("Search and Destroy" by All Good Things)
(rock drumbeat)
- Hey guys, it's Randy Cook here at Drumeo.
I'm in Drumeoland, and it's another great time
to tell you about this drumbeat by John Bonham
from Led Zeppelin, When the Levee Breaks.
Such and iconic drumbeat, such an iconic drummer,
and I want to break this drumbeat down
and analyze it a little bit, and teach it to you.
So before we get into the grace notes
and all of that stuff,
let me just play you the most simple version of the beat,
just the kick and snare, no hi-hat, nothing else,
just the main kicks and snares
without the extra added stuff that we're going to get to.
So here we go.
Here is the main vibe of this drumbeat.
Three, four. (drumsticks click)
(rock drumbeat)
So there you have it.
That's the main gist of the drumbeat.
Let's add the hi-hat eighths,
just that alone, to that drumbeat.
Let's hear some click.
(click track clicks)
Three, four. (drumsticks click)
(rock drumbeat)
So that is what the hi-hat's going to be doing,
that's what the big kicks and the big snares
are going to be doing,
now what makes this drumbeat sound as amazing as it does?
It almost sounds like there's a delay.
Of course there's a reverb,
it sounds like the drum kit's in a big hall,
or a church, or that kind of thing.
They had some great micing techniques back then,
but the cool thing about how John played this drumbeat
is on the very first kick drum,
he's playing the one really loud,
and there's a 16th, the e, the one e,
right after it not so loud.
So, (kick drum beats)
loud, soft.
So, three e, and a four e, and a--
(kick drum beats)
Do you hear that?
Not two both the same loud, (kick drum beats)
but (kick drum beats)
so it creates this delay, it feels like it's echoing.
He does it on the snare as well.
(rock drumbeat)
So he does that little echo thing on the first kick,
on the next snare, not on the next kick.
(rock drumbeat)
So it's on both snare drums, two and four,
and on that very first kick drum.
The other kick drums are just straight, nice and loud.
(rock drumbeat)
Let's hear a click, and I'll play that to click.
(click track beats)
Three, four.
(rock drumbeat)
So there you have it, that's one of the tricks
of why that groove sounds so good.
You've already got the eighth notes going,
now that grace note on the snare drum, the snare drum hand,
I'll just play the hi-hat and the snare drum.
Now we're going to not play the kick drum
so you can really hear what's going on with the hands.
Don't forget, we got that two and four with the echo,
with the sixteenth note after, (snare beats)
so here we go, one, two, three, four.
(snare drum and hi-hat beat)
You hear that?
It's imperative that those grace notes are low,
really nice and level, and you can already feel
without the kick drum how bubbly that's getting,
how 16thy it's getting, almost echoey.
So let me put that all together for you.
One, two, three, four. (sticks clicking)
(rock drumbeat)
There you have it.
Practice it slow, break it down,
do just the kick, just the snare, just the hands.
Slow it back down to a metronome,
and work the speed up so you've got that real smooth,
nice 16th vibe going,
and you'll be playing like John in no time.
Head on back over to Drumeo.com
for more tips and tricks and stuff like that,
and I'll see you soon.
("Search and Destroy" by All Good Things)