Play like John Bonham!

Out of the thousands of drummers that have graced the earth there are only a few with a sound so distinctive that you can recognise them instantly. Out of those few you can probably count on one hand the ones that non-drummers will have heard of. We're pretty much talking Ringo, Keith Moon, Phil Collins, Stewart Copland and John Bonham.

All the rest of them are drummer's drummers. I love Vinnie Coliuta, Dave Weckl, Omar Hakim, etc. etc. but they're pretty much outside the radar of non-drummers. Plus, how often do you get asked to "play it like Vinnie would"?

On the last UK tour with Wishbone Ash I went to the trouble of recording every gig and listening back to it. I started to become much more aware of how the sound of my drums and cymbals fit with the rest of the music. To be honest I hadn't really thought that much about it before. I was more focused on getting a drum sound I liked than a drum sound that worked for the style of music. A kit that sounds good on its own in your bedroom may not sound good on stage with a band. Or it may sound good with a jazz band but not with a rock band or a funk band.

I began to wonder what sound I wanted to hear. I decided to go and listen to some Led Zepelin as a few of the songs we'd added to the set really had that Bonahm vibe to them.

As I was checking out the sound I was also paying attention to what exactly John was playing. A typical question from drum students is "What should I play for a fill?" - I found myself asking the same question.

I knew that Bonham's fills weren't very 'notey' but I also knew they had character. To my surprise I found that all his fills were all fairly similar and pretty simple. He wasn't trying to do anything clever to impress drummers in the audience, he was just playing what worked with conviction.

And what are these fills??? More often than not they're just a sting of straight 16th notes or 16th note triplets, BUT, he plays them with a twist... he starts them a note early, i.e. on the 'a' of the previous beat.

Example 1 is a basic rock groove with straight 16th and triplet fills like any beginner drummer might play.



Example 2 is the same idea but I start all the fills one note earlier - i.e. on the 'a' of 4 of the previous bar.


It's very simple, but it works.

Enjoy,

Joe

P.S. Did you know that John Bonham is the drummer on Donovan's Hurdy Gurdy Man? If you know the song try singing it in your head. I bet you don't hear it with Bonham fills. Go and check it out, they're all there - starting one note early. (www.spotify.com is great for checking out music)


P.P.S. I recorded the drums with a cheap USB snowball mic running straight into Garage band. It doesn't sound great but it's certainly good enough to check out how you're sounding. I highly recommend recording your practice sessions - you'll get more out of that than pretty much anything else.