House of the Rising Sun by The Animals

Overview

Key: A minor · Chords used: 6 · Sections: 14

Form: Transition → Verse → Transition → Verse → Transition → Verse → Transition → Solo → Verse → Transition → Verse → Transition → Verse → Outro

Where these chords come from: an expert transcription of the original recording made for the Rock Corpus RS 200 (de Clercq & Temperley, 2011), analysis by Trevor de Clercq. This page shows that transcription as-is: the analysis below is generated directly from it by code, not written by AI. Consecutive repeats of a chord are shown once, and the piano voicings are our playable arrangement of each chord symbol, not a note-for-note transcription.

Section by section

Transition 1

• Am – C – D – F
  i – bIII – IV – bVI
• Am – E (×2)
  i – V

Verse 1

• Am – C – D – F – Am – C – E – Am – C – D – F – Am – E
  i – bIII – IV – bVI – i – bIII – V – i – bIII – IV – bVI – i – V

Transition 2

Same chords as Transition 1.

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Transition 3

Same chords as Transition 1.

Verse 3

Same chords as Verse 1.

Transition 4

Same chords as Transition 1.

Solo

• Am – C – D – F – Am – C
  i – bIII – IV – bVI – i – bIII
• E – Am – C – D – F – Am (×2)
  V – i – bIII – IV – bVI – i
• E – Am – E
  V – i – V

Verse 4

Same chords as Verse 1.

Transition 5

Same chords as Transition 1.

Verse 5

Same chords as Verse 1.

Transition 6

Same chords as Transition 1.

Verse 6

Same chords as Verse 1.

Outro

• Am – C – D – F – Am – E
  i – bIII – IV – bVI – i – V
• Am – Dm (×5)
  i – iv
• Am
  i

Chord vocabulary

Chord	Roman numeral	Role	Heard in
Am	i	Home chord (tonic)	Transition, Verse, Solo, Outro
C	bIII	In the key	Transition, Verse, Solo, Outro
D	IV	Borrowed from A major	Transition, Verse, Solo, Outro
F	bVI	In the key	Transition, Verse, Solo, Outro
E	V	In the key	Transition, Verse, Solo, Outro
Dm	iv	In the key	Outro

Harmonic highlights

• D (IV) is borrowed from the parallel key, A major.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the Rock Corpus RS 200 (de Clercq & Temperley, 2011), analysis by Trevor de Clercq. Expert by-ear harmonic analysis of the original recording, shown on this page.
• Cross-check: the Rock Corpus RS 200 (de Clercq & Temperley, 2011), analysis by David Temperley. Independent by-ear analysis of the same recording. The two analysts agree on the chord (root and major/minor) for 100% of the song.
• Verified: two independent expert transcriptions agree on this song's harmony.
• Rhythm and chord durations aren't shown; each step is one chord change.