Kristofer Dahl9th August 2008
This is a big moment! As you can see Andrew is not only a killer theory instructor - but he does it equally good in a video lesson!
This one should be a fantastic starting point for beginners. Welcome [as a video instructor] to GMC Andrew! I am really excited about your future lessons.
timono9th August 2008welcome to the site...
awesome first lesson
waiting for more!!!
DeepRoots9th August 2008Awesome! I look forward to future lessons Andrew!
Joe Kataldo9th August 2008Great energy
Chris Evans9th August 2008hahah and our mystery instructor is unveiled
cracking lesson mate, great video quality, look forward to more
rockztar9th August 2008very nice andrew=) headbanging
- rockztar9th August 2008
do you play with your homemade amp our your pod
Bogdan Radovic9th August 2008Amazing lesson Andrew !!! Great to finally see you in front of the camera !
kyldeee9th August 2008Awesome first lesson Andrew... Welcome to GMC
Ian Bushell9th August 2008Always a classic! Nicely done Andrew:)\m/
Darfuria9th August 2008Excellent sound there Andrew.
For those of you looking to do something a little interesting and catchy during that riff, you can add a small pinched harmonic lick after the run through the power chords.
G: 5th fret, pinched harmonic, bend up. 3rd fret, pinched harmonic.
D: 5th fret, pinched harmonic.
I'd record a video of this, or something, but I'm unable to right now.
Capt.Z9th August 2008Cool lesson!! Its cool to see a lesson from
you!!
Muris Varajic9th August 2008Congrats Andrew,
awesome lesson to start with!!
Fran9th August 2008Congrats on your first lesson Andrew, huge classic riffing, well done
mattacuk9th August 2008This is so awsome to see Andrew in his own Video lessons
kaznie_NL9th August 2008Cool Andrew!! I love it, and I'll be sure to use it for the smoke on the water collab!!
shroom9th August 2008
cool lesson, and what timing I saw deep purple live last night
Nighthawk19th August 2008Cool lesson Andrew ! How come that you do your first lesson only now ?...I thought GMC is not allowed to teach the original songs ?
Vinod Saranga9th August 2008Cool Lesson Andrew
Nice to have you on video lessons.
Nemanja Filipovic9th August 2008Cool lesson Andrew,the riff that probably every guitarist on the planet played first when he pick up the guitar.
Andrew Cockburn9th August 2008Thanks all of you for the kind comments!
QUOTEdo you play with your homemade amp our your pod
This was with my pod - the A.C.1 has a more bluesy tone and doesn't really have enough distortion for this kind of track. Now, the A.C.2 on the other hand , when I build it, will be a high gain beast!QUOTECool lesson Andrew ! How come that you do your first lesson only now ?...I thought GMC is not allowed to teach the original songs ?
I have wanted to do a video lesson for a while now, but it is pretty hard to get the quality up to GMC standards, and I wanted to find a niche, so now I will be doing a series of beginner lessons - this was just to get my feet wet and make sure everything was up to scratch
Regarding the original song - yes, this is a first (apart from Marcus Siepen's recent Harvest of Sorrow lesson - but that is a little different as we have an in with the band!). GMC has a licence allowing some non-original songs to be covered as long as we don't put up tabs, so you can expect some more in this series as well as an absolute beginners series
Pablo Vazquez9th August 2008Fantastic lesson Andrew!!!!
Martin la guitarra9th August 2008awesome lesson Andrew!
Caelumamittendum9th August 2008Nice first lesson, Andrew! Looking forward to some more.
bubbalicious9th August 2008well done andy on your first lesson;)
David Wallimann9th August 2008Andrew, this is a great lesson!
Great explanation and very nice video quality.
I'm looking forward for more!
Nick3259th August 2008awesome first video lesson andrew
Gabriel Leopardi9th August 2008You rock Andrew! Excelent first video lesson!
The chords on screen are very helpful for beginers. Good job!
Pi389th August 2008Great lesson, killer tune, awesome guitar. Who could ask for more?
JVM9th August 2008Who is this guy?
Awesome to see you on screen Andrew, i was headbanging the entire time. I'm glad you got the bass line - it's one of my favorite basslines of all time even though it's so simple.. really makes the riff too I think.
Henry Dietzel9th August 2008AWESOME!! great lesson Andrew, can't wait for more
Nazgul9th August 2008This is awesome! I always wondered how to play it, because lots of people play it differently.
- Déjà vu9th August 2008
WOW! Your theory lessons are great on a piece of paper... I wonder what they'll be like in video!?
Smoke on the Water was my very first riff as well. - Andrew Cockburn9th August 2008
Thanks for all your comments guys - really makes me happy as I was a little worried about my first lesson!
@JVM - yes I paid a lot of attention to the bass as it is such an integral part of the song
@Deja Vu - you can be sure I will be bringing a lot of theory into my lessons when its appropriate! 
sigma79th August 2008yay!!!!! finally smoke on the water
Bedlam9th August 2008Glad to see you doing video lessons! I hope to see many more. Maybe turning some of your written lessons into video!
Trond Vold9th August 2008Excellent!
Hope to see more videos like this from you
Carlos Carrillo9th August 2008Are you crazy man??This lesson is incredible!!
Hey!! The chords on screen are great!welcome to the site... God bless you!!- Andrew Cockburn9th August 2008QUOTE (Carlos Carrillo)Are you crazy man??This lesson is incredible!!
Hey!! The chords on screen are great!welcome to the site... God bless you!!
Thanks Carlos - that means a lot 
ErikEklund9th August 2008Great lesson man!
Saw deep purple last night in sweden
TreyDeschamp9th August 2008awesome lesson and now i can prove to my friend he's playing it wrong
Toni Suominen9th August 2008Nice lesson Andrew!
Gilmore9th August 2008Great lesson, and a cover of actual song, is it ok to do that now here at GMC?
chmilew9th August 2008Andrew you rock !
That was a great lesson
bham10th August 2008hey andrew,
aren't those 4 chords played in the riff?
they're labeled as G5 and there's no fifth anywhere. =/
Jesse10th August 2008Cool, what I do. After the riff. on the low E string... 0-34 and the riff again.
L- Alex8710th August 2008
Welcome to GMC Andrew ;-) Nice first lesson
- kaznie_NL10th August 2008
Second Commnet
I just wanted to add that this is one of the best lessons on GMC. The way you explain thing, make this a Lesson and not just an Example of the tune! I love the slomos and the talking in the vids!!! 
Hisham Al-Sanea10th August 2008nice to see you andrew on screen and welcome first lesson ...nice long nails.
- Andrew Cockburn10th August 2008Great lesson, and a cover of actual song, is it ok to do that now here at GMC?
Yes, we can do covers as long as we don't use tabs ...hey andrew,
aren't those 4 chords played in the riff?
they're labeled as G5 and there's no fifth anywhere. =/
G5 relates to the notes within the chord itself - its a root and 5th only so it is called G5Second Commnet
I just wanted to add that this is one of the best lessons on GMC. The way you explain thing, make this a Lesson and not just an Example of the tune! I love the slomos and the talking in the vids!!!
Thanks Kaznie - I know the subject matter is beginner level but I wanted to do a good job of the videos so I tried to add some new features - glad you noticed!nice to see you andrew on screen and welcome first lesson ...nice long nails.
Thanks Hisham 
Danilo Capezzuto10th August 2008First lesson with one of the greatest riff, keep on mate!
Juan M. Valero10th August 2008amazing riff, I played it lot of times !!!
- Gilmore11th August 2008
I saw an interview with Blacmore where he says he says got the idea for this riff by listening to Beethovens 5th symphony. He usually picks the both notes together with his fingers, sounds a little different than using a pick. I´ve also heard him play the riff live by adding the bass G note between each chord, just like he plays the riff in Burn, and All Night Long. Amazing player, one of my all time favourites.
Ivan Milenkovic11th August 2008COngratulations Andrew, great first video lesson, video quality is great. Keep rockin my friend!
- Andrew Cockburn11th August 2008COngratulations Andrew, great first video lesson, video quality is great. Keep rockin my friend!
Thanks Ivan 
Jeff11th August 2008What a great presentation, Andrew. First class video instruction. This is the very first song I ever learned on guitar. Thanks for the trip back in time!
g-forcelover11th August 2008Sweet lesson! i though you couldn't teach copyrighted songs though
blindwillie11th August 2008Great Andrew! We really need the basic beginner lessons here.
Jerry Arcidiacono12th August 2008Great Andrew! It's really cool to see you and your Jem together
- stonebridges13th August 2008
great lesson - thank you and more please!
Dejan Farkas20th August 2008Amazing first lesson, we want more
- Andrew Cockburn20th August 2008
Thanks Dejan!
kjutte18th November 2008Hey man, these intervals are R4, not R5... Or have I mistaken?
Alexiaden936th June 2009Awesome !
- Andrew Cockburn6th June 2009
They are actually inverted 5ths, which are the same as 4ths. The key is that the root is the highest note, not the lower as is usual. This inverts the interval making it functionally a 5th.
thefireball5th October 2010Oh, so that's what that riff is! I wanna learn it! Bookmarked!!
- classicrockjunkie10th March 2013
Great lesson. Man on the Silver Mountain would be a good companion lesson maybe
. 
Cosmin Lupu10th March 2013Hey classicrockjunkie! Glad you like it
I am in charge with it now so please let me know if there are any questions
- main
- Members only1
- 2
- Members only3
- Members only4
- Members only5
- Difficulty: 1
- Difficulty5
- Difficulty8
Black Star On the...
yngwie malmsteen, deep purple, highway star, black star, neoclassical, by Lucio Antolini - Difficulty6
- Difficulty3
- Difficulty2
- Difficulty4
- Difficulty4
- Difficulty7
- Difficulty5
- Lesson
- My notes
- Statistics
Hi there, and welcome to my first GMC lesson! Today we will be learning to play the Deep Purple classic "Smoke on the Water" - possibly the most essential riff that any beginner guitarist can learn! Originally written in the early 70s, "Smoke on the Water" has inspired countless guitarists with its simple yet powerful sound, and in fact its one of the easiest riffs out there, and more than suitable for a beginner to learn.
Since this is a beginner level lesson, we will be focusing on the beginning riff itself and how to play it cleanly. There are backing tracks at various speeds, and I have included 5 minute backing track so you can really get practicing!
Ok, what are we waiting for - lets see how we play "Smoke on the Water".
Members practicing this lesson
- CobainGirl
- Hoschi
- Leedjc
- Antareus
- Foxtrot3
- Willingshred
- KD24
- Kjburr
- Guitardoctor
- Snapshotjxj
- Charles C
- Robinoza
- Gtranche
- Saintnz
- Skynet
- Jez Tuckwell
- Weeist
- Cangrejo
- RaulR
- Toma Ironmen
- GERARDPA
- Marc123
- Nukakola
- Schraddlz
- Bette
- Magnus Akerstrom
- Onando
- Karaokestar
- Terry
- Lizbethlongoria
- King arthur
- Vinsub
- Loz
- Mccready
- Mk18
- Asagi
- Draiden
REC Takes
Here is how to submit one.
Lesson views
- Total views: 71852
- Member views: 4053
- Guest views: 67799