All styles

Pop, rock and metal

Metal on guitar: chords and rhythm.

Metal plays power chords on the low strings, often tuned down, with heavy distortion and palm muting. The half step above the tonic (E5 then F5) and the tritone (B♭5 against E5) give it its dark color; the gallop, an eighth and two sixteenths, its drive.

i5 – ♭II5 – ♭III5 – ♭V5Level · Advanced

The progression

Pick a key: the charts change right below. "Listen" plays the progression with its rhythm; a click on a chord plays it alone, the arrow opens its page.

Key

In E minor · 100 BPM
  • E5
    E power chord×××23
  • F5
    F power chord×××134
  • G5
    G power chord3fr×××134
  • Bb5
    B♭ power chord×××134

The rhythm

One bar of the strumming hand, beat by beat. While it plays, the stroke being played lights up.

1
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2
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3
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4
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  • strum down
  • down, cut short

From the same world

The most played chords in the world: four chords on a loop for pop, power chords and palm muting for rock and metal.