The House of the Rising Sun is a traditional folk song that was made popular by the group The Animals in the 1960s. Watch the Animals version of the song here. The song is also sometimes called Rising Sun Blues.

The House of the Rising Sun is a very popular song to learn basic fingerstyle technique. In fact, it is the first song our teachers use to teach students fingerstyle technique at Do Re Mi Studios. This is a technique where the guitarist plucks the strings with the fingertips or the fingernails. If you are not familiar with this technique, read Fingerstyle Guitar Technique Explained before attempting to play this song. It will prepare you technically for this song.

The song is in 6/8 time. This time signature is referred to as a compound time signature. It means that there are 6 eight notes played per bar. Learn more about simple and compound time signatures here.

To play House of the Rising Sun, use the right hand picking pattern p i m a m i throughout the whole piece until the last bar. The chord charts have been included in the score below to make it easier to follow the music. If you are not familiar with the fingering required for any of the chords in the song read click here.

Below is the audio track of House of the Rising Sun. Press play now and listen to what you should be aiming to achieve with practice. Before attempting to play the piece, practice the right hand pattern (i.e. p i m a i m) using just one chord (e.g. chord A minor). When you feel confident with the pattern then go on to play the piece. Practice slowly and ensure that as you change chords, you are playing the correct bottom note (i.e. bass note) of the chord.

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And that’s it folks! Hope you enjoyed this lesson. Contact Do Re Mi Studios if you would like lessons on fingerstyle guitar technique or any other guitar techniques and styles you would like to learn. Besides guitar, we also teach drums, bass, singing and piano. For more details about our lessons click here.

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