Convenient safe and sound chords Programs - An Analysis

What we are going to be talking about today is power chords. Those are the root-fifth chords that fuel a lot of hard rock music. For example, an E power chord would consist of the notes E and B. safe and sound chords  An A power chord would consist of the notes A and E. A distinguishing feature of these is that the third is omitted from the chord. Only the root and fifth are sounded. When played through a distorted guitar amp, these chords deliver a characteristic "crunch" sound that is a hallmark of rock guitar music.

What many guitar players do not know is that you can get a "guarantee in the key" by using them. I'll show you how. Let's say you want to write a chord progression in the key of E minor, and you want to use power chords as the foundation of your harmony. The notes of the E minor pentatonic scale are: E G A B D. So what's the excitement, you say?

Well, here it is: You can construct a power chord (abbreviated p.c.) off of all of these five pentatonic scale tones, and all of their music notes will be in the key of E minor. They will all be p.c. perfect fifths, and not a single one will sound an out-of-key note. Let's look at E minor as an example:
E p.c.: E B notes

G p.c.: G D notes

A p.c.: A E notes

B p.c.: B F# notes

D p.c.: D A notes

All of those notes are in the key of E minor. In fact all of the notes in E minor are addressed, just not in a step-wise scalar fashion.

So by using your power chord road map, you have completely sourced all of notes in the key E minor. What's more, you will automatically get a "safe and sound chords" sound by emphasizing p.c.'s on these pentatonic scale tones. You can do this exact same process for a major pentatonic scale, and you will get corresponding in-key results for its major key.

In music, it's both fun and constructive to play chords that venture outside of the key. But a beginning writer is often trying to learn where the "safe" notes are before they start being adventurous. The above method will give you chords that sound cool and have all of their music notes safely in the key. Now that's a great place to start for a beginning rock guitar songwriter!