I was sitting on my porch, playing acoustic versions of AC/DC songs with my dear friend Ben Yardley, lead guitarist of the fantastic Canadian rock band, Chinatown. As we were discussing the beautiful simplicity of the guitar styles of Malcolm and Angus Young, Ben made the following observation…
“Y’know why so many great rock songs are made up of power chords and pentatonic scales? Because they sound fucking AWESOME.”
Truer words have never been spoken. A solid, working knowledge of power chords on various string sets combined with the ability to improvise appropriately using simple Major and minor Pentatonic scales will get you by in about 90% of rock oriented musical situations.
Power chords are the “shells” of more complex chords, just as Pentatonic scales are “shells” of more complex scales. They contain the common notes used in rock music. By adding notes to the skeletons of these simple chords and scales, you can get many, many different sounds. If you understand the basic framework of power chords ‘n’ pentatonics, you can use them as a reference point for learning any chord or scale.
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