E5

Construction

Built from these intervals: 1-5.

The 5 sits seven half steps above the root -- the most consonant interval after the unison and octave. There is no third, which means no major or minor quality. This is a dyad, the simplest member of the chord family: the root-fifth skeleton shared by every major, minor, and suspended triad, stripped to its essence. On guitar, power chords are often voiced 1-5-1 with the octave doubled for thickness, but the harmonic content remains the same two pitch classes.

Harmonic Function

In Roman numeral analysis (uppercase = major, lowercase = minor), power chords resist classification because they carry no third. Their function depends entirely on context:

• I5 -- tonic anchor in rock and metal, where the melody or riff above determines major or minor
• I5-IV5-V5 -- the standard rock progression, entirely ambiguous yet fully functional
• i5-bVII5-bVI5 -- common descent in metal and hard rock; the bVII and bVI are chords borrowed from the Aeolian mode (the natural minor scale), implying that tonality without stating it
• Drone -- sustains as a tonal center while melody establishes a mode (a scale color, like major, minor, or Dorian) above

Character

As a dyad -- a two-note chord -- the power chord has no quality-based neighbor to confuse it with. What it lacks is precisely what defines it: no third means no brightness, no darkness, just raw harmonic weight. The 5 reinforces the root without coloring it. This is the sound of distorted electric guitar, and that pairing is practical, not just aesthetic: thirds produce harsh overtones through a saturated amp because the resulting frequencies clash, but the clean 3:2 frequency ratio of the perfect fifth stays coherent under heavy gain.

Related Sounds

These chords are the power chord's closest relatives -- each adds one note to the same root-fifth foundation:

• maj (1-3-5) -- add the 3 and the chord declares major quality
• min (1-b3-5) -- add the b3 and it becomes minor
• sus4 (1-4-5) -- add the 4 instead of a third; still ambiguous but with suspended tension
• sus2 (1-2-5) -- add the 2 instead; open and floating rather than forceful

Voice Leading

Voice leading tracks how individual notes move from one chord to the next. With only two voices, power chord voice leading is driven by bass motion rather than inner-voice resolution. Riffs often use chromatic passing tones between chord roots to connect changes.

• I5 to IV5: The root moves up a fourth to the root of IV. The 5 moves up a fourth to the 5th of IV. Pure parallel motion -- both voices move by the same interval.
• I5 to V5: The 5 of I is the root of V (common tone) while the root leaps up a fifth. One shared note, one leap.
• i5 to bVII5 to bVI5: The root descends stepwise by whole steps. The fifths follow in parallel -- the bass line carries all the harmony.

These movements apply in any key — the intervals are the same regardless of root.

Practice Seeds

Distortion test. Play a major chord and then a power chord through heavy gain. Hear how the third produces clashing overtones while the fifth stays clean -- this is why power chords own distorted guitar.

Context creates quality. Hold a power chord and play a riff using the 3 over it, then switch to a riff using the b3. The same chord supports both -- training your ear to hear how melody defines major or minor over a neutral foundation.

Rock progression. Play I5-IV5-V5-I5 in several keys with rhythmic drive. Feel how bass motion alone creates harmonic momentum without any thirds involved.

Drone mode workout. Sustain a single power chord as a drone and play different scales over it -- major, minor, then Dorian or Mixolydian. Each scale recolors the same chord, making the drone the simplest tool for hearing how modes work.