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fremen_warrior's avatar

Guitar power chords - how do you "open" them up?

Asked by fremen_warrior (5510points) June 12th, 2012

Hi, so I’ve been trying to learn to play Red sky by Status Quo – only problem is, it’s meant to be played on an electric guitar and I’ve got accoustic. The chords were obviously invented by an insane african witchdoctor or some other mad scientist and are both impossibly hard (stretching across 5 frets) and sound like crap if I try the simplified versions. So… my question is this – is there a way to turn power chords into open chords and whether it’s a case of a simple E5 to E, G5 to G etc. translation or is there more to it than that?

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8 Answers

tedd's avatar

In my experience there is almost always another way to play it. Have you found any other tabs for the song?

For what it’s worth, I learned to play on an acoustic, and playing across 5 frets for one chord is definitely doable… But it takes a good amount of practice to get your hand used to it.

fremen_warrior's avatar

It’s not the most popular song out there, and every site I’ve come across so far has the (exact) same chords. Tried transposing them but they all remain rooted in 5, won’t budge ;-) Guess I’ll have to stretch that palm s’more, thank you for sharing your take on this though. Cheers!

tedd's avatar

@fremen_warrior Have you tried fooling around with a capo? I’ve played some pretty pain-in-the-ass songs before with ease thanks to a capo in the right spot.

fremen_warrior's avatar

the capo can’t help me since no matter how you transpose them the chords always look the same, that’s the beauty (curse?) of power chords, eh? Otherwise I have a limited understanding of music theory, the scales and chord progressions within keys, so I would not be able to reorganize the chords on my own. I figured asking around might be quicker than the usual trial and error chord – by – chord guesswork :-)

Only138's avatar

check out www.ultimate-guitar.com
They have lots and lots of tabs…..even some that kinda obscure.

fremen_warrior's avatar

@Only138 have you clicked on the “chords” link I provided up there? It’s UG ;-)

Only138's avatar

@fremen_warrior uhh…nope. Sorry Bud.

fremen_warrior's avatar

no problem, thanks for the effort though :-)

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