Lauren Bateman teaches The Cranberries' "Zombie" using four chords: E minor, C, G, D. The lesson covers an eighth-note strumming pattern and how to shift from muted, quiet verses to loud, open choruses for the dynamic contrast that makes the song work.
Questions this video answers
E minor, C, G, D
Eighth-note strumming counted as "1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and" (all downstrokes suggested in the lesson).
Soft/palm-muted verses and loud/open choruses.
Chapters
Welcome guitar enthusiasts. This is a fantastically rocking song called Zombie by the Cranberries. It was a very big song in the 90s. It's one of my favorite songs to sing and perform. Really, really love this song. It has such a raw energy to it. And I also like it because it uses my four favorite chords, E minor, C, G and D. Awesome. So this song uses those four chords over and over and over again. That means all you have to know is the order of those four chords, which I just said, E minor, C, G and D. And you can play this song. That's all it is. The only thing that changes with this song is what we call the dynamics. How loud we're going to play and how soft we're going to play. So we're going to use an 8th note strumming pattern all downs. 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and four and. And if you know how to palm mute.
You can also use that on the verses the song. If you don't know how to palm mute, don't worry. Just strum as lightly as you can. Because on the choruses.
On the choruses, we're really going to open up and get loud. That's the great thing about this song. It's four simple chords, but it uses dynamics to ebb and flow the song. So the intro starts with this really loud eighth note strumming pattern. And it's E minor, C, G and D. Those are the four chords. So it's going to be E minor 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and C and 2 and 3 and 4. G.
And D.
E minor.
And C.
And G.
And D.
And then at the end we strum whole notes.
It really opens it up. 2, 3, 4, D, 2, 3, 4. A minor 2, 3, 4 and C. 2, 3, 4, G. 2, 3, 4 and D. Now we're gonna go very light strumming. Now we're on the verse. C.
G.
And D. And if you can palm mute, It'll sound like.
1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 & 1 and 2.
And if you can't, just strum as lightly as you can.
So that is how you play the entire song actually is just those four chords over and over again. E minor, C, G and D. It just depends on how loud you play. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to go through the beginning of the song. I'm going to play the intro through the first verse into the chorus. Just so that you guys can hear how it sounds and hear those dynamics that I'm going to use so that you can practice playing with dynamics as well. So let's check that out. 1, 2, 3, 4.
2, 3, 4. C. 2, 3, 4. G.
And D. Now hold. Strums.
2, 3, 4. 2, 3, 4, 2, 3, 4. Soft strumming.
Another head hangs slowly Child is slowly taken.
And the violence caused by silence well, who are we mistaken?
But you see it's not me, it's not my family it's in your head in your head they are fighting with their tanks and their bombs and their bombs and their guns in your head, in your head they are dying.
A song. Two, three, four. One, two, three, four. Two, three, four. Two, three, four. And there you go, that is the entire song. You just keep repeating that pattern of dynamics and all you needed was four.
