Smoke on the Water Guitar Solo Tab

Hey guys, Diego here. This time I transcribed and performed Ritchie Blackmore’s guitar solo from Smoke On The Water.

Most rock guitar players learn the main riff pretty early on. It is probably one of the first riffs a lot of us played when we started guitar. But sometimes we forget how interesting the actual solo is.

For me, this solo is almost a little harmony lesson.

The solo is centered around G minor, which shares the same notes as its relative major, Bb major. A lot of Blackmore’s vocabulary comes from G minor pentatonic, with all the bends, blues notes and familiar rock phrasing that we expect from him.

But the really interesting part is what happens with the harmony underneath.

A large part of the solo moves between G5 and C5 power chords. And because those chords do not contain a 3rd, Blackmore has some freedom to decide what kind of color the lead guitar is going to create over them.

That is where the modal side of the solo starts getting really interesting.

If we stay inside the G natural minor / Bb major sound, when the harmony moves to C5 we can hear that same collection of notes from C:

C – D – Eb – F – G – A – Bb

That gives us C Dorian.

So you can take vocabulary that already feels very natural for a rock guitar player, minor pentatonic, blues notes, bends and those familiar shapes, and start adding the notes that give it that Dorian color.

But Blackmore does not stay with only one color.

At other points, the same C5 chord can take on a completely different character.

And this is where I think the solo becomes a really cool example of modal playing.

Same Shape, Different Modal Color

The diagram above is a good way to visualize what I mean.

In the first example, we are looking at a C Dorian sound. The basic vocabulary still feels very familiar if you already know minor pentatonic and blues shapes.

But now look at the second example.

We can take that same type of rock vocabulary and organize it around G Dorian:

G – A – Bb – C – D – E – F

If we play those same notes over a C5 chord and hear C as the harmonic center, they become:

C – D – E – F – G – A – Bb

And now we have C Mixolydian.

That one note is a huge deal.

In C Dorian we have Eb, the minor 3rd of C.

In C Mixolydian we have E natural, the major 3rd of C.

The power chord itself has no 3rd, so the guitar line gets to introduce that information. That is why the same C5 can suddenly have a completely different color without the rhythm guitar changing the chord.

I love this kind of thing.

On paper it can sound complicated: Dorian, Mixolydian, relative major, modal shifts, different harmonic functions…

But when you put the guitar in your hands, it becomes much easier to understand.

And this is exactly how I like to work with intermediate rock players who want to go deeper into modes.

Instead of giving the student seven completely new scale shapes and saying, “Okay, now memorize all the Greek modes,” I prefer to start with something the player already knows.

Usually that means minor pentatonic, blues vocabulary and familiar rock shapes.

Then we start looking at what is actually happening inside those shapes.

Which note is the root? Where is the 3rd? Where is the 6th? What happens if that note moves by a half step? And most importantly: what does it sound like against the chord?

That becomes a kind of shortcut into modal playing.

But the shortcut is not the goal.

The sound is the goal.

The shape is just a way to help the student get there faster.

I want the player to hear the difference between that Eb and E natural over C, recognize that change on the fretboard, and then understand why one version gives us a minor/Dorian color while the other gives us a major/Mixolydian color.

Once you hear it, the theory starts making much more sense.

And modes stop looking like seven complicated scales that you have to memorize separately.

They become different colors that you can actually hear and use.

That is one of the things I think Blackmore does so well in this solo. On the surface, it still sounds completely like rock guitar. He never loses that pentatonic and blues-based vocabulary.

But underneath those familiar phrases, he is changing the harmonic color in a very clever way.

The player does not have to abandon the vocabulary he already knows in order to start using modes.

You can take familiar material, understand the theory behind it, and gradually expand the sound.

For me, that is one of the biggest lessons in the Smoke On The Water solo.

Sometimes the harmony can look very simple, just a couple of power chords, while the lead guitar is creating all kinds of different colors on top.

And that is a great concept to take into your own improvisation.