“But they should be pulled and not picked.” Removing the delay between the two notes sounding that occurs when strummed, however small it may be, really cleans the riff up.Īnd while other guitarists, especially John Frusciante of Red Hot Chili Peppers fame, have made careers out of purposefully hitting muted strings, this technique isn’t ideal for “Smoke on the Water.” “As soon as a guitar player starts playing with a plectrum, they tend to hit other strings, too, so it all sounds a bit odd,” Blackmore explained. Just the two notes.” Plucking the strings like that gives the riff a slight but important differentiation from strumming. I actually pick the notes with two fingers at the same time, the thumb and the first finger. In an interview with HP Newquist, Blackmore sets us straight: “The thing is, I’ve seen people play it, and they always seem to strum it. Ritchie Blackmore, who wrote the iconic riff, has noticed this as well.
The heaviness of the riff fools a lot of people, who think he’s playing on the lower strings to get that heavy sound, but the fatness comes from his gear and the way Blackmore plays those simple notes.Īnother common mistake is that people strum the inverted power chords (or power chords if they still haven’t watched a live video of Deep Purple playing the song or read this article).
They are the same notes as the incorrect power chords, but the 5th of the chord (D) is on the bottom instead of G, the root. Blackmore is actually playing 4ths in G, starting on D and G (3rd and 4th strings open) and moving up the neck from there with these inverted power chords. Many guitarists know that Ritchie isn’t playing power chords for the riff, but to the untrained ear, it does sound like he’s playing 5ths. The thing is, unless you had a real hip teacher or you are an ardent Ritchie Blackmore fan, you might be playing it wrong even if you play it well. And of course there are plenty of people who can play both of those songs very skillfully, but they probably aren’t going to try to impress their friends with “Smoke on the Water” when they are trying out guitars at the local guitar shop. That distinction is one shared with only Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven,” another classic song beaten to death by people who think they can play it. The song is such a classic that guitar stores have been forced to put up signs that say “No ‘Smoke on the Water’,” because of so many goddamn kids coming in and playing all sorts of wrong interpretations of the opening riff. And you didn’t even hear the riff you just read some idiot’s text interpretation of it. duh, duh, duhduh… duh, duh, duh… duh, duh…” is one of the first riffs learned by almost every budding guitar player, and for good reason.
#Smoke on the water guitar chords how to
Please check the video for further explanation on how to play this classic riff.Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water” has, along with Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man,” the most famous riff in hard rock. You then repeat the first two chords and instead of playing fifth fret, you play the 6th fret then 5th. This chord is the third one and the same fingerings is used on the G Chord – that is, second and third fingers. The recommended fingering is to use the first one to lie down on both strings, alternatively you can use The first finger is placed on the 4rth string and the second finger on the 3rd string. The next notes on the 3rd fret of strings 3 and 4. It does not matter though, it is still G5 power chord. But instead of having the low root note G on the third string, it is on the 4rth string. This is in fact a G5 or a G major power chord. This is to prepare the first and second finger to play the second note/chord – “C”. Use you second and third finger in playing those notes. From the tablature, string 4 and 5 are played on both 5th fret. The first note or chord (two notes) is “G”. Then read the instruction and the actual how-to on how to play this riff.
Read them and more importantly watch the video and try it out and play it.
How to play “Smoke on the Water”īelow is the “complete” guitar riff (in tablature notation) of the Deep Purple song. Once you know and master how to play these notes/chords by heart, you will undoubtedly impress your friends. And speaking of chords, you only need to know 4 very simple major chords. Learning this classic guitar riff is very easy since you do not have to bar any chords. (Actually here where I live, I think Soldier of Fortune is more popular and a favorite song by many men in their Karaoke machines).Īnyway, this article along with the accompanying video, will teach you how to play Smoke on the Water on the Guitar. One of the greatest and most well known hit song of the rock group Deep Purple is “Smoke on the Water”.
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