Pete's Chords

[Duquesne Yves-Pierre <YvesPierre@compuserve.com>]

Lucas Bleicher :
>Someone a few time agou was talking about the way Pete Townshend play =

>chords. I found it very interesting, as I never know how he does it. For=
 =

>example, on I Can't Explain, how does he play E, D, A, B and Eb? It will=
 =

>sound NOTHING like him if you play those chords in the standard way.

Lucas,
PT played power chords which means his chords are made with the root and
the 5th.
By example, an E Major becomes a power chord if you suppress the third (G=

sharp).
It's then noted as E5
To show you what I mean, here is a diagram ( / is a fret, o a finger, x
don't fret these
strings)
- - the classical EM

E /----------/----------/----
B /----------/----------/-----
G /-----o---/----------/-----
D /----------/----o----/-----
A /----------/----o----/----
E /----------/----------/-----

- - E5

E /----------/-----x-----/----
B /----------/-----x-----/-----
G /----------/-----x----/-----
D /----------/----o----/-----
A /----------/----o----/----
E /----------/----------/-----

It's the third which give the minor or major character af a chord. =

By suppressing it, the chord becomes ambiguous, =

neither minor nor major.
If you play them , you get a straight and agressive sound, which is
not smoothed by the third.
These chords are the essence of rock guitar sound.
One of the most famous, is the Smoke on the water riff.
You'll find also a lot of power chords with Metallica.

Just take a look on tabs of the Who on http://www.olga.net
or on http://www.thewho.net to find more examples

BTW, I don't think that Can't explain was played with power chords.
If you listen to the tune (on Who's better) it's clear that the chords ar=
e =

the classical way, played on the first position (frets 1,2,3).
When I saw the Who in 1972, PT played that way.
But when I saw them in may 97, on Can't Explain, he played =

the E on the 7th fret., D on the 5th, A on the 5th
On the original recording, I think PT used a 12 strings electric Gretsch.=

Another thing is that not all tabs mention the use of power chords.
Some give only the classical chords. You have to translate yourself.
Other Who songs with power chords are WGFA,My Generation, =

I'm free, Summertime Blues, and most of Live at Leeds

Yves-Pierre