Analysis
When two or more notes are played through a distortion process which non-linearly transforms the audio signal, additional partials are generated at the sums and differences of the frequencies of the harmonics of those notes (intermodulation distortion).
When a normal chord (for example, a major or minor chord) consisting of three or more different degrees of the scale is played through distortion, the number of different frequencies generated, and the complex ratios between them, can cause the resulting sound to be messy and indistinct (furthered by equal temperament and inharmonicity).
However, in a power chord, the ratio between the frequencies of the root and fifth is very close to the just interval 3:2. When played through distortion, the intermodulation leads to the production of partials closely related in frequency to the harmonics of the original two notes, producing a more coherent sound. The intermodulation causes the spectrum of the sound to be expanded in both directions, and with enough distortion, a new fundamental frequency component appears at an octave lower than the root note of the chord played without distortion, giving a richer, more bassy and more subjectively 'powerful' sound than the undistorted signal.
Even when played without distortion, the simple ratios between the harmonics in the notes of a power chord can give a stark and powerful sound, due to the resultant tone effect
Power chords also have the added advantage of being relatively easy to play (see "Fingering" below), allowing fast chord changes and easy incorporation into melodies and riffs.
Read more about this topic: Power Chord
Famous quotes containing the word analysis:
“A commodity appears at first sight an extremely obvious, trivial thing. But its analysis brings out that it is a very strange thing, abounding in metaphysical subtleties and theological niceties.”
—Karl Marx (18181883)
“The spider-mind acquires a faculty of memory, and, with it, a singular skill of analysis and synthesis, taking apart and putting together in different relations the meshes of its trap. Man had in the beginning no power of analysis or synthesis approaching that of the spider, or even of the honey-bee; but he had acute sensibility to the higher forces.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (18381918)
“Whatever else American thinkers do, they psychologize, often brilliantly. The trouble is that psychology only takes us so far. The new interest in families has its merits, but it will have done us all a disservice if it turns us away from public issues to private matters. A vision of things that has no room for the inner life is bankrupt, but a psychology without social analysis or politics is both powerless and very lonely.”
—Joseph Featherstone (20th century)