The Animals - The House of the Rising Sun - Guitar Cover

The Animals

1964 4:31

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About The House of the Rising Sun

Few songs teach arpeggio picking as effectively as this one. The Animals' 1964 recording of this traditional folk song built its entire guitar part around a fingerpicked or hybrid-picked arpeggio pattern in A minor that cycles through the chords in a steady, hypnotic flow. At 50 BPM the tempo feels slow, but that actually raises the stakes: every note is exposed, so any hesitation in your fretting hand or inconsistency in your picking hand is immediately audible. The pattern itself spans a wide chord sequence, and keeping your fretting hand relaxed through the stretches across several of those shapes is where most players first run into trouble. Use the Practice Toolbar to loop the opening bars slowed down until the right-hand pattern becomes completely automatic before you bring it back up to tempo. This is also a great introduction to Folk Rock guitar, where clean articulation and rhythmic steadiness matter far more than speed.

• The guitar part is built on a repeating arpeggio pattern in A minor, making right-hand consistency and fingerpicking accuracy the central challenge.
• E Standard tuning is used, so no retuning is needed, but the chord voicings require comfortable stretches across the fretboard.
• Practising the arpeggio sequence one chord at a time, then linking them slowly, is the most reliable way to build clean, even execution.