Chords for Genre Device: Rock/Post-Hardcore Power Chords & Octaves Guitar Lesson

_ _ _ _ _ _ Hello there!
Welcome to Genre Devices, a series where I show you a musical idea
which you can then apply into your modern day music, whether it's solo songwriting or in a band, whatever.
We're going to look at something pretty special today.
[C] We're going to take the epicness
of power chords and we're going to [G] take the sexiness of octaves
and we're going to [N] throw them all together into one bundle of happy joy
which is just going to sound absolutely huge.
So _ _ _ _ _ _
[D] _ _ _ [Bb] _ _ [C] _ _ _
_ [D] _ _ [Bb] _ _ _ [C] _ _
_ _ [D] _ _ [Bb] _ _ [Am] _ _
[C] _ _ _ [D] _ [Bb] _ _ [C] _ _
[Bb] _ _ _ _ [G] _ [F] _ _ [C] _
_ [Bb] _ _ _ [Dm] _ _ _ [C] _
_ [Bb] _ _ _ _ [F] _ _ [C] _
_ [Bb] _ _ _ _ [Dm] _ _ [C] _
_ [Gm] _ _ _ [Dm] _ [Eb] _ _ _
[Dm] _ [Gm] _ _ _ [Dm] _ [Eb] _ _ _
_ [F] _ [Gm] _ _ _ [F] _ [Eb] _ _
_ _ [F] _ _ _ _ _
the basis for this idea is really simple, there's not a lot to it at all.
All you have to do first is find all the chords in a key.
Now I'm in drop C tuning
whatever tuning you're in, this can still work the same.
Standard tuning you just use this chord shape.
I'm using drop tuning because you get a bit more power from that low note with the drop tunings.
So I'm going to do _ _
[A] _ [C] _ _ C major, right?
There are all the chords in C major.
_ _ _ [N] _ _
So that's that.
If you were doing this in a different, let's say you were in drop D, you could just do it by [Cm] numbers.
[E] _ [Gm] _ [Gb] _ [C] _ [G] Just follow that pattern if you want.
Then you need to find all your [C] octaves in the same key as well, in the key of C major
which would start here for [D] me.
[Fm] _ [C] _ [Em] _ [C] _ _
_ [Dm] So there are my octaves in C major.
So we're just combining those two things.
[C] Make a rhythm [A] first with the power chord [G] _ [F] _ _ [E] _
[G] _ [C] [F] over the top.
So I'm just going to come up with a nice simple chord progression [A] in my key
and then I'll show you a bunch of different ways that you can throw octaves over the top and how you can use them.
So this is going to be my chord progression.
_ _ _ [G] _
[F] _ _ _ _ [A] _ _ [G] _ _
[F] Nice _ [G] _ simple rhythm.
Ok, so the first way we can do this is just to follow the rhythm part exactly and repeat [Am] that rhythm.
_ _ [G] _ [F] _ _ _ _ [Am] _
_ _ [G] _ [F] _ _ _ [Am] _ _
_ [G] _ _ [F] _ _ _ _ [Am] _
_ [G] _ [F] _ _ _ _ _
Another way to do it would just be playing straight, [N] so not following the original rhythm and pretty much staying just_
[Am] Or _ [Em] _ [G] _ [F] _ _ _
_ [A] _ _ [Dm] _ [G] _ [F] _ _ _
_ [Am] _ _ [G] _ [F] _ _ _ _
[A] _ _ _ [G] _ [F] _ _ _ _
_ [A] you could mix it up and do a bit of both.
Some of it straight, some of it following the rhythm.
_ _ _ [C] _ [F] _ _ _
_ [C] _ [A] _ _ [G] _ [F] _ _ _
_ [A] _ _ [Am] _ [G] _ [F] _ _ _
_ [A] _ _ [G] _ [F] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ And as for the [C] application of mighty [Bb] power chords and [F] octaves_
Of course they make great choruses.
They can be [C] absolutely huge and [Bb] massive and humongous and enormous and [F] gigantic
and any other word that you can think of that means [C] large.
[F] Or for a powerful intro that will grab people by the testicles and have [C] their attention.
It sounds especially nice if you [Bb] harmonise.
So lay down some power [F] chords and then find the appropriate major third [C] or minor third octave
[Bb] and put those over the top.
It sounds cute.
_ [F] _ _ [C] _ _ [Bb] _ _ _ _ [N] _