The acoustic guitar, with its natural, unelectrified tone, is ideally suited to bringing out the best in some chords. I'm going to write tabs for some particularly good examples of power chords that not only ring out and catch your audience's attention but can be played as part of the accompaniment or as a solo break over any key.

First let's look at power chords as they are played on the acoustic guitar. If you play the electric guitar you might have already come across the basic fingering for power chords which can be moved up and down the guitar finger board. This formula is to put your first finger on the bottom E string at the third fret, your second finger on the fifth string at the fifth fret. Using this formula you are playing a root note and the note five notes up.

If you use this formula for playing power chords you'll notice that it doesn't resonate a great deal but if you add the root note on another string, preferably on an open string, you will feel the difference in sound in your gut. So for the acoustic guitar your most interesting sounding power chords will be in the first position using finger picking.

Try this idea with the open E major chord. Just play the root note (E) and the fifth (B). The E occurs on the open sixth string, the second fret on the fourth string and the open first string. The B note occurs at the second fret on the fifth string and the open second string. You will find that playing these notes as an arpeggio brings our an emotional element in the chord that is not there if the chord is strummed in the usual way.

Even if you are not used to fingerstyle guitar playing, you can still learn a finger picking arpeggio by placing your fingers first, without thinking about plucking the strings. So with the E power chord described above, you rest your thumb on the sixth string and place your first finger under the second string. Now strum the sixth, fifth and fourth strings with your thumb and pick up with the first right hand finger to play the open second string. You will get the effect straight away.

Now you can add the E on the open first string by placing the second finger of your plucking hand under the first string and strumming 6 5 4 and picking 2 and 1. Now you have the basic idea you can go ahead and try the same idea with other chords like C A G and D.

Here is the guitar tab for the E power chord - notes E and B

e----0-----------------|

B----0-----------------|

G----------------------|

D----2-----------------|

A----2-----------------|

E----0-----------------|