Oh, Pretty Woman

by Roy Orbison • Lesson #441 • Jun 25, 2022

Description

Hey, friends! New lesson today for Roy Orbison’s 1964 classic Oh, Pretty Woman. This song is tremendously fun to play, featuring an all-timer guitar riff that’s integrated quite seamlessly with the intro, verse, and chorus of the song. With a solo acoustic guitar, I’ll teach you to play it all: the riff, the strumming, and everything in between. It took me a few days of serious practice before I could sing + strum + play the riff all without missing a step, but I finally able to get there — and I’m excited to show you the way. Let’s check it out!

Free Video Lesson

Slow Playthrough

Requires membership to Song Notes Premium. If you’d like to see a slowed-down version of this song, check out this additional video. I play the entire song (ending included) at 100 beats per minute, which is quite a bit slower than Roy Orbison’s 127bpm. I also use simple strumming pattern (down strums on the 1 and 3 counts only), and the simplified version of the riff (no pinky used). After the playthrough, I’ll also give some general performance tips & advice not included in my full-song lesson above. I hope you find this helpful!

Only available to Premium members

Upgrade to Premium

Print-Friendly Song Sheet 3 pages

Follow along with my print-friendly guide for this song! It’s available for purchase at Musicnotes.com, the web’s leading provider of licensed sheet music.

On the fence? Here's a guide I made showing the purchase & print process, including answers to common questions about my song sheets.

Buy at Musicnotes.com

Save 50% on this song sheet by applying the September 2023 code at Musicnotes checkout: WRKGBMXP7Y (click to copy). Thanks for being a Premium supporter!

Song Notes Premium includes a 50% discount code you can use when buying any of my licensed song sheets. For the current month's code, upgrade to premium or log in.

Backing Track Available

I made a drum backing track for you to use while playing this song (or, when practicing just the riff). The track is a relatively simple drum beat matching what you hear on Orbison’s recording. This particular drum beat is very quarter-note heavy (e.g. ONE-TWO-THREE-FOUR), repeating for ~5 minutes or so. The idea is you can practice the main riff, or strumming the full song, while this track is helping you keep time. I made two separate backing tracks:

127 bpm

Roy Orbison’s actual tempo. Download.

100 bpm (slower version)

Slower version, if you’re working up to Roy’s tempo. Download.

How to use the backing track to practice the riff

  1. Play the track. Begin counting in a 1-2-3-4 manner (four beats per measure).
  2. When you’re ready, play the “tease” version of the riff on the beat, and remember the “tease” last six counts total. Then, play the tease one more time. Finally, play the “full” intro riff – and repeat it 4 times total.
  3. If you want, you can continue to play over the track during the verse. You can even play over it for the chorus, but this is where it may sound a bit different than Orbison’s album version — as his drum track changes during the chorus section.

Listen to Roy Orbison’s Album Recording

Played at 127 beats per minute. Key of A, standard tuning.

Additional Lessons To Help With This Song

Here’s instructional lessons I’ve made teaching concepts that are useful in this song.


Browse Related Lessons

Click any tag below to view other lessons I've made in that category:

About Song Notes

Hey there! My name is David Potsiadlo, and I'm the creator of the 400+ weekly lessons here at Song Notes, going back to 2013. Here’s my guitar story »

Get Free Lessons Each Week!

Join the 20,000+ readers who get my new lessons dropped in their inbox each week. I teach a fun mix of songs, weekly riffs, practice ideas, and more!

Enjoy my lessons? Buy me a beer!

If this and my other lessons have proven helpful to you, please consider making a one-time donation to my tip jar. Contributions of any amount help make this project possible (including the many, many hours I put into it).

Fun & Helpful Tools I've Made

Fret Monster

Interactive fretboard map! See the patterns behind every scale in any key.

View

Capo Captain

An easy way to calculate key & chord combinations, for any capo location!

View

Subscribe to my YouTube channel

Be sure to never miss a lesson by subscribing on YouTube. I put out 2-3 new videos every week. These include full song lessons, as well as covers, practice tips, behind-the-scenes updates. Thanks!


Recent Lessons

Browse All Recent Lessons →

Browse All My Lessons

By lesson type

By technique

By musical genre

By decade

By musical key

By popular artist


← back to homepage