(soft guitar music)
- So the number one requested song of all time
well at least, for the last little bit here
in my email in box has been guess what?
(hands slapping)
"House of the Rising Son."
I'm sure you guessed that from the intro on this.
So, I wanted to teach this song
but there are tons of videos out there on this
and tons of resources to learn it.
So I wanted to concentrate mostly on the right hand
so you can play just like it sounds on the recording.
(soft guitar music)
It's a little bit different than a lot of people
are teaching it on the internet.
But, like the first thing you have to get down
is the chord progression and then you make sure
you know the chords.
So the chords that you need to know are A Minor.
(guitar strumming)
C Major. (guitar strumming)
D Major. (guitar strumming)
This version of an F Major chord.
Just the top four strings. (guitar strumming)
And then an E Major too. (guitar strumming)
So it's only a hand full of chords but it's a great song.
So there are two main chord progressions
and before I get in to those
you just need to know that this song
is in 6/8 time not 4/4.
You know, one, two, three four,
one, two, three, four like a lot of songs
but just counts a six over and over again.
One, two, three, four, five, six,
one, two, three, four, five, six.
And you get that kind of swing feel.
One, two, three, four, five, six.
Just keep that in mind.
Each measure has six beats or six counts in it.
So the first chord progression is what I call
the intro progression.
Or the one that's going on while there's no singing
and then the second I call the verse progression.
It's the one that's going on while the singing is going on.
And they're very similar
they just kind of end different on.
All you really need to know is how to play
your right hand stuff when any particular chord appears.
So let's go through the intro progression real quick.
Just so you can get those chord changes down.
That's like ground zero of the thing
that you need to be able to do.
So it's A Minor. (guitar strumming)
One, two, three, four, five, six for one measure.
Then a C for one measure.
(guitar strumming) One, two, three,
four, five, six.
Then a D for one measure.
(guitar strumming) One, two, three,
four, five, six.
And then an F for one measure.
(guitar strumming) One, two, three,
four, five, six.
And then an A Minor.
(guitar strumming) One, two, three,
four, five, six.
And then an E.
(guitar strumming) One, two, three,
four, five, six one measure.
Then A Minor (guitar strumming)
again for one measure.
And then finally to end this progression just go back
(guitar strumming) to E for one measure.
And if you don't know these chords you can go right here
to this video and learn these open chords
and this F. (guitar strumming)
It will help you a lot.
Once you get those down you need to work
on just switching between them cleanly
and there are kind of different levels
that you take this at with your right hand
as far as getting up to speed
and working toward the ultimate goal
of playing it how it is on the song.
The first thing you can do is, just,
you know, count out each measure and strum once.
So, one, two, three, (guitar strumming)
four, five, six.
One, two, three, four, five, six.
D, two, three, (guitar strumming)
four, five, six.
F, four, five, six. (guitar strumming)
A Minor. (guitar strumming)
E Major. (guitar strumming)
A Minor. (guitar strumming)
E Major. (guitar strumming)
Okay, so that's kind of the first step
after that once you're comfortable with the chord changes
and you can, you know, switch between them in time,
then you can start maybe strumming in 6/8
hitting every eighth note with strumming.
So one, two, three, four, five, six.
(soft guitar music)
C.
D.
F.
A minor.
E.
A Minor.
E.
And if you wanna play and sing along to the song
that will get you through the entire song
but learning the right hand thing that's going on
presents a lot of really cool technics to work on.
And it's a really good thing to build some skill,
so let's go over that.
And again, if you want to check out
the progression of the verse
it's just a little bit different at the end.
The same ideas apply when certain chords come up
you just use these same ideas for the right hand.
So there is one main pattern that you need to learn.
It's kind of a cross between
sweet picking and cross picking.
For your right hand.
And I'll play it for you up speed
then I'll slow it down
and we can talk about what's going on.
(guitar strumming)
And I got this directly from the music video
that the Animals did.
So I wanted to make sure to get it exactly right.
(guitar strumming)
So you would have accurate information.
So the basic structure of this thing
is down, down down, down,
up, down, up.
And it's a little bit weird at first
because you end up kind of wanting to do this.
(guitar strumming)
Something like that for on, you know,
on the way from the low strings to the high strings.
But you need to have that note separation.
So you have one 8th note.
(guitar strumming)
Then two 16th notes with two more down strokes
on the D and G string. (guitar strumming)
So and then another 8th note (guitar strumming)
on the B string with the down stroke.
So when I do that I go down.
Kind of on it's own. (guitar strumming)
I reset for another down
and then push through the next three strings
with like a sweep. (guitar strumming)
But they're separated, it's not a strum.
It's more like that. (guitar strumming).
So you have.
So that's the place you need to kind of live
and really work on to get the style of this song down.
It's just being able to do that one thing right there.
(guitar strumming) To start.
And start very slowly.
And I keep pressure on the pick almost the whole time
after that initial down stroke.
So, then I kind of reset and then I push
(guitar strumming)
through all with keeping the pressure going down,
(guitar strumming)
From there,
that last down stroke
that I pushed through the B string
it kind of let, ah, slide over the high E string
and hit that high E string with an up.
(guitar string strumming)
And then a down on the B string.
(guitar string strumming)
And then an up on the G.
So that's where your cross picking comes in.
So like one normal note.
(guitar sting strumming) A sweep.
Then cross over the high E up, down, up
on the E, B and G stings.
And that is the main pattern that you need to have down.
You just adjust it according to what chord you have on
but it is really the same.
You just have to make some minor adjustments
as you go through the chord changes.
So getting that down.
(guitar strumming)
And I find the more relaxed I am with my right hand
the easier it is to get through
(guitar strumming) and be accurate.
Also, I anchor my hand a little bit here and here.
(guitar strumming)
And that helps me keep track of where I am
with this particular technique.
And it's a little bit weird at first
because it slowly. (guitar strumming)
It's not that hard but once you get it up to speed
really keeping that note separation can be a challenge.
(guitar strumming)
And you are going to have to speed this up at some point
to get the style and keep up with the, the sound
and feel of the song.
(guitar strumming)
But that is the main thing that you wanna do
and as you go through this progression.
Just worry about the intro progression for now
you can worry about the verse progression later.
Just thing about this pattern for each chord.
And here's the pattern for each chord.
The C is the exact same.
You can use the exact same strings.
So down, down, down, down.
Up, down, up.
On the exact same strings that you started with
for the A Minor.
And we have the tab here for you too
if you need to slow this down even more.
(guitar strumming)
So that's a kind of easy, you get a double dip
on the A Minor and the C.
(soft guitar music)
Now when you get to the D things change a little bit
because you're only using the top four strings.
So, start the pattern on the D string this time
Instead of the A. (guitar strumming)
And it's the exact same pattern.
But when you get to that high E string
you run out of string, so you hit the E string twice.
The high E string.
Just the first time be with a down stroke.
(guitar strumming)
Then the pattern starts on the E.
Up down up.
So E
B G.
Same pattern, you're just hitting that E string twice.
So. (guitar strumming)
And so once you get the A Minor and the C down,
just work on that 'cause it's going to feel different
and you need to train your body
to go to D string. (guitar strumming)
And hit that E string twice.
Next is the F. (guitar strumming)
And it changes a little bit here
but the basic pattern is kind of the same.
So, start off out like you did on the D
with the D string.
And play down, down, down, down up.
But once you get to this point you have a G string
that you need to play a down stroke on.
(guitar strumming)
And then lift your middle finger off of the G string
to play that open G string.
And that's the pattern for the F.
Down, down, down, down up.
G string down.
Open G string up.
(guitar strumming)
And that's probably the most difficult one to me
because it's the most abnormal for the pattern.
But just spend a lot of really slow time
programming that in.
(guitar strumming)
Then after that and the progression for the intro
is just back to an A Minor.
(guitar strumming)
And then you go to an E Major chord
where the pattern changes again a little bit.
The only thing that really changes
is the lowest string that you hit.
Instead of hitting the A
like you did for the A Minor.
You hit the E.
And then you leave everything else the same.
So you hit the E.
Then you skip over the A and sweep down.
The D, G, and B strings.
And then (guitar strumming)
same pattern as on the A.
Up on the E.
Down on the B.
Up on the G.
And then you go back to the A Minor.
(guitar strumming)
Back to the E.
Down, skip over, down, down, down
up, down, up.
And that is the entire progression with this
actual legit pattern from the song.
Now you can do this with finger style stuff too
if you're more of a finger style player.
There are some unique challenges here.
And I don't know this as well.
I just kind of learned this last night.
I was like ah, I should finger style for this too.
So. (guitar strumming)
What I do here is
instead of sweeping, I get both the A and the D string
with my thumb. (guitar strumming)
Like that.
That's the pattern for the A Minor.
Same thing for the C.
(guitar strumming)
So the thumb is kind of pulling double duty
on the A and D strings.
And then for the D.
It gets a little bit different here.
It's a little bit more of a different pattern
for your fingers, so you have.
(guitar strumming)
You just roll up. (guitar strumming)
And then I end up with that roll on my third finger
then the middle finger hits it twice.
Again because we have that E
twice at the top of the D chord remember?
(guitar strumming)
You can do (guitar strumming)
with the index and the thumb on the
B and G string if you like here.
And then for the F.
Kind of the same thing. (guitar strumming)
And then I just hit the G string with my thumb twice.
For the F. (guitar strumming)
Back to the A Minor. (guitar strumming)
E is kind of pretty easy.
You just put your thumb back to the lower E string.
(guitar strumming)
Back to the A Minor.
(guitar strumming)
And the patterns don't change from chord to chord
when you get in to the progression for the verse
where you're singing.
You just have to match up the patterns with the chords.
They don't change.
And if you listen to the original song
you're gonna notice that when the song builds
he moves in to it like a strumming part
where it's just strumming all down strokes
on the 8th notes.
(soft guitar music)
With a little bit of 16th note tag on the end each measure
just to give it some drive.
So I think we actually dig in to this song.
It's not as easy as it sounds.
Especially if you're playing it the way
it was originally recorded.
So it's a good opportunity to work on some sweet picking
and cross picking in a context.
That's not always how we would think about sweet picking
or cross picking but it's pretty cool.
So I know a lot of people start out learning
this song for good reason.
It's an awesome tune to play.
And this might be the first song that you've learned.
But if you haven't learned any songs yet
let me know what's the very first song
that you want to learn on the guitar.
And maybe I'll make a video on it.
Let me know on the comments below, see ya later.
(soft guitar music)