I'm not going to Wikipedia, and I just want to know how the nomenclature came about, and if it is as old as Beethoven or Bach. Where are their "power chords"? I think power is a twentieth/-first century concept, and that it has a cumulatively imagined meaning altogether, just like the guitar has found this bar chord concept applicable to the phrase. A bar chord has dimension to it, which makes it seem more "powerful" or more "rich" than a simple chord, but inherently, chords are powerful.
> The wikipedia article does a pretty good job at explaining
> them, but in case someone has learned to play the piano
> without learning any musical theory whatsoever, here is
> what they are, by example.
>
> A C power chords is just a C and G played simultaneously.
>
> A D power chord is just a D and A played simultaneously.
>
> Like Stephen said, they are neither major nor minor, and
> are technically not even chords at all because they are
> not comprised of at least three notes, a prerequisite.
>
> Still, they are commonly called power chords, and
> though they possess no real "power" beyond that of other
> musical combinations, contrary to what I once suspected as
> an innocent pupil of the craft (feeling, almost knowing,
> that if I knew what they were, I could produce astounding,
> earth-shattering rock music).
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