It reached number 4 in the US, but was never released as a single in the UK. The album Machine Head was released in 1972, but Smoke on the Water was only released in 1973 as a single.
In 1971 the band was in Montreux (Switzerland) to record their album Machine Head in the casino of Montreux. Smoke on the Water tells a true story.I would often go a step further and try to come up with some ideas of my own with the track, or even try for example improvising a completely different guitar solo.Some interesting background information about Smoke on the Water: And even when I do know it, I know I could still play it better so I don’t stop practicing it.
Only when I reliably reach this point with a song will I think of saying to myself “Yeah, I know that song”. However, it does mean being able to:ġ) Play it all the whole way through, without mistakesĢ) While standing up (when did you last see a rock band sitting down?)ģ) While turned up loud on a real amp (not a preset on a bedroom amp which disguises your sound)Ĥ) In time and grooving with other instruments (or backing track) What is ‘performance standard’? It doesn’t mean you need to actually be performing to a big audience, as in playing in a gig or concert. That means knowing your basic parts before you would actually practice them with a group, or practice playing them through to performance standard. There’s a separate chord pattern and ending to go under the guitar solo.Įverything so far is just getting a song to a rehearsal stage. You mean one of the three previous riffs, two of which you probably don’t know? No, sorry bro. “Uh, well, wouldn’t it just be one of the riffs we’ve already had?” Easy.īro… don’t tell me you don’t know what to play here either? I’ll play that, if you just accompany me on rhythm guitar. I’ll be generous now and say you don’t need to play Ritchie Blackmore’s guitar solo. Phew, it’s quite a long one - about 50 seconds. This whole pattern will repeat another time, so your next opportunity to play the main riff is at about 2 minutes 40 seconds. So the main riff returns around 1 minute 40 seconds - that’s great, because you know what to play again (… for about the next 15 seconds). So far so good - we’ve stood here like a tool for almost a whole minute while the song continues without us. That riff repeats twice before the main riff eventually comes back after that. Instead there seems to be another riff at the end of the verse. What’s that? Damn! The main riff hasn’t come back yet. Oh well, we’ll just wait for that main riff to come back along. Because most players have absolutely no idea what comes after the main riff in most of the songs they know.
See, I know for a fact that most players in this situation simply stop playing and start looking around awkwardly.
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