Is there a technical name for this kind of chord?

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

I call it acoustic harmony. You can just write a 5, designating the root and fifth, or 85 for octave, fifth, root.

[tony-morosco]

Power chords on guitar can also just be the root and the fifth. Since it is the third that gives a chord the majority of its flavor leaving it out gives it a neutral sound. Sylvia Woods refers to power chords on the harp as Neutral Chords for this reason in her book Music Theory and Arranging Techniques for the folk harp.

She is the only one I have heard use that term, but I think it is an excellent term for it.

On guitar the reason it is called a power chord is because it is used most often on distorted electric guitar. The distortion causes a lot of sustain and all those notes sustained and distorted can result in a big tonal mush. Leaving out the third gives a more distinct sound when playing strong, highly distorted rhythm accompaniment on electric guitar.

[hannah-roberts]

I used to call them octave fifths, but I’m going to start calling them power chords now. Rock on!

[Stephanie Bennett]

“open fifth” chord. Chord symbol abbreviation would be for example “C5” (for C and G, without E)

[unknown-user]

I have always been taught to call them “root-five-eights”

~Sam

[jessica-wolff]

Ambiguous chords? (Because they omit the third.)

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