Free Guitar Lessons and Guitar Resources

How To Play House of the Rising Sun on Guitar

House of the Rising Sun is an American folk song with its roots in the deep south. While the exact origin and meaning of House of the Rising Sun (or Rising Sun Blues as it can also be called) can be argued, its deep emotion of loss and warning in the lyrics, and its plaintive, minor melody make it a classic. It was a huge hit in the 60’s for the The Animals, and today many instrumentalists and singers learn how to play House of the Rising Sun as it’s become a standard song to be played in jam sessions and at coffee houses.

House of the Rising Sun is an easy guitar song you can learn by using the music below.

How to Play “House of the Rising Sun” on Guitar

Listen to the song in the video above to double hear how it goes. Don’t be put-off by the fast guitar arpeggios. The song sounds great using a standard strumming pattern.
Learn how to play House of the Rising Sun guitar chords. As you can see, the song uses the standard open chords of Am, C, D, F and E. F can be a bit tricky, but we will help you learn it.

The guitar music for House of the Rising shows chords, song lyrics and a tab (guitar tablature) transcription. If you need help learning how to read this special guitar notation, then check out this link for learning how to read guitar tabs.

Play this song with gradually building dynamics. Start with the first verse in a more quiet and solemn tone. Then build the angst in your performance as you get to the end where the singer agonizes over the bad choices and warns other to stay away from the House of the Rising Son.

Learn How to Play House of the Rising Sun
and Other Easy Guitar Songs

eMedia Guitar Method is the best-selling guitar lesson software that includes over 180 guitar lessons written by professional instructor Kevin Garry, Ph.D. It interactive technology lets you easily see the correct notes to play, slow down and loop difficult areas in songs and exercises, and learn chords, strumming, fingerpicking and other skills. Flash cards and videos keep your learning experience engaging, plus you learn over 70 great guitar songs.

How to Play Guitar Scales for Beginners

This post will teach you how to play basic guitar scales.

Why You Should Learn How To Play Guitar Scales

Scales are a basic building block of music for all instrumentalists, singers, composers and those who want to improvise and play solos (as when playing lead guitar).

What makes a scale?

A scale (from the Italian word scala, meaning ladder) is a series of notes, either ascending or descending, with a particular interval between each successive note. Intervals indicate the distance between two pitches. Guitarists might think of this as the number of frets between notes. For example a whole step (W) is when two notes are two frets apart, and half steps (1/2) are when two notes are one fret apart. There are several different types of scales. Each scale has a distinct sound because of its unique arrangement of intervals. Here we will cover the most commonly used scales and the most commonly used positions of these scales. We will cover major and minor scales as well as the major pentatonic (country), minor pentatonic (rock) and blues scales.

Scale Types

The major and minor scales are based on modes. The seven modes are scales of an earlier origin, some of which are used today. We will focus on the most commonly used modes — Ionian, which is our major scale, and Aeolian, which is our natural minor scale. The pentatonic and blues scales are unique scales widely used in today’s music.

Scale Fingerings

There are two main scale fingerings, open and closed/moveable. Open scales include the use of open string. Closed, or moveable fingerings use no open strings. Closed scales, because they use no open strings, are movable — you can move them from one position to another to create the same scale in a new key. Also, if you use that same closed, moveable fingering you can create new scales by starting on a different scale step. For example, a closed fingering of a G major scale becomes an A major scale when the same fingering is played two frets higher. Also an A major closed fingering can be used to play a B dorian “mode” (a special type of scale) by simply starting the scale on the second step (the B note) instead of the A note. Although there is no hard and fast rule, different musical styles tend to rely more on one type of fingering than the other. For example, rock guitarists use more closed scales, whereas folk and bluegrass guitarists use more open scales.

Fingering System for Guitar Notes

Scale fingering diagrams will use numbers to indicate what fingers to use when playing the notes.

A graphic to show how left-hand fingerings are marked for reading guitar notes.

Remember to try and use the one-finger-per-fret rule when playing guitar notes. This will make playing the notes easier and help you develop great basic guitar technique. One-finger-per-fret means that wherever you place your hand on the guitar fingerboard, each finger will cover the notes sequentially up and down the fingerboard. As in the example above, you can see that the first finger would play all the notes found the first fret for all the strings; the second takes all the notes on the second fret; etc. If the first finger was on the third fret, then then the second would play all the notes on the fourth fret, the third finger all the notes on the fifth fret, etc.

Hand and Finger Position When Learning How to Play a Guitar Scale

When learning how to play guitar scale, it is crucial to concentrate on your guitar playing technique. Good single note technique includes:

Keep your left-hand fingers curved
Play on your fingertips, as seen in this video

Play the guitar scale both going up and going down
When going up the scale, do not take your finger off of a note, until your finger is placed on the next note up on that same string
When going down the scale, have your finger covering the next lower note before you lift your finger from the higher note on the same string
Play using alternate picking
Aim for an even sound and smooth rhythm

The Major Scale

Here is a diagram that shows you how to play a major scale on guitar in the key of A major. It is a moveable scale shape, with the root being played by your first (1st) finger.

The Minor Pentatonic Scale

Here is a diagram that shows you how to play the pentatonic scale on guitar. It is on of the most common scales for rock guitar and other music styles that use power chords and/or minor chords.

The Major Pentatonic Scale

This diagram shows how to play the major pentatonic scale on the guitar in the key of A major. It is a moveable scale shape, with the root being played by your fourth (4th) finger.

The Blues Scale

Here is a diagram that shows you how to play a blues scale on the guitar in the key of A minor. Learning how to play the blues scale on guitar is easy as it is basically the pentatonic scale with one extra note (the flatted 5th). This extra note in the blues scale makes a nice transitional voice to add a bit of tension to a melody. Below you can easily see the moveable scale shape, with the root being played by your first (1st) finger. Therefore, you can play a G minor scale by simply playing the same fingering and starting with your first finger on the low G note (low E string, 3rd fret)

A movable first-position fingering that shows how to play a blues scale on guitar.

A helpful video taken from eMedia Interactive Rock Guitar.

Learn Notes on the A String

How to Play Notes on the D String

This chart helps you learn guitar notes on the High-E string.

Types of Electric Guitar Strings

As with steel-stringed acoustics, electric guitars use steel strings, too. And as electric guitars are so popular, there are many types of electric guitar strings available that reflect different playing and musical styles. String sets used in rock, pop, country and blues usually have an unwound G string of plain steel, with round wound D, A and E strings. They provide a bright tone and are usually a light (thin) gauge of string. Thin strings and an unwound G make electric techniques like string bending and vibrato much easier, so these types of electric guitar strings are the most popular. A common string set for these styles usually starts with a .009 gauge high E string (often called a “Super-Light” gauge set) or a .010.

Traditional jazz electric strings are usually a heavier gauge (thicker) than rock/blues sets, and often use a wound G string. They can also be half round, or flat wound types of strings. These offer a warmer tone that works well with the hollow, acoustic-electric style of guitars, and mellow tones used in traditional jazz.

Before you change your electric guitar strings, determine what types of strings work best your musical style.

Stainless Steel Round Wound – Bright

Stainless steel sets use steel for the high E, B and G strings and a round stainless steel wire wound around a stainless core for the D, A and low E. The magnetic properties of the string make it sound particularly bright and easy to hear harmonics and overtones. However, since the strings start off sounding really bright, you’ll notice sooner when they start to become dull. Due to their bright sound, stainless steel sets even became popular for bassists after John Entwistle of the Who used them for his bass solo in “My Generation”.

Nickel Round Wound – Medium Bright

Most of the electric string sets produced use nickel. Nickel sets use steel for the high E, B and G strings and a round nickel wire wound around a steel core for the D, A and low E. Nickel has great magnetic properties and give a crisp sound, but are not as bright as stainless.

Half Round – Warm

These string sets usually use steel for the high E, and B strings with a nickel wire wound around on a steel core for the D, A and low E. Some sets use a wound G, while others do not. Half round means that the outer winding starts as round wound, and then is ground down. This reduces string noise as your hand moves on the strings to change chords, etc.

Flat Wound – Mellow/Dark

Flat wound guitar strings are used a lot in jazz due to their mellow, bass oriented tone. Sets will use plain steel for the high E, and B strings, with wire made of a flat, nickel ribbon wound around on a steel core for the D, A and low E. Usually the G string is wound too. This string has the least amount of finger noise and produces very few overtones. Many famous jazz guitarists use flat wounds, including Pat Metheny.

Types of Guitar Strings

Guitar strings affect the tone of your guitar, its ability to play in tune, and even how easy it is to play. While it may seem obvious that it is important to know about strings when learning guitar, not everyone takes the time to research the subject.

Different Guitars Use Different Types of Guitar Strings

Steel String Acoustic Bridge Shot — A steel-string acoustic guitar showing the strings attaching via bridge pins.

Nylon String Classical Guitar — A classical guitar with nylon strings, which are tied at the bridge.

Guitars are designed to use certain types of guitar strings. For example, electric and steel-string acoustic guitars are built to use metal strings. They feature a metal truss rod which runs through the center of the guitar neck. The truss rod braces the neck against the tension of strings pulling forward. Also steel-string acoustic guitars terminate the strings to bridge pins while electrics use other methods. Classical and folk guitars use nylon strings and have no truss rod. You can’t use metal strings on classical guitars or you might damage the guitar.

Here are links to learn more about the specific types of guitar strings:

Types of Guitar String Materials

Steel-string manufacturers are often creating new alloys and winding techniques. A wound string features one string coiled tightly around another. Materials used for creating metal guitar strings include steel, nickel, brass, bronze, and a multitude of custom alloys. The wound strings can be round, filed to half-round, or flat. String materials are chosen based on the desired tension, acoustic or amplified tone, and playability. For example, flat wound strings sound less bright and hide finger fret noises. Note that if you changing your string gauge you may also need to adjust your guitar setup to re-balance the instrument and keep strings from getting caught in the nut slots. Note that these types of guitar strings are usually associated with different musical styles such as using flat-wounds for jazz, stainless round wounds for rock, etc.

In order to slow down the inevitable corrosion of metal strings, some manufacturers offer metal strings coated with very thin layers of plastic. Although coated strings are never as bright-sounding as uncoated strings, the tone tends to stay consistent over a longer period of time.

Classical guitar strings were traditionally made from sheep or cow intestine and silk. Today we use nylon, and the three bass strings are wound by threads of silver-plated bronze or copper wire.

Gauges of Guitar Strings

String gauge is another way of saying string “thickness.” String gauges can vary from .008 inch for plain strings to .055 inch for heavy wound strings. Smaller gauge strings have a lighter sound. They are easier to bend, but they can break more often. Heavier gauge strings produce a louder (or heavier) sound and are a little tougher to bend, but they are more durable. It is usually better for a beginner to start with lighter gauge strings and go heavier as hand strength increases.

Guitar strings break more easily as they age because they lose their pliability. If you regularly break strings, you might inspect the bridge and nut slots for sharp corners and file them down. When replacing a single string, be sure to pick the right string from your replacement set since each of the six strings is of a different thickness.

The Types of Guitar Strings You Use Affects Guitar Playability

Steel strings can be hard on fingers because of their stiff material and tension. A metal string holds up well against hard strumming with a pick. Bending a steel string is more difficult if it is a heavier gauge. Using a light gauge strings, you’ll find it easier to bend strings, but the volume of the string will be weaker.

Nylon strings are very easy on your fingers and easy to hold down. For these reasons, a nylon-string guitar may be preferred by beginners; however, there are some noteworthy challenges. Because nylon strings are thicker and need more space to vibrate on the neck, the guitar necks tend to be wider. Some guitar chords may be more difficult to reach on a wider neck, especially for smaller hands. Also, while bending nylon strings is easy, the resulting change in pitch tends to be very slow. It’s very difficult to precisely bend a note played on a nylon string from one pitch to another.

Guitar Notes for Beginners

The way musicians communicate with one another is through notes and rhythm. If you learn guitar note names, then you will have a way to describe what you are playing to other musicians (for jam sessions, band practices, etc.). You also will have a way to remember what you play by jotting down the notes you used. Learning some basic guitar notes for beginners is pretty easy, as you will find here. And once you learn how to play guitar notes, you should move on to learn guitar tablature and/or standard music notation to have a complete way to notate and communicate the music you play.

Learning Guitar Note Names

This chart shows the guitar note names found on the guitar and their positions on the guitar neck. Unlike a piano, most stringed instruments will have the exact same note available in multiple places on the instrument. For example, in standard music notation, the “G” note found on the 3rd open string is the exact same (as seen in standard musical notation) as the note played at the 5th fret on the D string, the 10th fret on the A string, and the the 15th fret on the low E string.

Notes-Names-On-The-Guitar-120 — A diagram showing where all the notes are on the guitar fingerboard.

The musical alphabet consists of seven notes: A B C D E F G, which keep repeating: ABCDEFG – ABCDEFG, etc. No matter which note you start on, you continue in the same order, as you go up in pitch.

For example, starting on B the notes would be: BCDEFGA – BCDEFGA, etc. If you descend, you reverse the order and go backwards from whichever note you started on.

Only the notes B & C and E & F are on consecutive frets.

All others have one fret in between them.

Note that after the 12th fret the pattern is repeated, with the 13th fret having the same note name as the 1st but being an octave higher.

How to Play Guitar Notes

In music notation you will see guitar fingerings use numbers to indicate what fingers to use when playing the notes.

A graphic to show how left-hand fingerings are marked for reading guitar notes.

Remember to try and use the one-finger-per-fret rule when playing guitar notes. This will make playing the notes easier and help you develop great basic guitar technique. One-finger-per-fret means that wherever you place your hand on the guitar fingerboard, each finger will cover the notes sequentially up and down the fingerboard. As in the example above, you can see that the first finger would play all the notes found on the first fret for all the strings; the second takes all the notes on the second fret; etc. If the first finger was on the third fret, then then the second would play all the notes on the fourth fret, the third finger all the notes on the fifth fret, etc.

Learn Guitar Notes on the Low E String

Here is a great diagram that shows how to play guitar notes on the low E string. It includes how to play the note fingerings too.

This note chart shows how to play all the guitar notes on the low E string.

Learn Guitar Notes on the A String

This diagram shows notes and fingerings on the A string.

The chart above shows how to play all the guitar notes on the A string.

Learn Guitar Notes on the D String

This diagram shows how to play the basic guitar notes on the D string. It includes how to play the note fingerings too.

Here you see how to play guitar notes found on the D string.

Learn Guitar Notes on the G String

This is how to play guitar notes with the correct fingerings on the G string.

This note chart shows how to play all the guitar notes on the G string.

Learn Guitar Notes on the B String

Here you learn notes on the B string with proper fingerings.

This note chart displays more notes on the B string.

Learn Guitar Notes on the High-E String

This shows how to play guitar notes on the High-E string, complete with note fingerings.

This chart helps you learn guitar notes on the High-E string.

Wish That Learning Guitar Notes was Easier?

It can be! eMedia guitar lesson software gets you playing faster with it’s interactive music technology. eMedia Guitar Method, includes over 180 easy-to-follow guitar lessons created by University of Colorado-Boulder’s Kevin Garry, Ph.D.. This breakthrough music lesson software shows you what to play on an Animated Fretboard with interactive guitar tabs, and can even listen to you play and show you if you are playing the right notes. Use it to slow-down and loop difficult parts, and learn over 70 great guitar songs. Learn to play hits such as Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door and Rock’n Me. If you’re really serious about guitar, look into the eMedia Guitar Deluxe bundle contains both eMedia Guitar Method and eMedia Intermediate Guitar Method.

Basic Guitar Chords for Beginners

This free guitar lesson teaches you how to play basic guitar chords that use open strings. These chords will help you learn countless songs across pop, rock, blues, country, and other music styles. Most content is taken from the curriculum found in eMedia Guitar Method, the award-winning interactive guitar lesson software that teaches you to play with songs and interactive music technology that can even listen to the notes you play.

Tips for Playing Basic Guitar Chords

Make sure you know how to read guitar chord charts.
Your hand should be in a C shape, perpendicular to the neck, with space between the curve of your hand and the neck. Your thumb should be opposite of your middle finger.
Keep fingers arched and play with the tips of your fingers, to avoid accidentally muting other strings.
Notes should be played slightly behind the fret, but not on the fret. This requires less pressure and creates better tone.
Don’t push down on the strings with any more pressure than is needed to make the note(s) sound.
Don’t be frustrated if chords don’t sound right at first. It takes time to learn how to play guitar chords.
Chords can be strummed, or you can play the individual notes (called an arpeggio) to get a different sound.

How to Play Simple Guitar Chords

The chords below only require one finger to play. So if you are a totally new, beginning guitarist then you can start here and learn how to play easy chords on guitar before going on to learn the more difficult ones. They are the most basic guitar chords for beginners.

How to Play the Simple G Guitar Chord

Strum Simple G by playing three strings with either pick, fingers or thumb while holding the indicated string down behind the 3rd fret with your pinky (see video). Don’t press down too hard.

How to Play the Simple C and G7 Guitar Chords

Strum the Simple C and G7 chords by playing three strings with either pick, fingers or thumb while holding the 1st finger as indicated in the chord charts. Be careful not to touch adjacent open strings with your left-hand finger.

How to Play a Simple Bm Chord

This Bm guitar chord is extremely simple to play.

How to Play Open Guitar Chords

These are the common first position, open chord voicings found in many styles of music. Although these are relatively easy chords, they are found in many great guitar songs. Try to play these versions instead of the simple versions as soon as you can.

How to Play an E Chord

Open E is a very powerful sounding guitar chord, the root of the chord is E and can be heard in both the lowest and highest strings. In addition, all strings are being played. This is also a fairly easy chord to play on the guitar, as your fingers are close together and do not need to stretch too far. Remember to play each string at a time to be sure you are not accidentally muting a string.

How to Play an Em Chord

Em (E minor) is played the same way as E major, but you remove your first finger and let the open G string ring out. The Em is a very powerful sounding guitar chord due to all the open strings being used. Like all minor chords, it sounds a bit wistful and sad compared to a standard E chord.

How to Play a C Chord

Here is the standard open C chord. Notice that by playing the extra lower strings that the chord sounds stronger and bolder than the simple version found earlier. This is because the C note (called the root of the chord) is being played on the lowest string.

How to Play D and D7 Chords

Strum D by playing the four highest guitar strings. Some can remember the D chord easier by thinking of it as a triangle shape, with the D7 as an inverse of the triangle. Note that the video below also shows how to play the A7 chord.

How to Play a Dm Chord

To play the Dm (D minor) chord, you use your first finger on the first fret of the first string, your third finger on the third fret of the B string, and your second finger on the second fret of the G string.

How to Play an A and A7 Chord

These chords use five strings, including the open A (which plays the root of the chord) and open E. Notice that you can play the A7 by simply lifting your second (2nd) finger.

How to Play an Am Chord

To play an Am (A minor) you basically take the E chord formation and move it over one string. Your first finger plays the first fret of the B string, the third finger plays the second fret on the G string, and your second finger is on the second fret of the D string.

How to Play a G Chord

Learning how to play guitar chords will sometimes require some finger stretches. However, after you master the chords and are regularly playing the guitar, then the chords become second nature. To play open G, you must stretch your 3rd finger to play the G note (the root of the guitar chord) on the 3rd fret of your low E string.

How to Play an F Chord

The F chord has a reputation for being very difficult to play on the guitar. This is primarily because it requires using your first finger to hold down two adjacent strings (the E and B strings at the first fret). This is called a partial barre. With regular practice you will be able to play this chord. As with other chords, be sure to play all the individual notes one-at-a-time.

Learn New Guitar Chords and Techniques the Easy Way

Now you can take the fast track to improving your guitar playing with eMedia Guitar Method, which includes over 180 easy-to-follow guitar lessons created by University of Colorado-Boulder’s Kevin Garry, Ph.D.. It features interactive technology that can listen to you play, let you slow-down and loop difficult parts and helps you learn over 70 easy guitar songs. Learn to play hits such as Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door and Rock’n Me. eMedia Interactive Rock Guitar, which concentrates on rock guitar techniques, is also available if you’re a beginning rock guitarist. If you’re really serious about guitar, the eMedia Guitar Deluxe bundle contains both eMedia Guitar Method and eMedia Intermediate Guitar Method.

Use Those Basic Guitar Chords You Just Learned!

Now that you have learned how to play basic guitar chords, you can start using them in some songs or learn how to use them within the CAGED guitar system to make even more chords.

Online Guitar Tuner

Use this free online guitar tuner to tune your guitar. Note that this online guitar tuner works on mobile device browsers too, so you can use it to tune your guitar anywhere.

To use this handy reference guitar tuner simply:

Click on the button with the same name as the string that you wish to tune.
Play that string on the guitar.
Adjust the tuning machine (twist it away from you to make the pitch higher) until the string sound in tune.
Repeat steps 1 through 3 until the tuner and string are at the same pitch.
Repeat until all six guitar strings are tuned.

Tune Your Guitar Faster

For a full-featured digital guitar tuner that lets you tune visually, check out the eMedia Guitar Toolkit.

It takes the guesswork out of your tuning and also includes other valuable practice.

Guitar Toolkit

Features include:

Digital Guitar/Bass Tuner
Play into your computer microphone or line-in and tune interactively with this highly sensitive guitar tuner. Reference tones are also included.

Metronome
Complete with visual and audio click with tempos selectable by common tempo markings (Adagio, Presto, etc.)

Chord Dictionary
Includes fingering charts and audio playback for over 250 guitar chords to make learning new songs easy.

Audio Recorder
Record yourself and play it back for friends and family to hear!