Harmonic ambiguity note: The “Root+5th (ambiguous)” category counts chord events where the MIDI transcriber (basic-pitch) found a root and 5th but could not detect a clear third. Three different things converge into this bucket: (1) actual root+5th voicings — the canonical power chord shape; (2) “The Standard” voicing — a root + 5th + 9th shape where the 2nd rings on the B string but there’s still no 3rd; and (3) distortion-masked triads, where a full major or minor chord played through a distorted amp loses its 3rd in transcription. Read this number as a harmonic ambiguity rate, not a literal count of intentional power chord usage. The signal is real and meaningful for distorted-guitar style in standard tuning — it just isn’t what the term “power chord percentage” implies. This affects all artists analyzed from audio.
Chord Type Distribution
Chord Type
% of All Chords
Root+5th (ambiguous)
53.0%
major triad
13.8%
minor triad
6.7%
sus2
5.8%
sus4
5.1%
minor 7th
4.6%
major 7th
4.0%
add9
3.3%
6th
3.1%
minor add9
0.2%
aug
0.2%
dominant 7th
0.1%
dim
0.1%
Most-Used Specific Chords (Top 15)
| Chord | Count |
|---|---|| D Root+5th (ambiguous) | 8,337 |
| G Root+5th (ambiguous) | 7,437 |
| C Root+5th (ambiguous) | 7,237 |
| A Root+5th (ambiguous) | 7,097 |
| E Root+5th (ambiguous) | 6,909 |
| B Root+5th (ambiguous) | 5,104 |
| F Root+5th (ambiguous) | 4,392 |
| F# Root+5th (ambiguous) | 3,212 |
| C major triad | 3,200 |
| D major triad | 2,954 |
| G major triad | 2,896 |
| G# Root+5th (ambiguous) | 2,572 |
| C sus2 | 2,538 |
| A# Root+5th (ambiguous) | 2,191 |
| A sus2 | 2,139 |
