Lauren Bateman teaches a step-by-step guitar lesson for "House of the Rising Sun." The lesson emphasizes six-eight (6/8) timing, lists the chords used (Am, C, D, E, F barre), demonstrates arpeggio picking patterns for five-, six-, and four-string chord shapes, offers tips for barre chord fingering, and introduces a "rake" technique (a quick down-strum resting/landing on a string) to more closely match the recorded sound. The instructor repeats examples and ends by applying the technique over the first verse for practice.
Chapters
Foreign.
House of the Rising sun is a super cool and fun song to play on the guitar, and it has a very unique technique in it that we're going to be going over in this video. But there's a very specific timing that you guys need to be aware of, so let's get into it.
So there's a couple of different timing things that I want to make you aware of. The first is that this song is in what we call six, eight time, meaning we're going to be counting in sixes. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. 1, 2, 3, four, five, six. 1, 2, 3, Four, five, six. Versus a four, four time, where we'd have 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3,4. So you're gonna feel like you can sway a bit to this song. So that's the first timing component, and I'm gonna go over the second one a little bit later when we talk about that unique technique. So first, let's talk about the chords that we're going to be using. We have A minor, C, D, E major, and we have an F bar chord. Okay. And that's going to put this song a little bit more in the intermediate realm because we are using a bar chord and because of the picking techniques that we're going to be using here. So let's talk about the picking that we're going to be using. We're going to be using arpeggios on these chords. Now, an arpeggio is when you individually pick the notes of a chord versus just like strum them through. And I'm going to teach you the rake later. But right now, we're going to start with our timing. Okay. Because that's what I do on this channel. If you don't know me, my name is Lauren Bateman and I make guitar make sense by breaking things down and then adding onto it and getting it more difficult. But we've got to start with the foundation. And that's our 6, 8 timing here. So let's start with our A minor chord. We've got six notes. We're going to pick six, eight time, six notes. We're going to start with our A minor chord. And you would play this the same whether you're playing an A minor chord or a C chord, because those are both five string chords. Now the A minor, we're going to start with the bass note on the fifth string. Okay. Fifth string. And we're going to go fifth string, third string, second string, first string, second string, third string. And we're going to be picking down, down down, down, up, up, down, down, down, down, up, up. So that give.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. 1, 2, 3, 4,. 5, 6. 1, 2', 3, 4, 5, 6. If it were a C chord, it would sound like this.
Very, very common arpeggio pattern used in lots and lots of songs. Alright, let's talk about what we're going to do with the six string chords. Because there's a slight difference. So this would be our F chord and our E major chord. They're both six string chords. And we'll start with the E major chord. And for this we're gonna start with the top string as our bass Note. Okay. The sixth string, the thick string. And it's gonna go 6, 3, 2, 1, 2, 3. So nothing changes on the bottom. The change happens on the top sixth string, third string, second string, first string, second string, third.
Now if you have an F chord, something I want to make you guys aware of, if you're learning bar chords. So this might happen on your F chord when you're playing. You might go.
You might get that muting sound on those bottom one or two strings. Usually what that means is that you're not squeezing enough with the bottom of the finger. So just squeeze a little bit more. Put a little bit more pressure on the bottom of the fretboard.
See, even that I still didn't do it right. There we go. So see, I'm not perfect. I still make mistakes. So you may play through and you might need to adjust. Okay, so we got the muting. Fix that finger and let that string ring through.
Okay, so you might need to play around with the F bar chord. But this is a great song for working out that slight little mechanic. Before we get into that really cool technique, just one more chord to go. We have the D chord and this is a four string chord. So it's a little different. You're just going to be going 4, 3, 2, 1, 2, 3.
Okay, so fourth string. So our five string chords, the bass note is the fifth string. For our six string chords, the bass note is THE sixth string. And for our four string chord, the base note is THE fourth string. So if I just played through the intro on just the arpeggios, without the special technique, it would sound like this.
So it sounds nice, right? But it doesn't sound exactly like the song or exactly like what I played in the intro to this video. So Lauren, how do we do that? So the technique I'm going to show you is called a rake. But there's a couple things you need to know to do this properly. Let's start off with our A minor chord and this is what it's going to sound like.
Okay, can you hear that? Bum bada dum.
So what I'm doing is I'm getting an extra string in and I'm actually using a D down strum, but I'm not going strumming straight through.
I'm not doing that.
Kind of dragging the pick along the strings.
But I'm doing it a little bit faster.
Okay, so how do I do this? What I'm doing is I'm picking that bass note and my pick, okay, my pick is resting on the next string. So I'm picking through the fifth string. Now my pick, you can hear that, is resting on the next string, the fourth string. Getting ready to strum down. I hit the next three strings and I land. I don't go through the bottom string. I land on the bottom string because we're gonna pick that one. So we're still gonna pick the last three notes.
Okay. So that's picking through the fifth string, landing on that fourth string, picking down through the first string, landing on that first string and then picking up same for these six string chords. You're going to have to get two extra notes in there and the same timing.
That's why it's so important just to work on that 6, 8 timing first.
Because once you get the foundation of the timing, you're like, okay, get a finish. Fit that rake in between this bass note and this bottom note.
It's kind of like a.
Now the D chord poses a little bit of an issue because it's only a four string chord.
So you can't really do the rake that well. You could just pick it in that straight time if you want to. Or.
You can rank through. But going to be sitting on that bottom string just a little bit longer. So whatever works for you.
So you can still do the rake, but doesn't sound quite as nice as the.
Five string and the.
Six string chords. I think that's where the technique really, really shines through. The great thing about House of the Rising sun is once you learn one verse, you've learned the entire song. Because the chord progression is so repetitive. But within the verse itself it's not so repetitive. So if I show you this rake technique over this first verse, if you guys want to play along with me, you can always use the settings cog to slow things down. Or if you just want to listen, listen for that rake sound. Ready? Here we go. Here we go. There is a house in New Orleans. They come around.
Sun.
And it's better.
An important thing I want to mention for you guys is you notice sometimes I didn't always put play or hit the right note every time. This isn't about being perfect, it's about having fun. And the great things with arpeggios is that even if you hit the wrong note, as long as you keep the timing, the timing is the most important part with this song. If you hit the wrong bass note, don't make a big stink about it. Just keep playing. It'll sound good. If you want to work more on the timing of your picking and learn how to seamlessly go between picking and strumming, I have a really great video over here that you should click on where I'm going to tell you by step how to go between picking and strumming. Click on that video. I'll see you guys over there.
