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INDEX

MODULE 1

PAGE 5

A - Let us start to put a song together      

- The House of the Rising Sun -

Using the Chords, the Pentatonic pattern and strum we have done so far we can start to do a basic version of this song

Why did I choose this song?

Several reasons

1 - A familiar song for many people

2 - The chords for beginners are relatively easy except maybe the F Major Bar chord but you can use the chord of F Major 7 as a substitute for now

3 - The basic strum pattern we are using for now is also fairly easy for beginners to enable their strumming and chord changes to develop

4 - Starting to play a solo by using the A Minor Pentatonic we have learned and making slight variations to this pentatonic pattern, thus enabling the ear to develop also (This conforms to my Rule Number One in music The EAR IS THE BOSS)

5 - The opportunity to take this basic song and then evolve it more, such as vary the rhythm, and learn and look at other scales that work to enhance your lead playing to become stronger

6 - Because this song does not strictly speaking use any one set scale throughout, I have noticed many people find it confusing to actually do much in the way of interesting lead work with it.  So basically any work and training done here with this song is going to be able to be transferred to a lot of other songs you may come across

7 - This is also a brilliant song for beginner guitarists wanting to develop their Finger Picking to get both the Left and Right hands working well together

I have a free full comprehensive Module on Finger Picking for those interested HERE and the link for a simple Finger Picking variation of the House of the Rising Sun can be found HERE

B - Remember

Always pay particular attention to the timing when practising rhythms and also scales

If you start slow keep it slow till you finish, when you have got it down pat then pick up the speed, again keeping it even all the way through

This will help you in the future to enable good timing

C - The Song

House of the Rising Sun

Below you will find

1 - the chord progression for the song

2 - An audio file to give an idea of how you should sound once you have mastered the basics of strumming and chord changes

3 - To help start you off, Videos of each chord played (Click on the Chord to go to the Video)

Practice till you can get all the chord changes all the way through the song several times

D - The House of the Rising Sun

(Click on the Chord to go to the Video)

NOTE: Bar 7 and Bar 8 are the same video, the video shown plays both bars (also Bar 8 is usually an E 7th Chord, I am just keeping it simple at the moment

NOTE:

For the chord of  D  &  FMaj7  don’t strum the bass E string on the first down stroke, try to only strum the A & D  strings, this may take a bit of practice

Play the song through as many times as you like from bar 1 to bar 16

When you want to end the song just strum the last chord of A Minor

See the Video

E1 - The House of the Rising Sun

By the Animals

E3 - The House of the Rising Sun has an old and long history also known as The House of the Rising Sun Blues and In New Orleans

It has been sung and played in many styles but was popularised best  by the Animals.  

A search on You Tube will bring up many versions of this song dating back to the 1920’s even

I have put two links here one by the Animals and another by  The White Buffalo -  (Used in the TV Serial Sons of Anarchy Season 4 Finale Song) They use different words and play in a different Key too, and have made this song their own so to speak

In the version by the Animals they are using a flat pick on the chords, for those of you who are used to using a flat pick or would like to try their version follow the diagram below

Basically use that pick pattern for all the chords

E2 - The House of the Rising Sun

By the White Buffalo

Timing          1      2   &   3     4      5      6

Down

Down

Down

Down

Up

Up

Up

Bass

Treble

F - Revise and Practise

You want to revise and practise all we have done, plus experiment with what you have done and learned so far, never be afraid to experiment

If you are not comfortable with your Bar chord keep working with them

Remember I am putting down a base (laying a foundation so to speak) of several projects so as we progress and learn we can build upon them

IN THE NEXT MODULE

We are going to look at an easy blues chords progression using Easy Open Chords and a slight variation on the rhythm strumming

D2: Listen to the audio file of the basic strumming

NOTE The last chord for the end of the song is not being played in this audio file

Once you can play the chord progression through several times just end on the A minor chord as shown in the video

M1 - Project  4

Starting to put a song together - House of the Rising Sun

Audio