Tune Up, Then Play a Power Chord

Before anything else: tune up. An out-of-tune guitar makes correct playing sound wrong, and a beginner has no way to tell which of the two is happening. Do this every single time you pick the instrument up.

Use the tuner below. Play one string at a time, let it ring, and adjust until it settles.

Tuner

Standard tuning, low to high: E A D G B E. The thickest string is the low E.

Now the power chord — the shape that plays most rock songs ever written.

It is two notes. Put your first finger on the low E string and your third finger two frets higher on the A string. That is the whole chord. Strum only those two strings and mute everything else by letting your fingers rest lightly across them.

There is no major or minor here. A power chord is neither, which is exactly why it works over so much music — nothing in it can clash.

The shape has no open strings, so it moves. Slide it up two frets and you have a different chord with the same fingers. That one fact means you can already play in any key.

E5

E5. The open one, and the easiest first power chord — no fingers on the low string at all.

D5

D5 at the fifth fret. Same idea as E5, but fretted, so it can move anywhere.

The movable power chord at three frets

Your first finger names the chord. Third fret is G5, fifth is A5, seventh is B5. Only these two strings sound.

e
B
G
D
A
E

--------------------------|
--------------------------|
--------------------------|
--------------------------|
--5-------7-------9-------|
--3-------5-------7-------|

This track is hard rock in D and it moves fast between D, B, G, A and E.

Don't worry about catching every change. Find the fret for one of them, play that power chord on every beat, and let the rest go past. One chord held confidently through a whole verse is a real result on your first day.

Hard rock in D major. Pick one chord, play it on every beat, ignore the rest.