#5 chord question

[Alain24601]

Hi there,

Self teaching guitar here and I have a question regarding the #5 chords ie. F5, G5, C5 etc...

 

In RS they are always shown as using 3 fingers (1-2&3) however with finger 2 I can cover the string and forgo the 3rd finger. Is it ok to continue with 2 fingers or as I progress will that become a problem?

[firekorn]

Yes it is ok, Rocksmith shows one way but others can be good too if you feel that it's better for you.

[Wepeel]

Yes, it's fine to play power chords with only 2 fingers.  

 

However, it is proper technique to use your ring finger to fret the 3rd string when playing a power chord with the octave added (which is usually referred to as a "super" power chord because it gives a thicker sound).

 

Using 3 fingers will help fret the chord cleaner and will make the technique seem less foreign when playing barre chords and other chord types that will require your ring finger to play.

[scrdest]

I've actually seen at least a couple songs in RS that had two-note fifth chords. However, even then it's better if you hold it like a three-note power chord, because you'll want to use the pinky to mute the string to avoid it ringing out when it's not supposed to.

 

One major advantage of getting used to three-note ones is that you can just add another note with the pinky on the next string one fret above the root (like 3554, low->high E where a power chord is 35/355) to get a third and as such a full-blown chord on E and A strings that is really easy to move and hold.