Power chords on an acoustic ... weird?

Been working on grade module 12. Anyone else find power chords on the acoustic a weird pairing? Such a pain in the a** learning power chords on acoustic. I have fiddled around with power chords briefly on a friends electric and it felt so much more natural (i.e., less random strings not ringing out, the shape stays more consistently when switching chords, etc.,)

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Definitely tricky. I found playing with a thicker pick, closer to the bridge, palm muting, with a heavy strumming arm, all helped to give me a better sound.

Hi @aaronmason883 that is a bit funny for me to react on because Im am mostly Acoustic, and I don’t know any better. Mind you, I do also think its a matter of (mostly) technique. The whole shuffle business in the Blues often boils down to working the two thickest strings, and definately has an E5 or an A5 power chord in it. To me it sounds totally natural, and even powerful. Palm muting is indeed an important part of the story. As to

I don’t understand what you mean by that. On the Acoustic you have either 12 or 14 frets to the body on the thicker strings, somewhat more I gather on the electric. On the electric by necessity in the higher frets the distances become quite a lot smaller though, so the shape, as measured by distance between the fretting fingers, changes more up the neck.

When you play power chords you really should be muting the strings that are not fretted, either you palm mute all of the strings at the bridge and only play the fretted strings or you mute them using what’s not used with your fretting hand. Muting strings that are not played is a very important part of learning to play, it makes the difference between something that doesn’t sound right to something that does!

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I use power chords on electric and acoustic and I believe my technique is the same for both. You don’t get that fun blast of distortion on an acoustic but it is great for learning palm muting.

Not sure if it is appropriate here. I understand on standard tuning power chords sounds and feels weird, on acoustic.

I play DADGAD on acoustic guitar and power chords sound terrific :heart:

Yep, that’s exactly how I play some 12 bar blues on my acoustic.

Great topic to introduce.
I am also an acoustic guitar player, and I do not normally use power chords.
I find that using power chords fit well when playing with other people.
And I also love playing with just the top three bass strings, and that is basically power chords playing.
I also love playing power chords with just 5th and 6th strings, and I think that 4th and 5th strings are even cool sounding.
I you have questions, I can elaborate.
Love this post.
Rene