Power Chords Guitar Chart – All 12 Diagrams & Fingerings
A power chord (fifth chord, suffix "5") contains only the root and the fifth: no major or minor third, so no major or minor quality. It's a movable shape — the same fingering slides up and down the fretboard to change key — used constantly in rock and metal, often with distortion.
This page gathers all 12 power chords on the neck, one per root note, ready to check without recalculating them every time you change key. It's for anyone starting out on electric guitar looking for something simpler than full open chords, just as much as for players who already know the shape and just want to double-check a fingering or explore an unfamiliar key. The real value of the power chord goes beyond simplicity: its movable, third-less shape makes it the most direct transposition tool on the guitar — learn one shape and you can play it in all 12 keys, which isn't true of any open chord. What you gain is a shortcut for stringing riffs together fast, independent of neck position or the song's key.
Power chord chart: notes and starting frets
For each power chord: the three notes played (root, fifth, octave) and the fret where the index finger goes to play the same shape on the low E or A string.
| Power chord | Notes | Fret on the low E string (6th) | Fret on the A string (5th) |
|---|---|---|---|
| C5 | C – G – C | 8 | 3 |
| C#5 | C# – G# – C# | 9 | 4 |
| D5 | D – A – D | 10 | 5 |
| D#5 | D# – A# – D# | 11 | 6 |
| E5 | E – B – E | 0 | 7 |
| F5 | F – C – F | 1 | 8 |
| F#5 | F# – C# – F# | 2 | 9 |
| G5 | G – D – G | 3 | 10 |
| G#5 | G# – D# – G# | 4 | 11 |
| A5 | A – E – A | 5 | 0 |
| A#5 | A# – F – A# | 6 | 1 |
| B5 | B – F# – B | 7 | 2 |
How to read and use these diagrams
Each diagram corresponds to a single root note: look for the note carrying the "5" (E5, A5, D5...) to find the power chord you need. The fingering stays almost identical on the low strings — two fingers, one fret apart between the root and the fifth, sometimes topped with the octave on the string above. Once that shape is memorized on a single root, sliding it along the neck is all it takes to change key: the fret under your index finger tells you the chord name directly.
Unlike a major or minor chord, a power chord contains neither a major nor a minor third — only the root and the fifth, sometimes doubled at the octave. That missing third makes it harmonically neutral: it doesn't commit to major or minor, so it sits just as well over an A minor progression as an A major one without clashing. It's also why it takes distortion so well, which tends to make thirds sound dissonant.
Why the power chord is neither major nor minor →
Practical tips and common mistakes
- Mute the strings you're not using with the edge of your palm or index finger: a power chord that sounds muddy almost always comes from a neighboring low string ringing out unintentionally, not from a bad fingering.
- Don't reach for the third out of habit. Plenty of beginners add a third string thinking it'll enrich the chord — the missing third is exactly what gives the power chord its sound.
- Practice palm muting separately from the fingering: the fretting hand shapes the chord, the picking hand controls the mute against the bridge. Train both independently before combining them.
- Use fret markers (3, 5, 7, 9, 12) to find your position instead of counting frets every time — that's what makes sliding between positions fast in a real playing situation.
- Don't reserve power chords for distorted tones only: played clean with a bit of reverb, they also work for more open-sounding accompaniment — it's the harmonic simplicity that matters, not the genre.
Concrete examples
The classic riff that made the power chord famous alternates two or three roots over a driving rhythm — say E5, then G5, then A5 on a loop, played in eighth notes with palm-muted upbeats and a full chord on the downbeat: the backbone of countless rock and punk riffs.
In metal, the same logic speeds up and gets muted harder, with sixteenth-note runs and a tighter pick attack for a more percussive, less melodic feel. To practice these progressions on real chord grids rather than isolated examples: