[OBS: 1] Orange Blossom Special

Orange Blossom Special Lesson #1

This is the first lesson in a series on the Orange Blossom Special. It’s a challenging tune that integrates a few advanced techniques: polyrhythmic string crossing, advanced fingering, and double stops.

I’ve had a lot of requests for this but have held off. It always seemed a bit show-offy. But I recently started fiddling with it and realized that if it was broken down enough, even a beginner could start with the basic pattern.

In this lesson I’ll introduce the whole tune and then walk through each of the five lessons we’ll do:

  • [OBS: 1] Overview and the basic rhythmic pattern
  • [OBS: 2] Adding advanced fingering
  • [OBS: 3] Learning the double stops
  • [OBS: 4] Putting together the A part
  • [OBS: 5] Learning the B part

In this lesson, we’ll learn the basic rhythmic pattern in a simple way. It’s tricky, but I think if you are an advanced beginner you can do it. Let me know how it goes in a comment…

This lesson is part of the Art Of Fiddling course. Students with an Ultimate Subscription can access all the AOF lessons. Subscribe here. And thanks for your support. 🙏

Preparation

Here are some lessons you can take to prepare for this:

Fingering and String Crossing Exercises I

Fingering and String Crossing Exercises II

Fingering and String Crossing Exercises III

Learning chunks 

I’ve made some “Learning Chunks” to help you learn more easily. These focused exercises contain sheet music, tabs and mp3 snippets to guide you on your fiddle journey. 

For those of you who read (or want to read), this tune is in A Major and 4/4 time:

This might help you practice with the Learning Chunks below.

OBS 1.1

D0-0-A0-D0-0-A0


OBS 1.2

D0-0-A0-D0-0-A1

OBS 1.3

D0-0-A0-D0-0-A1-D0-0-A0-D0-0-A1 {COUNT “3,4”}

OBS 1.4

This is the basic rhythm of the A part. Mastering this is the key that unlocks the the whole tune.

D0-0-A0-D0-0-A1-D0-0-A0-D0-0-A1-D0-0-A0-D0

OBS 1.5

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OBS 1.6

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OBS 1.7

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OBS 1.8

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OBS 1.9

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Sheet music


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7 responses to “[OBS: 1] Orange Blossom Special”

  2. Thank you Jason, the fingering and rhythm exercises helped a lot. It gave me some good tools for cleaning up another tune I’ve been working on that has some string crossing rhythms that have been fuzzy at times. Sonny’s Mazurka, fun tune with a chance to try the crossing going up and down the scale. Thanks for all your great lessons.
    Bernie

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