How to play The Price of Smoke Blues by The Gnomes
The Price of Smoke Blues is a classic bar room rocker by The Gnomes, the band that fell out of a time hole and landed in Melbourne in 2026. Channeling the exciting blues/r’n’b sound of yesteryear The Gnomes are one of the current wave of Oz Rock bands showing audiences around the world that live rock ‘n roll still works. The Price of Smoke Blues is great electric guitar; get into it!
Rock-chords: D5 D6 D7, G5 and G7 in the10th position, A5 in the 12th fret and A♭5 in the 11th fret
Pick or Fingers? Pick, definitely; full on rockers like this only sound as intended with pick style.
Acoustic or Electric? Electric guitar, for sure. Don’t risk your hand health by playing full bar-chords on an acoustic guitar for a whole song. Only the electric guitar is suitable for this kind of chord work; acoustic guitars are not.
What are the crossed strums for? A rhythm-slash with a cross-head is a ‘percussive strum’ - a muted effect made by relaxing the chord fingers just enough to make sure you only hear the blunt percussive sound of the pick striking the muted strings; this a common electric guitar rhythm effect.
How does the timing work? The straight ahead rock style of The Price of Smoke Blues is all based on steady quaver rhythms with precision band stops in the alternating verse section. Remember to damp all the strings when you need that crisp, sudden stop. To get into the chart, work on the first two bars slowly and count “1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and | (1) and 2 and 3 and 4 and“ and so on. The tie (curved line) that connects the last strum in bar 1 to the first beat in bar 2 means you don’t strike the chord on the downbeat; just hold it but don’t forget to count!
What does the sl. abbreviation mean? It stands for ‘slide’ ; pick the first note then slide to the following note wth enough finger pressure to maintain an even gliding sound.
Relevant pages in Modern Guitar Chord Styles 2 : to learn more about the rock-chords and rhythm techniques used in The Price of Smoke Blues see pages 16 - 19. For a good general introduction to bar-chords see pages 4 - 8 and to learn about 12 bar Blues style see pages 9 - 13.
Need a bit of help?
Modern Guitar Chord Styles 2 is a must-have guide to Electric guitar chords and rhythm styles. It teaches you how to read the rhythm slash notation used in our charts (as used in professional theatre & studio charts) and is specially designed to build your strength and stamina with bar-chords, and extend your moveable chords vocabulary. An excellent tutor for the developing electric guitarist.
