Linger

About This Lesson

My friends - the Labor Day weekend is upon us! As we say farewell to summer, I’ve got a brand new song lesson for you to sink into. Today we’re looking at Linger by The Cranberries — which I’ve gotten a ton of requests for over the years after briefly teaching the intro riff back in 2018.

This song is a blast, and up there with my favorites from the 1990s. It surprised me to learn the entire song uses a single four-chord progression (D-A-C-G)… but there’s so much good stuff to be found just below the surface.

The intro riff, the bass line groove, plenty of chord variations (e.g. the A6 to the A), and so many options when it comes to strumming. I’ll guide you through all this, starting with the basics and building things up from there.

Be sure to check out the two D-A-C-G jam tracks I made for this lesson, along with the play-along covers that show three different ways to strum things – all of which are available below!

• 0:00 Playthrough
• 1:40 Intro, Part 1
• 6:06 Intro, Part 2
• 7:42 Verse & Chorus
• 10:22 Strumming (Intermediate)
• 13:06 Strumming (Advanced)
• 18:29 Fancy Chord Advice
• 24:00 Outro Riff
• 25:19 TV Pick - Derry Girls

Quick Links

• Official music video on YouTube
• [Song wikipedia page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linger_(The_Cranberries_song)
• Recommended lyric & chord sheet

Practice Notes 4 pages

Lesson Discussion

Part 2 - Vocal Melody Deep-Dive

Part 3 - Full Strumming Playthroughs

Here’s a few zoomed videos where I demonstrate each of the three strumming patterns I teach in my main lesson. I’ll begin by counting in a few measures with muted strums, and then proceed into the main progression (with and without singing). These are played atop the jam tracks available at the bottom of this page, which help keep a steady beat at exactly 84bpm — which is a bit slower than the Cranberries recording.

Playthrough using a basic strum:

Playthrough using an intermediate strum:

Playthrough using a full (16th note) strum:

Video Jam Tracks

To help you practice, I made a couple jam tracks where I loop through the 4-chord progression for six minutes (without any singing). These feature a drum machine and bass guitar, to help you jam as if you’re playing with a band. Each video shows which chord is currently being played via on-screen graphics, making it easy to follow along.

The two tracks below are identical except for the drums. One features drums with 8th note hi-hat, which has a bit more spacious and chill. The other uses 16th notes, which mimics The Cranberries album percussion — and is suggested if you want to strum with a 16th strumming pattern.

Jam Track with 8th Note Drums:

Jam Track with 16th Note Drums:

Related Lessons I’ve Made

Here’s a few lessons I’ve made that will help with techniques used in this song: