Many new acoustic guitarists wonder if they can play power chords on an acoustic guitar.
You can play power chords on an acoustic guitar. In fact, many famous acoustic songs make use of power chords. For example, many of the songs on Nirvana’s famous MTV Unplugged in New York album feature power chords.
In Nirvana’s cover of the Meat Puppets song “Lake of Fire” (above) you can see the guitarist playing power chords extensively on his acoustic guitar. This is a good example of a very popular song in which power chords are played on an acoustic guitar.
How to Play Power Chords on Acoustic Guitar
So now you now that you can play power chords on an acoustic guitar. But are you wondering exactly how to do so?
It’s not too hard. Simply find the root of the power chord you’d like to play on the low E string. For example, if you want to play a C power chord on the acoustic guitar, you would put your first finger on the 8th fret of the low E string, which is a C note.
Next, place the ring finger of your fretting hand two frets up from your first finger, but on the A string. So for a C power chord, your first finger would be on the low E string 8th fret, and your ring finger would be on the A string 10th fret.
Congrats, you just formed a power chord on the acoustic guitar!
Need More Help With Power Chords?
To find the best guitar courses, with experts walking you through each step of the learning process, check out my recommended lessons, courses & teachers.
If you’re still looking for more free guitar lesson resources, I’d recommend subscribing to some of the awesome acoustic guitar YouTube channels out there. The only trouble is – it can be hard to find the right channels, and to know who’s really putting out good information.
That’s why I wrote up a whole guide post on my 8 favorite YouTube channels for learning acoustic guitar.
If you really want to take things to the next level, though, you’ll get a lot more out of a paid guitar course / lesson platform than you will out of YouTube. That’s because these platform and lesson programs put everything you need in one place, and tell you exactly what order to learn things in.
If you’re looking for the best guitar courses, with experts walking you through each step of the learning process, check out my recommended lessons, courses & teachers.