Preface (skip if this isn’t your first time here): 

THERE ARE TOO MANY PEOPLE WHO DON’T KNOW ANYTHING USEFUL ABOUT THE GUITAR!

It’s because no one either showed them anything useful or they never found out the basics of playing guitar.

DON’T BE LIKE THEM! 

Here we are going to talk about those guitar basics in bite-sized chunks. 

Hopefully, this will give you everything necessary to understand how to play the instrument, fix any flaws in your playing, and form ideas on how to change things up in your technique. 

If you haven’t done single-finger power chords yet, then you aren’t ready. Sorry, you’re just not. Come back after you can play with one finger then you can feel the POWER of two fingers.

Remember to use a pick when you’re playing these. And when you pluck the strings, you want to play using the two strings involved. Only play one string at first. If you can only play one string easily, then add a little more “power,” but not too much. That should make two strings vibrate.

These chords will be hard because you’re playing on the thicker strings and you have to evenly put down pressure with each finger. In order to get these chords you SHOULDN’T PLAY THEM ENTIRELY WITH YOUR FINGERTIPS!!!

“But I thought you said you’re always supposed to use fingertips all the time?” 

Hey, shut up and keep reading.

Your index finger should be laid more flat. Not on the tip, but closer to the finger pad. Like this: 

Your other finger (either your ring or pinky) should still be on their tips. 

If that makes sense, play through these two finger power chords. 

If these are easy, move onto the songs below. Make sure you know about rhythm before proceeding.

This is like the White Stripes “Seven Nation Army.” You can find the real tab here, but you might want to play this first (it’s a little easier).

This is like The Kink’s “You Really Got Me.” You can find the real tab here, but you might want to play this first (it’s a little easier).

Go through these songs with this process:

1. Play just the power chords. Get used to playing them and making them sound good.

2. Understand the rhythm.

3. Play with a metronome.

4. If you can do all this well, then play without the metronome to see if you can still play the song the same.

Got it? OK. You’re awesome. You got this.

Play these, start rocking, and come back for our POWER CHORD finale.