the dots correctly. Once you know these shapes and can play this exercise you will be ready for damping / palm muting in our next core skills section.

For those with some theoretical knowledge, it may be interesting to know that powerchords are not major or minor. There is no 3rd (which makes the chord major or minor). Instead there is just the root (1st note) and 5th note together (and sometimes a doubling of the octave like we have done in this exercise).

It is the 3rd note that would determine if the chord was major or minor, but because it is missing, the chord is neither. This gives the guitarist a lot of scope for constructing solos and layering harmonies over them, because they are not as restricted by the background chords.

The chord progression here is:

D5 - Bb5 - G5
D5 - Bb5 - G5 - A5
(repeat)

Notice that we use a '5' after the Chord name. This is just a quick way of saying 'powerchord'.

The effect on the guitar sound you can hear is achieved using a phaser.