Smoke On The Water Tabs

The Riff You Actually Need to Know

The Smoke On The Water Tabs you're looking for are straightforward, but most people mess up the second half of the riff because they don't understand the chromatic approach notes. The main riff is played on the G and D strings, starting with the famous E–F–G–F–E pattern across two strings. Here is the breakdown. E string: 7th fret, 8th fret, then the D string open, 7th fret, 8th fret, 7th fret. That is the entire melody. It loops. The tab looks like this on six strings: G|---0-7-8-7---|

D|--7-8-7------| A|-------------| E|-------------|

It seems stupidly simple and that is the problem. Beginners spend too much time overcomplicating it. The real challenge is getting the timing right, especially that eighth-note pickup into the next phrase. Ritchie Blackmore played it with a particular pick attack that is harder to nail than the notes themselves. One thing I ran into constantly when teaching this riff: people play the D string 7th fret as a regular quarter note instead of an eighth note hooked into the previous beat. It sounds flat and dragged out. The fix is to practice the transition from the E string 8th fret to the D string 7th fret as a single slurred motion rather than two separate picks. Hammer the D string note instead of picking it again. It takes about three days of slow practice to rewire that habit, but once it clicks the riff suddenly sounds like the recording. You can find accurate Smoke On The Water Tabs on sites like Songsterr, Ultimate-Guitar, and Musicnotes. Songsterr has the best player for learning it slowly because it lets you loop individual measures. The free tabs on Ultimate-Guitar are usually correct for this song since it is one of the most tablatured songs in history, but verify against the original recording. A few user-submitted versions have the F note on the G string wrong and put it on the A string instead, which breaks the whole sound.

The solo that follows the riff is in D minor pentatonic and runs mostly between the 5th and 8th frets on the G and B strings. If you are learning the solo as well, the trick is that Blackmore uses a lot of legato here. Pull-offs and hammer-ons carry more of the sound than alternate picking. Trying to pick every note in the solo cleanly at tempo will exhaust your right hand and make it sound stiff. Practice the solo sections with just hammer-ons and pull-offs first, then bring the pick back in. One counter-intuitive point about tone: most players expect to get that sound with a Marshall stack and a wah pedal. You do not. The original tone came from a Vox AC30 through a Vox Contreverber and a Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face. If you are trying to recreate it on a tube screamer or a high-gain amp, it will sound thin and scooped. Even on an electric guitar with single-coil pickups you can approximate it by rolling off the tone knob slightly and using a light overdrive, not heavy distortion. The riff needs to cut, not crush. Another detail beginners miss: the rhythm guitar part during the verses is mostly just chord stabs on A5, D5, and E5 shapes with palm muting. The chords are not full barre chords. They are power chords played with a tight, percussive downstroke pattern. Playing full barres with the ring and pinky fingers will slow you down and make the verse feel loose.

If you want a download link for the official tab sheet music, Musicnotes sells a printable version for a few dollars. It is the most accurate transcribed version available. Free tabs will work for the main riff, but if you want the bridge and solo written out properly you will eventually hit the limits of amateur transcriptions. The bridge in particular has some chromatic passing tones that most free tabs skip entirely. The main bottleneck with learning this song is that it is so short and repetitive that players get bored before they lock in their timing. The entire song is maybe three minutes of the same three-chord progression and one riff. That is actually the test. Can you play that simple riff cleanly at speed for four minutes straight without rushing or dragging? Most people cannot, and they do not realize it because they only practice the intro and forget to play all the way through. Use a metronome at 60 beats per minute. Play the riff six times through without stopping. Increase by two BPM. Repeat until you hit 116 BPM, which is roughly the tempo of the original. If you miss a single note, go back down five beats per minute. This usually takes about two weeks of daily practice for someone who already knows basic power chords and finger positioning.

Quick reference summary: Main riff is E string 7-8 and D string open-7-8-7. Chromatic approach gives it the signature sound. Use legato for the solo. Palm-muted power chords for the verse. Tone should be crisp overdrive, not high gain. Metronome practice is non-negotiable if you want it to sound right.