If you play rock, you certainly used power chords at one time or another. Power chords aren't real chords in the theoretical sense, but they're particularly useful when you're using strong distortion, as harmonic subtleties don't go well with it.
A power chord is nothing but a root added with its fifth and octave. This leads us to the following voicings with the root on the sixth, fifth, fourth and third strings:
Power chords are also harmonically incharacteristic, as they go well with major and minor chords (there's no third here). This may be an advantage, but it also may lead to a boring sound, as there's very little harmony involved.
So, how can we make our sound a little more interesting while maintaining sound simplicity so it goes well with a distorted sound? A possible solution is to keep the root/octave frame and vary the fifth. This opens up for some curious possibilities, and I'll try to give you some examples of them.
