Rock and metal
Power chords, riffs, palm muting, distortion and the modes that colour rock and metal.
Applied
Content under musical review. It may contain inaccuracies.
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Power chords, riffs, palm muting, distortion and the modes that colour rock and metal.
Applied
Rock emerged in the 1950s from blues, rhythm and blues and country. Metal took shape in the late sixties and early seventies, pushing distortion, volume and rhythmic precision to the limit. They share a core: the distorted electric guitar, the riff as the backbone of the song, and the fifth chord.
A power chord has only a root and a fifth, sometimes doubled at the octave. With no third, it's neither major nor minor:
An original fragment in E Aeolian, with a pedal note on the low string:
The power-chord shape is movable: two or three fingers that slide along the sixth or fifth string. The scale used most in riffs is the minor pentatonic, and in metal also Aeolian and Phrygian:
String 6, Open: E2 · 1 · Root
Explore the pentatonic and the minor modes over E on the fretboard, using the open sixth string as a pedal:
E minor pentatonic E Phrygian Picking & articulationAlternate pickingSynchronise down and up strokes with the fretting hand at a steady speed.Many metal riffs are played entirely with downstrokes so every note has the same attack. Practise eighths and sixteenths with a metronome, alternating palm-muted notes with open, accented ones. Syncing both hands matters more than speed.
One strand of metal takes harmonic minor and its fifth mode, Phrygian dominant, from Baroque and classical music. The major third of Phrygian dominant, over a dominant chord, creates strong tension that resolves to the minor tonic. Walser analyses how these borrowings give metal an image of virtuosity and drama.