You may have seen 3 string players just use their finger or a slide to play a chord and wondered how this is possible.
A power chord is made up of the 1st note or root and the 5th note of the scale. For a 3 string guitar in G D G tuning (open G) the open strings are tuned to a G power chord. This means that fretting across all strings makes a different power chord since you are raising each note by the same amount.
What Makes Power Chords So Useful?
On a standard 6 string guitar, rock guitarists use power chords. They are an easy way to play a chord that can stand in for a major or minor chord or even a 7th chord. This is because the power chords contain the 1st and 5th notes which major, minor and 7th chords contain:
| power chord | 1st | – | 5th | – |
| major chord | 1st | 3rd | 5th | – |
| minor chord | 1st | flattened 3rd | 5th | – |
| dominant seventh chord | 1st | 3rd | 5th | 7th |
| major seventh chord | 1st | 3rd | 5th | sharpened 7th |
| minor seventh chord | 1st | flattened 3rd | 5th | 7th |
If we are playing chords on a piano or 6 string guitar we will often play 3,4 or 5 notes within a chord, but with only 3 strings on a cigar box guitar, we use the fact that our brain will fill in the missing notes.
With only three strings and hence 3 notes to play in a chord, we can trick our ears into hearing the chord that we need with fewer notes than the four shown above. In fact we are often only using two of the notes and doubling up on the bass note, raising it an octave for the top string.
Power Chords On A Cigar Box Guitar
A 3 string guitar in open tuning will usually have the root and a fifth above that and fourth above that, making an octave between the top and bottom strings. Basically the notes of the open strings are just the first and the fifth, a power chord.
You can see from the table above how fretting 3 strings on a cigar box guitar with one finger across all strings plays a power chord that can be played in place of a major, minor or 7th chord.
The great thing about a 3 string cigar box guitar in G D G tuning is that the note on the bass string and top string gives us the name of the power chord too:
| FRET NUMBER | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| POWER CHORD | G | G#/Ab | A | A#/Bb | B | C | C#/Db | D | D#/Eb | E | F | F#/Gb | G |
| BASS STRING | G | G#/Ab | A | A#/Bb | B | C | C#/Db | D | D#/Eb | E | F | F#/Gb | G |
| MIDDLE STRING | D | D#/Eb | E | F | F#/Gb | G | G#/Ab | A | A#/Bb | B | C | C#/Db | D |
| TOP STRING | G | G#/Ab | A | A#/Bb | B | C | C#/Db | D | D#/Eb | E | F | F#/Gb | G |
The same is true for a guitar tuned E B E:
| FRET NUMBER | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| POWER CHORD | E | F | F#/Gb | G | G#/Ab | A | A#/Bb | B | C | C#/Db | D | D#/Eb | E |
| BASS( AND TOP STRING) | E | F | F#/Gb | G | G#/Ab | A | A#/Bb | B | C | C#/Db | D | D#/Eb | E |
| MIDDLE STRING | B | C | C#/Db | D | D#/Eb | E | F | F# | G | G#/Ab | A | A#/Bb | B |
It’s so useful to know where every power chord is on your guitar neck so well worth learning the names of at least the top and bottom strings.
Now you know how to play all these power chords, you can find the chords for your favorite songs and play simplified versions using just power chords. So ignore anything about major, minor and 7th. Just find the note of the letter name of the chord and play the related power chord.
Playing Power Chords- How To Position Your Fingers
There are 3 main ways to play power chords on your 3 string cigar box guitar:
- fret across all strings with your first finger
- line up your 1st, 2nd and 3rd fingers or 2nd, 3rd and 4th fingers, one on each string
- use a slide
There are 2 main differences in how you position your fingers or a slide:
- Fingers fretting a string sit just behind the fret wire
- A slide sits directly above the fret line or fret wire
See my post here on an absolute beginner’s guide to getting started on slide guitar.
I have written another post on 1 finger chords which includes tips for getting a better sound on barre chords.
Inversions Of Power Chords – The 7 5 7 Chord Shape
Remember that a power chord contains the 1st and 5th notes of the scale and the cigar box guitar is tuned to I V I or 1st, 5th and 1st. So strumming the open notes or a barre chord automatically gives us the 1st inversion of a power chord. That means that the 1st note is in the bass ( and the top note too)
We could play a power chord where the 5th note is doubled i.e. in the bass and top note:
Instead of G D G we could have D G D. This could be played 7 5 7
I find this a really useful shape when I don’t want to zoom up and down the neck too much. I can easily remember the name of the power chord because it is the same as the note on the middle string.
Here is a chart of power chords based on the 7 5 7 pattern on the G D G tuned guitar:
| FRET NUMBER OF MIDDLE STRING | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| FRET NUMBER OF OUTSIDE TWO STRINGS | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
| POWER CHORD | D | D#/Eb | E | F | F#/Gb | G | G#/Ab | A | A#/Bb | B | C | C#/Db | D |
| MIDDLE STRING | D | D#/Eb | E | F | F#/Gb | G | G#/Ab | A | A#/Bb | B | C | C#/Db | D |
| BASS AND TOP STRING | G | G#/Ab | A | A#/Bb | B | C | C#/Db | D | D#/Eb | E | F | F#/Gb | G |
Here is the same pattern but for E B E tuning:
| FRET NUMBER OF MIDDLE STRING | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| FRET NUMBER OF OUTSIDE TWO STRINGS | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
| POWER CHORD | B | C | C#/Db | D | D#/Eb | E | F | F# | G | G#/Ab | A | A#/Bb | B |
| MIDDLE STRING | B | C | C#/Db | D | D#/Eb | E | F | F# | G | G#/Ab | A | A#/Bb | B |
| BASS( AND TOP STRING) | E | F | F#/Gb | G | G#/Ab | A | G#/Ab | B | C | C#/Db | D | D#/Eb | E |
You may have already been familiar with the 2 0 2 shape for D on the G D G tuning ( and B on the E B E tuning) but now you see that you can move that shape up and down the neck to make different power chords.
When Do I Use A 7 5 7 Power Chord Shape Instead Of The Usual 0 0 0?
So now we know that we can play a G power chord as 0 0 0, 12 12 12 or 7 5 7, how do we choose which one to play? I play which ever one helps me to get to the next chord in the sequence the easiest.
That will change depending on the key I’m playing in and the mood I’m in.
If I find I’m having to zoom up and down the neck too much, I will look to see if I can replace a chord with another one. For instance, when I’m playing something in G that needs the chords G C and D I can play that as 0 0 0 for the G, 5 5 5 for the C and 7 7 7 or 2 0 2 for the D:
If I’m going from C to D, I just slide up 2 frets to play the barre chord ( or my preferred method of using fingers 2,3 and 4)
But if I’m playing G D G, I usually use the 2 0 2 shape for the D as I find it much quicker.
Adding Notes To Power Chords To Play A Minor Chord
If you have now learned the names of the notes on the middle string, you can start adding a bit of color to your playing by adding notes to the power chords you have learned.
This is because cigar box guitars can play full chords if we don’t want to play power chords.
There are chord charts for cigar box guitars which we can use when we don’t want to just fret across all strings with a finger or slide, but there are many many ways to play each chord because of the way the guitar is strung and tuned.
Let’s look at an open G chord, no fretting at all. G D G. This can stand for a G major, G minor or G7 chord, but supposing we want to actually play the distinctive note of the chord and move beyond the one finger fretting to start altering the voicing of chords or to stop us travelling so far up and down the fretboard.
For G minor, we would want to add the flattened third, Bb
How can we add this note? Bb appears on the third fret of the top string and the third fret of the bottom string.
Try playing these 2 chords: 3 0 0 and then 0 0 3. This is now a G minor chord. Just changing one note of our power chord has turned it into a minor chord.
Inversions Of Minor Chords On A 3 String Guitar
If you want to see how many ways you can play this G minor chord try this:
Then try playing 0 0 0, 3 0 0, 0 0 3, 0 8 0, 0 8 7, 7 8 0 and 7 8 7. They are all G minor as they all contain notes found in the chord of G minor, even though there are notes missing in some.
These are called chord inversions which just means playing the notes of a chord in a different order. A chord will sound correct to us if we miss out some notes of the chord, but precede and follow it with chords that are correct, even if these chords are missing notes. What makes it sound wrong is if we ADD notes that should not be there.
Now we have found a chord for G minor that uses an easy chord shape that leaves no notes unfretted. 787
We can move this shape up and down the fretboard, just like we moved our one finger barre up and down. Try moving 787 down two frets to 565 and down again to 343 and then 232. You have just played G Minor, F minor, Eb minor and D minor.
How Can A Chord Shape On A 3 String Guitar Have 2 Names?
On a Cigar Box Guitar, one chord shape can have more than one name. For instance 2 3 2 ( a traditional D major shape on a 6 string guitar) contains the notes A F and A. This can be played as F major, or D minor or even A flattened 6
2 3 2 contains A, F and A so can also be said to be F major, although it will sound more like an F if we can add the C on fret 5 of the top or bottom string. I find 5 3 2 easier to play than 2 3 5, that is the 5th fret on the bass string.
Try playing 2 3 2 followed by 5 3 2. These can both be F major chords, but they are not both D minor chords because of the added C. 5 3 2 is not just F major but also D minor7
Learning Different Shapes For The Same Chord
As you can see, there are so many ways that you can play a chord so when you are learning a song from chord names, it is well worth experimenting with different chord shapes for each chord.
As you play more and more, you will experiment with chord shapes to get exactly the sound you want.
I am slowly building up sheets for chord shapes that you can download ( see chords in the top menu)
I have also made a downloadable pdf of a sheet of 18 blank chord charts that you can print out so that you can draw your own shapes as you find them:
The chord shapes we use will depend on what chords precede and follow this chord and also what voicing we are using.
Sometimes we want the melody to follow the top note or the bass note of each chord. So the use of power chords can make it very easy to start playing 3 string cigar box guitars and very complicated if you want to alter the voicing as there are multiple ways of playing every single chord.
And if you want to get really complicated there’s still other chords like augmented and diminished chords but we won’t go into that today!