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Apple Blossom

by The White Stripes • Lesson #30 • Nov 2, 2016

About this lesson

Hey there, friends — here’s my 2016 lesson teaching Apple Blossom by The White Stripes. This is a fun minor blues tune that makes nice use of choppy, stacatto strums during the verse. I’ll walk you through this technique, as well as the chords and strumming you’ll need to pull off the full song. Some acoustic-friendly solo tips are included as well!

Update from April 2025: I re-wrote all tabs in my practice notes PDF so they’re more legible! I also added a brand new slow playthrough video, which is available below.

  • 0:00 Playthrough & Welcome
  • 3:22 Chords Used
  • 4:08 Verse Strumming Technique
  • 5:57 Refrain Strumming Technique
  • 7:54 Using Barre Chords?

Practice Notes 2 pages

It includes all of my notes for this lesson, allowing you to follow along at your own pace. You're free to download, print, and share the PDF across your devices.

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Download PDF

Here's a print-friendly PDF I made with all of my practice notes for this lesson. This lets you follow along with everything I show in video tutorial at your own pace.

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Part 2 - Slow Playthrough Video

Here’s a separate video (recorded in 2025, with much better video & audio quality) where I play through the intro, verse, and chorus sections slowly. The camera is zoomed in, without talking, and I have tabs on the screen. If you want hear how things sound when strummed steadily, this will give you a good idea.

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Need Help Silencing the Strings?

If you can’t quite get the hang of the percussive silencing of the strings (used in the intro and verse sections), here’s a few videos that’ll get you up to speed with this technique. Note, you can do this with either your fretting hand or your strumming hand… videos teaching both approaches are below.

Silencing Strings with Fretting Hand

★ Instructional PDF

Silencing Strings with Strumming Hand

★ Instructional PDF

White Stripes Album Recording

Here’s how Apple Blossom sounds when played by the White Stripes. Note, Jack White’s guitar sounds like it’s slightly out of tune… meaning it’ll sound a bit off if you’re in standard tuning. Just the same, helpful to hear!

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