Chords for House of the Rising Sun - Guitar Lesson with Tommy Emmanuel

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ Alright, let me gently lead you through The House of the Rising Sun.
This is an old song and if you've never heard it before, _ it makes a wonderful instrumental.
I mean, it's a great vocal too.
I first heard The Animals do it _ with Eric Burden back in the 60s
[G] and [Am] everybody knows it _ _ [C] _ _ _
[D] _ _ _ _ [F] _ _ _ _
[Am] _ _ _ _ [E] _ _ _ [Am] _
_ _ and that's a very iconic sound, isn't it?
Everybody knows that sound. _ _ _
_ I also heard Chet Atkins and Mark Knopfler jamming on it one time and _ it sounded wonderful
and I stole a lot of ideas from them.
I'm going to show you some of those _ _ ideas. _ _ _
_ _ _ The song was originally called A House in New Orleans, I think. _ _ _
Anyway, let me lead you through it. _
To play the melody correctly.
_ _ [A] _ _
There is [C] a house [D] in [Am] New Orleans, they [C] call the [E] Rising Sun
[A] and it's been [C] the [D] ruin of many [Ab] [F] a poor boy
[A] and Lord [E] I know [Am] I'm one.
That's the correct melody as far as I know.
_ So, [A] let me show you what I'm doing here. _
_ _ _ [C] _ _ I've got my boom chick going [G] _ _ [Gbm] _ as [G]
[Ab] my backing and [A] then the melody.
_ I'm [Ab] trying to sustain the melody notes while I mute the bass notes.
So, there's two separate [Gb] things going [Em] on there.
[A] _ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _
[D] _ _ _ [F] _ _ _ [Am] _ _
_ _ _ _ [C] _ [A] Let me just show [C] you something here.
When I go up to the high chord, I purposely slide up to it because that's what a _ _ _ voice_
You see that? _
_ So, I [Am] try to get _ that_ That [A] sound.
_ _ _ _ [Em] _ [C] _
Which [D] _ _ _ _ [F] _ _
[Am] _ _ _ _ _ [C] _ _ _
_ [E] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ is a typical _ _ blues.
_ [G] _ [E] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ So, I hammer on the third _ _ like that.
[Am] _ _
_ [C] _ _ _ _ [E] And _ _ _ _ _ then I switch to that.
[G] _ _ [Bm] _ [Am] _ _ And it's [E] been_
_ _ [Am] _ [Em] _ _ [Am] _ _ [E]
E7 _ [G] for the raised [E] 9.
[G] _ [E] _
[Em] _ And I'm using my pinky to do that.
You see that?
_ _ [Am] _ [Gm] I'm covering _ the two high strings, the B and the E with my [E] pinky there.
_ _ [Am] In _ _ [C] _ _ _ _ [D] _ _
[A] _ _ order to get that [Abm] little trill and that kind of vocal _ _ thing that I do there,
_ _ [D] I _ [F] _ _ [D] _
_ _ _ _ [F] _ [Cm] _ _ [D] _
_ _ [F] _ _ [D] _ _ _ [F] _
_ [Ab] go_
As I do that, I can see this muscle sticking out here, you know,
which means that I've put my hands to work a lot [Gm] _ _ to get that kind of clarity on that _ trill.
_ [Am] Let me just go through that.
_ _ [C] _ _ See [D] _ _ _ [F] _ _ that?
[Em] _
[A] _ _ _ [E] _ And _ [Am] _
[G] _ _ [F] _ [Am] to join the two verses up, I do a [G] little_ _
[F] _ _ [E] _ [Am] _ _ Which is just A [G] minor, [F] G, [E] F, E.
_ [Am]
Back to the melody.
_ Now, the second time, [E] _ _ instead of going _ _ _ [Am] to lead up to the high thing,
the second time you can do what I saw Chet do.
[E] And that is this.
He used an augmented. _ _
Isn't that a great sound? _ _ _ _ _
[Am] _ _ [E] _ _ _ _ [Am] _ _
_ _ _ [E] It's a beautiful sound.
[C] _
[Am] _ _ _ [C] _ _ [D] _ _ [Cm] _
_ _ _ [A] _ _ _ [E] _ _
_ [Am] _ So, let [E] me just play that through that [G] last section [A] for you.
_ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _
[D] _ _ _ [Am] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _ [E] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [Am] _
_ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _ [D] _
_ [F] _ _ _ _ _ [A] _ _
_ _ [E] _ _ _ [Am] _ _ _
[G] _ _ [F] _ _ [E] _ _ [Am] _ _
_ [Ab] So, that's the basis and the basics of House of the Rising Sun.
_ I also want to point out one little thing that I didn't do before,
but I'm doing now that I'm instructing you on this.
I'm just going to put this on right now.
And that is, sometimes I do a little lick on the end of _ the verse,
which people really like.
And a lot of people_
I hear guys playing this song and I hear some of my licks.
_ Which makes me very [Am] happy.
That means that people like that stuff that I come up with.
And I'll show you what it is.
[G] Instead of [A] _ _ _ [E] _ _ going_
[Am] _ I _ go_
[E] _ _ _
[Am] _ _ _ _ _ _ [E] _ _
[Bm] _ [Am] _ _ That's it. _ _ _
[E] _ _ _ [Am] _ _ [A] So, I _ [Am] go_
_ _ [C] _ [E] _ _ _
_ [A] _ _ _ [E] I'm _ using an E7 with an augmented _ [Ab] _ _
[E] _ _ [G] there.
So, I go A [Am] minor. _
_ _ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _
_ [Em] _ [E] _ _ _ _ [A] _ _
[Em] _ [E] _ _ _ _ [A] _ _ _
[G] It's kind of a funky little slightly outside lick that I really like.
And so, I put it in there years ago and I saw people light up when I played that [Am] lick. _
_ [E] _ [Bm] _ [Am] _ _ _ _ _
_ When I play this [Ab] song in tempo,
sometimes I'll play a little faster than what I've been teaching you.
[Am] So, it'll sound like this. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [E] _ [C] _ _ _ [D] _ _
[F] _ _ _ [Am] _ _ _ _ _
[C] _ _ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [Am] _ _ _ [C] _ _ _
[Eb] _ [D] _ _ [F] _ And the lick.
[Am] _
_ _ [E] _ _ [Am] _ _ _ _
_ _ [E] _ [Am] _ _ _ And that's how you make it different and make it your own,
by putting your own little _ _ _ _ _ personality on it.
I hope you enjoy working on House of