Members aarockla Posted July 14, 2004 Members Posted July 14, 2004 everyone seems to hate power chords, I understand there simple and overused and repetivie. But what else is there to get a nice clear distorted sound. Barre chords just sound jumbled with distortion, with light distortion its good to be get a really heavy hard rock sound or metal sound, there useless. I searched for this and there were a few posts on it but no real answers. Can someone name some heavy or metal bands that use something other than powerchords, cuz i like to look at different techniques. Or what other chords do you use? Is there such thing as rock/metal chords other than power chords? Thanks
Members vote4dicktaid Posted July 14, 2004 Members Posted July 14, 2004 Check out a band called Freak Kitchen - they have a VERY experimental guitarist, who uses a lot of different techniques and tunings, and gets many metal sounds out of that.
Members Flanger Posted July 14, 2004 Members Posted July 14, 2004 Eric Johnson sometimes plays distorted triads, with the third an octave higher. Playing them that will will make them sound clearer.
Poparad Posted July 14, 2004 Posted July 14, 2004 Try adding a 9th on top of the power chord; it's a great sound to use with distortion. One way of looking at it is stacking two power chords on top of each other, so you get something like this (low to high): 024xxx 357xxx x357xx And so on.
Members jonny guitar Posted July 14, 2004 Members Posted July 14, 2004 Originally posted by Poparad Try adding a 9th on top of the power chord; it's a great sound to use with distortion. One way of looking at it is stacking two power chords on top of each other, so you get something like this (low to high):024xxx357xxxx357xxAnd so on. Those are sus2 chords aren't they? Petrucci uses them all the time....great for varied soling over because of the lack of 3rd.
Poparad Posted July 14, 2004 Posted July 14, 2004 Originally posted by jonny guitar Those are sus2 chords aren't they? Petrucci uses them all the time....great for varied soling over because of the lack of 3rd. They could be, but not necessarily. I think of them as ninths because the structure is R - 5 - 9. If you dropped the 9th down an octave so it was next to the root, or really next to any root, such as R - 2 - 5 or R - 5 - R - 2, then I'd be inclined to call them sus2 chords. (actually those two are inversions of quartal triads)
Members Nickdel Posted July 15, 2004 Members Posted July 15, 2004 Instead of chords, try building the rhythm from riffs and bass lines. I don't consider Van Halen a heavy metal band - more like hard rock - but check out Eddie's rhythm. This is a player who never just clunks out a couple of bar chords to make up a rhythm part. Hendrix did the same kinda stuff (a lot of people, but these are the two most famous I could think of).
Poparad Posted July 16, 2004 Posted July 16, 2004 Originally posted by FlyingDeathPig Also if your full chords sound too jumbled with distortion, maybe you're out of tune? Adding those high notes can just clear things up. What about your strumming? Focus on the lower notes more. Hell... Just hit the whole chord and let your bassist thicken up that root note. They are good for something! However if you just like the musical neutrality of a powerchord than you can remove the 3rd of a major or minor barre chord and it'll add a trebly shimmer to your sound. It would look like this for a barred A. |-5 |-5 |-5 |-x |-7 |-7 |-5 Man! I ran out of strings trying that chord!
Members sotyface Posted July 17, 2004 Members Posted July 17, 2004 im trying to get differant sounds than just the boring old power chords...it gets really annoying help
Members Flat Fifth Fury Posted July 18, 2004 Members Posted July 18, 2004 One of the reasons that people use root-5 diads is that they have a clean and powerful sound with distortion. That is good and bad as they also have no character. I prefer my chords to have character even if that means dissonance. I use alot of sus2, sus4, minadd4add9, min6, root b5 diads, root-b5-b9 triads, root-5-min6 triads, root-5-maj or min7 triads, and even big voiced chords like a Bmaj7sus4 work rather well. They aren't "clean" they are kind of "messy" but they have texture especailly when resolved. I also use alot of octaves for an even cleaner sound than a root-5th.
Members slindsey Posted July 20, 2004 Members Posted July 20, 2004 Try playing a full bar chord with a muted major/minor 3rd. It's usually the 3rd that sounds "out of tune" with heavy distortion.
Members slindsey Posted July 20, 2004 Members Posted July 20, 2004 Oops...FlyingDeathPig already posted what I was trying to say. Anyway, he's right.
Members aarockla Posted July 20, 2004 Author Members Posted July 20, 2004 but he had seven strings, which one am I actually leaving out?
Poparad Posted July 20, 2004 Posted July 20, 2004 Originally posted by aarockla but he had seven strings, which one am I actually leaving out? Check his orignal post again, he edited the typo so now it's just 6 strings.
Members slindsey Posted July 20, 2004 Members Posted July 20, 2004 For the full bar chord minus the 3rd....you would just lightly lift your middle finger. Another option is to actually use the third, in a different type of "power chord." A typical power chord is the root note plus the fifth...leaving out the 3rd of a standard chord. But you can also use the root note plus the third...and leave out the fifth. It works well with minor progressions if you add a muted pedal note in between the interval/chord changes. They used to do that a lot back in the 80's metal. Here would be an E minor example with 3rd interval chords. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------5--------------4--------------2-----------------------------------------------------7--------------5-------------3-------------------------------------------0--0------------0--0--------0--0---------0--0--0--0------------------ ^Emin ^D ^C Sorry, it didn't line up exactly right....but, you just play the 4th & 5th (D & A) strings together. Hope that was helpful.
Members slindsey Posted July 20, 2004 Members Posted July 20, 2004 Wow, my post didn't line up at all! I'll try again...without the lines. D string: 5 3 2A String: 7 5 3E String:00 00 00 0000
Members slindsey Posted July 20, 2004 Members Posted July 20, 2004 Still didn't line up right!!!! I'll try it without the open e string pedal note! D> 5 4 2 A> 7 5 3
Members Marshack Posted April 14, 2007 Members Posted April 14, 2007 One thing that I kinda missed when starting out in the early 80's (no resources back then), is the fact that alot of metal uses 2 note chords other than standard power 5th cords. Such as fretting 2 adjacent strings at the same fret, and doing the same thing but offseting one string foward or back a half step. What are these called?The lousy song books back then didn't even show the correct 5th cords. A ACDC song book would show every song using full bar chords. I thought I was horrible because eveything sounded wrong! Why did they do this? Fraud? Lazyness?
Poparad Posted April 14, 2007 Posted April 14, 2007 Such as fretting 2 adjacent strings at the same fret, and doing the same thing but offseting one string foward or back a half step. What are these called? They're usually called "double stops," which is a term borrowed from violin playing. Since they don't have frets, they "stop" notes rather than fret them, and when they play two at a time, it's a double stop. Also, due to the way the bridge is curved on a violin, you can only play two adjacent strings at a time with the bow. Thus, when you play two adjacent strings on guitar, they're called double stops. Now, as for what you're specifically playing, you're playing major and minor thirds. On the 2nd and 3rd strings, a major third shows up as both notes being on the same fret, while a minor third moved the 2nd string note down a fret. On all the other string pairs, this is widened by a fret because the strings are tuned different. The result for those strings will be one fret apart for a major third, and two frets apart for a minor third. Both major and minor chords contain both a major third and a minor third in there somewhere. In a major chord, the major third is on the bottom (between the bottom two notes), while in a minor chord the minor third is on the bottom. The other third is between the 2nd and 3rd notes of the chord (the top two notes).
Members Dubb Posted April 14, 2007 Members Posted April 14, 2007 Malcolm Young used full open chords all the time, on tons of classic AC/DC songs. I don't think "regular" chords really sound that "jumbled" at all with distortion. If you have a nice, thick (mid-heavy, not bass-heavy), not-overly-bright tone, these chords shouldn't sound harsh or unpleasant. You also need to consider that your ear probably needs to adjust a little to hearing these more "noisy" distorted chords. Right now they're accustomed to hearing only power chords distorted, which are almost perfectly consonant. Compared to that, anything sounds "noisy." But just start using other types of chords with your distortion, and perhaps dial in a more smooth tone as I suggested above, and I think you'll be digging all kinds of other chords in no time.
Members gennation Posted April 14, 2007 Members Posted April 14, 2007 For years I played distorted Major chords as either R 5 M3, or just R M3. This is a great alternative and sounds thick as hell, more epic than a R 5 chord. Try these... G E--x-- B--x-- G--4-- D--x-- A--x-- E--3-- C E--x-- B--5-- G--x-- D--x-- A--3-- E--x-- F E--5-- B--x-- G--x-- D--3-- A--x-- E--x-- That's the fingering for each set I use. I later found out that Eric Johnson uses them quite a bit too. You can add some open strings in there too on certain chords where they are appropriate. Here's the main riff (intro and chorus) to this songs, it's that C pattern moved around: My Soul E------------------------------------------------ B--5--4----5--7--5--5----8--7----5--7--5--4--5- G--0--0----0--0--0--0----0--0----0--0--0--0--0- D------------------------------------------------ A--3--2----3--5--3--3----6--5----3--5--3--2--3- E------------------------------------------------ For Minor chords just flat that 3rd. These are basically classical style chords like: E----------------------------------2-h-3-p-2 B--12--8--5--1--7--3-----1--3--5--------- G--0---0--0--0--0--0-----0--0--0---------- D----------------------------------0----- A--10--7--3--0--5--2-----0--2--3------------ E------------------------------------------ If you play the above peice in 3/4 times, each of the first 6 chords gets three beats each (or a whole measure) the last four chords get one beat each...so the first three of the four chords covers a full measure and the chord ends on 1 of the next measure with the hammer on/pull off. It's pretty much the idea behind this tune I wrote...http://test.mikedodge.com/mvdmusic/MikeD1/X-mas.mp3 While that tune plays them clean, try cranking the distortion and raking the pick through each of those chords. There's a lot of nice harmonic texture with those chords cranked So, cleaned up or distorted those chords sound thick, and not "ordinary". So, many people think things have to be different between styles of music...after you realize it's all the same 12-notes, it breaks down A LOT of barriers. Now here's a batch that combines the same type of chords but more like regular bar chords...this is very Eric Johnson-ish... G E--x-- B--x-- G--4-- D--x- A--5-- E--3-- C E--x-- B--5-- G--x-- D--5- A--3-- E--x-- F E--5-- B--x-- G--5-- D--3-- A--x-- E--x-- This is like a straight power chord but eliminating the Octaves, only leaving the R 5 M3, and it only leaves the lowest pitch of each note found on the straight barre chord...leaving it thick! Just flat the M3 for Minor chords. Here's it is in this tune: Sad Endings : E---------------------- B---------7-------------- G--4--4-------7---9-----9---- D---------7----------------- A--5--5---5---8---10----10-------- E--3--3-------6---8------8----- Crank the distortion and try all of these examples. Try taking them and picking the individual notes...like this for that last example... E--------------------------------------- B-----------------7--------------------- G--------4-----------------7---------9- D--------------7------------------------ A-----5-----5-----------8--------10---- E--3-----------------6--------8--------- All of this stuff is very useful in rock, from Zeppelin to Nirvana...it's all in there. Crank the distortion and mess around with them. Also, mix them in with those add9 chords Pop was showing. Here's tune I wrote, VERY Vai-ish...Limited Ability, based on the add9 chords and the the Lydian application surrounding them. Here's a nice tute on that concept and those kind of chords and the Lydian scale...VERY Vai-ish stuff...pretty much what;s going on in the tune chord wise...http://gennation.jconserv.net/viewtopic.php?t=9 Scale wise, use can find the examples here: http://lessons.mikedodge.com/lessons/Lydian/LydianTOC.htm Have fun! That ought to keep your ears exploding for a while
Members blumonk Posted April 14, 2007 Members Posted April 14, 2007 Towards the end of Petrucci's instructional video "Rock Descipline", Example 31 to be exact, he talks about different kinds of power chords and adding color tones. What I like about this example is that he uses a variety of different kinds of power chords combined with a few single note slide ins and runs. Some power chords to experiment with are: ------------2----2-- ....regular--0------- ------------2----0-- ....highest note is root--0------- ------------4----4-- ....highest note is the root---------- ------------8----6-- ....which adds the 9th in for a color tone--4------- ------------3----x-- .... octave, middle string muted--3------- So there are 5 different kinds of "power chords" you can incorporate into your playing + you can add in single notes for leading tones or just to do licks inside the mode that you are playing. In the Petrucci example, he starts out in A Aeolian then moves to C# Aeolian, which there is a distinct difference. With metal guitar and Petrucci in particular the half step is very key. C# is not in the Aeolian mode, which gives it a clear distinct key change. Another way to get good use out of powerchords is to make them rhythmically stimulating. One thing to keep in mind is SPACE. Silence let's the music speak. We all want to hear you play, but you need to STOP playing and silence your guitar so we can hear what you are trying to say. Nobody wants to listen to you slam down powerchords repeatedly or solo 16th notes for 4minutes. It's boring. Nothing interesting is happening. Use silence or space in your playing to make things interesting. It's like singing. You need to stop and take a breath. You need to let the listener grasp what you are trying to say. Melodic control. Rhythm control. It's hard as hell to do, but it makes your playing a lot more interesting. Instead of playing in 4/4 ALL the time, why don't you try to play in 5/4. It will almost automatically force you to change your old rhythm habbits. You can do a lot with power chords, you just can't over use them. Be creative. Look at Example 31 on that video in the tablature booklet. Look how Petrucci uses space. It's all about space.
Members 6mmSid Posted April 14, 2007 Members Posted April 14, 2007 I really like RUSH, and one of the neat things I've found about their music is that Alex Lifeson plays the same chord in lots of different places, and it makes the songs sound more varied and complicated than they really are. For instance, the tab for "A Passage To Bangkok" lists 3 different G5 chords, as follows: x _ x _ 3x _ 8 _ 3x _ 7 _ O5 _ 5 _ O5 _ x _ x3 _ x _ 3 and he also uses 2 different G chords in the same song! Just playing this one song really opened my mind to all the different choices guitarists have, and helped me start moving around the fretboard ALOT MORE. Maybe as an exercise you could find every E on the fretboard, and figure out a bunch of unusual E5's. For instance, xxxx7 (E)7 (B) is still an E5, although maybe it should be called E5/B. You can still substitute it for any E5 you play, just for variety's sake. I hope this helps. everyone seems to hate power chords, I understand there simple and overused and repetivie. But what else is there to get a nice clear distorted sound. Barre chords just sound jumbled with distortion, with light distortion its good to be get a really heavy hard rock sound or metal sound, there useless. I searched for this and there were a few posts on it but no real answers. Can someone name some heavy or metal bands that use something other than powerchords, cuz i like to look at different techniques. Or what other chords do you use? Is there such thing as rock/metal chords other than power chords? Thanks
Members blumonk Posted April 14, 2007 Members Posted April 14, 2007 Rush - Live in Rio, what are the best songs on that DVD?
Members 6mmSid Posted April 14, 2007 Members Posted April 14, 2007 I don't know, as I don't own it. I recently bought a full surround sound system (my first), and the first rock DVD I bought is R30. I'm planning to watch it sometime soon, and I'd be happy to give you my impressions. Rush - Live in Rio, what are the best songs on that DVD?
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