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.
Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water” has, along with Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man,” the most famous riff in hard rock.
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