House Of The Rising Sun | Chords + Lyrics
Intro
| 6/8 Am | C | D | F |
| Am | E | Am | E |
Verse 1
| Am | C | D | F |
There is a house in New Orleans.
| Am | C | E | E |
They call the Rising Sun.
| Am | C | D | F |
And it’s been the ruin of many a poor boy.
| Am | E |
And God, I know I’m one.
Instrumental 1
| Am | C | D | F | Am | E | Am | E |
Verse 2
My Mother was a tailor.
Sewed my blue jeans.
My father was a gamblin’ man.
Down in New Orleans.
Instrumental 2
| Am | C | D | F | Am | E | Am | E |
Verse 3
Now the only thing a gambler needs.
Is a suitcase and a trunk.
And the only time that he’ll be satisfied.
Is when he’s on a trump.
Instrumental 3
| Am | C | D | F | Am | E | Am | E |
Solo
| Am | C | D | F |
| Am | C | E | E |
| Am | C | D | F |
| Am | E |
| Am | C | D | F |
| Am | E | Am | E |
Verse 4
Oh Mother, tell your children.
Not to do what I have done.
Spend your lives in sin and misery.
In the house of the Rising Sun.
Instrumental 4
| Am | C | D | F |
| Am | E | Am | E |
Verse 5
Well, I got one foot on the platform
The other foot on the train.
I’m going back to New Orleans
To wear that ball and chain.
Instrumental 5
| Am | C | D | F | Am | E | Am | E |
Verse 6
Well, there is a house in New Orleans.
They call the Rising Sun.
And it’s been the ruin of many a poor boy.
And God, I know I’m one.
Outro
| Am | C | D | F |
||: Am | E | Am | E :||
| Am | E | Am | Am |
House Of The Rising Sun Chords: Learn the progressions
Often seen as a common beginner guitar song, House Of The Rising Sun by The Animals is difficult due to the fast-picking technique.
Personally, I would class this as an intermediate song as I still find it difficult when played at the full tempo!
Still, the chords are all open-position chords and I supposed you could practice slowly and therefore improve your picking technique, making House Of The Rising Sun’s chords a great exercise.
Speaking of the chords, using Roman Numerals, they are VI – I – IIx – IV. Then when repeated, go to IIIx instead of the last two chords. The last two bars are just VI – IIIx.
In the key of Am, this becomes:
||: Am (VI) | C (I) | D (IIx) | F (IV) |
| Am | C | E (IIIx) | E |
| Am | C | D | F |
| Am | E :||
The IIIx (E) is a very common variation, more common than Em in the key of Am. The big tension of the chord progression is in chord IIx (D), which if diatonic would have been Dm.
The reason we feel this extreme tension is because that D chord has an F# as a 3rd. Followed by an F chord, we get a chromatic movement.
As exciting as this is, my favourite part of House Of The Rising Sun isn’t the chords, it’s how the pattern itself holds an obvious secret to getting better in general; the open G string at the end of every chord.
This can only be described accurately using TAB, here’s a link to that part of the lesson: House Of The Rising Sun – Guitar Lesson with TAB. You’ll find how that open G string is used to get from one chord to another.
In the TAB lesson, we also look at how to strum the chords, something that happens toward the end of the original recording but is often forgotten by teachers when working on this classic.
Once you have the TAB down, a simple chord chart is all you need to remember how to play House Of The Rising Sun’s chords, here’s one I made for you.
House Of The Rising Sun Chord Chart | PDF + iReal Pro
Should you want to download this chart, here’s a PDF: House Of The Rising Sun Chord Chart PDF.
This chord chart was created using iReal Pro, here’s a link to that file: House Of The Rising Sun iReal Pro. Using this and the iRealPro app, you can change the key.
House Of The Rising Sun is a traditional!
Nobody knows for certain who wrote it, it may even be several folk songs combined.
One theory is that House Of The Rising Sun is an old English Folk song about a pub called The Rising Sun due to its most eastern location of Lowestoft, Suffolk.
Apparently, some of the lyrics went “If you go to Lowestoft, and ask for The Rising Sun, There you’ll find two old whores and my old woman is one.”
Later the lyrics came to be about New Orleans and were recorded by English rockers The Animals in 1964. Some say this was the world’s first folk-rock recording.
No matter how you twist and turn, House Of The Rising Sun has been and probably always will be an important part of music history.
House Of The Rising Sun Chords | Related Pages
House Of The Rising Sun | Guitar Lesson + TAB
With this guitar lesson, you can learn to play House Of The Rising Sun by The Animals using TAB and chord analysis.
| Am | C | D | F |
There is a house in New Orleans…
Five similar tunes | Chords + Lyrics
The Animals tunes
Not just known for having written one of the world’s most famous beginner guitar songs, The Animals’ bass player also discovered Jimi Hendrix.
After seeing Jimi on tour with his band, he took him to England, introduced him to Eric Clapton, recorded Hey Joe, and changed the world.
The Animals on the web
About me | Dan Lundholm
This was a guitar lesson about House Of The Rising Sun chords, by Dan Lundholm. Discover more about him and how you can learn guitar with Spytunes.
Most importantly, find out why you should learn guitar through playing tunes, not practising scales, and studying theory in isolation.
