John Bonham Style Drum Lick

Home , John Bonham, When the Levee Breaks

By Alex Ribchester

This is a great drum fill idea that I got from Led Zeppelin's drummer, John Bonham. I first heard this fill in the track Black Dog on Led Zeppelin IV. It uses a combination of 16th notes and 32nd note triplets played with the hands and kick drum. When Bonham played this lick, he only used a segment of what is written below. I suggest using this idea, when you are playing at amedium to slow, or half time groove. In the video I play a similar groove to beat from 'When The Levee Breaks'. The fill is a repeated pattern that lasts (in this case) for three 16th notes and therefore lands at different points of the beat, giving it a displaced and syncopated flow. In this first exersise, we are going to play the pattern twice and then make snare hit on the '&' of 2 and 4 become an 8th note.

3 3 3 3                             1 E & A 2 E & 3 E & A 4 E A

In this idea, we are going to play the pattern four times in a row, taking us to the end of beat 3. In this example I have stuck a group of four single stroke 16th notes at the end to complete beat 4

3 3 3 3                              1 E & A 2 E & A 3 E & A 4 E&A

Here is an example of playing the pattern twice, adding an extra kick drum to the 'a' of beat 2, and then completeing beats 3 and 4 with a seperate drum fill idea. Have a go at using differnent ideas on beats 3 and 4 to put your own spin on it and make it your own. You could also experiment moving the pattern to various beats and filling in the gaps with other ideas. Have fun!

3 3 3 3                                  1 E & A 2 E & A 3 E & A 4 E A