What does the chord C5 mean?

PG Music Home

Hi - just a quick one - I've loaded up lots of songs and I've noticed the chord C5 (or G5 or whatever) cropping up. I don't know what this means and how it affects Biab's interpretation, can anyone explain?

Thanks!

PS. Having a great time with biab/rb - learning loads about music and chord progressions, learning blues piano riffs, it's all GOOD!!!!

It's a "power chord" with no third, just the root and the fifth.

Thanks Matt.

And since it has no third, power chords are neither major or minor (sort of like suspended chords).

Think Pete Townshend.

PS: My favorite sounding guitar chord is this G5: 3x0033

Thanks FirstBassman - what do you mean "3x0033"? (I'm a pianist and don't play guitar very often) is this a neck positioning?

That's a quick sort of TAB notation, Mel, in which the numbers represent frets on the guitar, the X's indicate a muted string.

Notewise, the 3X0033 represent the G two octaves below middle C, the D above it and the G below middle C, with the D above middle C and then the G above middle C, making one big giant G5 that has three G's and two D's in it.

Working with both guitar and keyboard as well as trumpet has given me a lot of insight into chord voicings. Being able to voice chords that typically only guitarists might play opens up a lot of things to do with the lefthand piano comping that might not be so obvious when dealing with "just" the keyboard patterns.

--Mac

Thanks Mac. that's very useful and food for thought too...

Sorry, Mel.

I assumed you (and others) would know what I typed meant.
Mac did a great job explaining.

As Mac alluded to, chord voicings is an advancement (to me anyway) in the development of a person’s guitar playing.

A fretted instrument like guitar allows a person to play a chord in many different ways. There are the common ideas of inversions, also open chords, barre chords and different voicings at different positions on the neck.

Since I am not a good player at all (about a ‘2’ on a 1-to-4 scale) I have had to find many “shortcuts” and “tricks” to get things done.

So, the 3x0033 translates to notes in this order (from low to high): G-D-G-D-G.
I play it with my thumb wrapped around the top of the neck holding down the G note and touching the A string in order to mute it.

PS: Though I did come across this chord by myself, it is also the main chord used in GE Smith’s version of Steve Earle’s “I Ain’t Ever Satisfied.”

- Mark

The output from BB to my computer is output from computer line out in mono - can't get stereo. I find this also applies to playing wave or MP3 files via the computer. The soundcard itself must generate stereo since a test program of soundcard effects has a stereo test and this comes over correctly.
Dave

Hi Dave. Welcome to the forum. Your question is not related to this thread, so to get better attention, may I suggest you start a new thread? If you can tell us more detail about your soundcard, and how and where and to what you are trying to connect it, that will help.

Thanks Mark for filling me in on the guitar tab

Sorry about my mistake, new to this - please how do I start a new thread?
Thanks
Dave

Hi Dave, go back up a level till your screen looks like this:

http://www.melaniemaguire.com/bigstuff002.jpg

then hit the post button (top right)

hope my screen capture worked...

You should play power (5th) chords on a heavily distorted guitar. Use all downstrokes because they're more menacing. (Advice from James Hetfield).

Quote:

You should play power (5th) chords on a heavily distorted guitar. Use all downstrokes because they're more menacing. (Advice from James Hetfield).

Yes, exactly.
That's where they've gained most of their prominence. With heavy distortion, a guitar chord loses a lot of its major-or-minor aspects and other tonal qualities and is brought down to its sheer essence.
So, with Heavy Metal bands, for example, the 1-5 power chord is all that's needed to play and drive the song along.

As I alluded to earlier, Pete Townshend is thought of as the "father of the power chord." Many of his guitar riffs for The Who were basic C5 type of things. And also a lot of suspended chords.

But don't be fooled. (No pun intended.) Pete was (is) very inventive in the types and ways that he used those chords.

Most times we think of the Power Chord as having the Root on the bottom.

In G, then: 35xxxx

There's another one that has a more modern sound, which puts the 5th on the bottom:

Same key, G: x55xxx

Assume that the bass will be playing the root.

One can also do some fast powerchord changes with this one, as it is just a one-finger barre of two strings. Don't overlook the A string as bottom string for motion in 4ths. If the G is as above, then the IV chord, the C, would be: x55xxx

This one also has a lot of use in blues rhythm guitar work for certain songs, too. While still a Power Chord, it has a "lighter" sound to it.

--Mac

With no third, power chords are great for modal music. In traditional Irish music acoustic guitarists use them a lot. A real popular shape is 079900. It is used with tunes in Em. Start on 079900 then slide the shape to 057700, to 035500, to 024400 and end on Em 022000. You can use these in many combinations the low E gives the drone modal sound. They sound real good picked as well as strummed. There are many acoustic guitarists here who base there style on a complex system of power chords.
Derm

Quote:

A real popular shape is 079900. It is used with tunes in Em. Start on 079900 then slide the shape to 057700. Derm

The slide (back and forth) between x799xx and x599xx is the basic riff of JJ Cale's "Cocaine."

Quote:

There are many acoustic guitarists here who base there style on a complex system of power chords.

That's an interesting phrase ... "a complex system of power chords." Can you give any examples, Derm?
Thanks.

The chords I posted yesterday are not played in that sequence only . They are used to accompany tunes in E Dorian mode. In the posted sequence the chords represent Em,D,C,Bm. The low E drone is similar to the drone of pipes . There are many more chords + bass & melody fills. There are similar chords for A Dorian, x,0,7,9,10,0. A large number of the minor tunes in Irish trad are in E or A dorian with a range of about one and a half octaves. There are no set chords for the tunes, you just got to invent. I will try to put up some examples in Off Topic later.
Derm

Hi there, great info about c5. I'm not really familiar with rock music, so come across it in early blues/spiritual forms where the blue third is somewhere between e natural and e flat - both major and minor sound "wrong" and the third is suppressed on fixed tuning instruments like the piano. In slide guitar open tunings (eg open G) the third is only played with the slide, which can vary the pitch into the elusive blue third.

Now here's my problem: I would like a c57 - i.e. I want to keep a dominant seventh in there - 1,5,b7. eg C,G,Bb. biab isn't recognising it as a valid chord.

Any ideas how to get a 1,5,b7 chord in biab?

Thanks very much for the help and fascinating musical knowledge..

I don't think BIAB will recognize that chord at the moment.

You might try the 7#9 chord, which will have both the major third on the bottom, then the dominant 7th and the minor third (#9) on top.

Certain styles may be able to interpret your C7 chord into a true ambiguous third chord, too.

--Mac

Thanks for answering and expanding on C5 and power chords. I learned something here.

Previously, I thought 000XXX was three hugs and three kisses!

Hi Mac - I'm going to settle for C7 and work with that. I love #9's and often use them on the 6 and 5, but they're gonna be just a bit too jangly for the 1 and 4, Thanks very much for your help

Well my theory is..pythagorean....

The 3rd is sharp in tempered tuniing, thus we horn players are supposed to know when to use the 3rd valve if we are playing a 3rd I think it is 14 cents flatter than 1 and 2 unless you naturally lip it down to compensate. A third on a tempered tuning will beat, unlike playing the root fifth which is close to beatless.....

Now perhaps in a perfect world someone had an ear and went, wow, that combo strikes a chord....

Of course, anything but just intonation is going to sound like a bit of a letdown to my naturally keen ears.... HA! just kidding, LOL!

PS. I once bought one of those YOU CAN LEARN PERFECT PITCH! courses. Grrrrrrrr. It was about 20 audio CD's and cost a fortune. The first 18 or so consisted of the author saying "You can do this!" and giving examples and stories of students had got it etc. So I'm sitting there, going "Yay! I can do it" and psyching myself, but also thinking "come on then, get to the meat and potatoes".... well, about CD18 he told me to play some notes on the piano and listen for the difference. assign them colours, vowel sounds. And that was it, I never got any further. I tried for a while to hear the "eee" in f# and consider G as purple with orange spots, but it was the biggest waste of money ever..... If anyone would like to buy this course offa me, let me know!

I found that if you know your voice range and listen to a few bars and wander over to the piano that 99 percent of the time you can pick out the key signature.

If I am wrong it will be by half a step. But I am old and did that for years.