John Bonham's Fool In The Rain Lesson!

Led Astray drummer Fronzo breaking down the half time shuffle to help other drummers trying to play this amazing groove!
It's maybe not exactly what Bonham played but this is pretty close!

For a very interesting article which will help you understand how a Jazz shuffle or swing pattern is actually interpreted as triplets, check out the following link at Tiger Bill's website:
http://www.tigerbill.com/drumlessons/fourwayjazzchops_lesson1.htm

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• John
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• Bonzo
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• Led
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• fool
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• 02

[yahatinda2012]

Drummers. Please stop the madness. This is not triplets! Triplets are entirely different 1 and ah 2 and ah etc. This is a very simple shuffle 1 and 2 and etc. This is why the half-time shuffle is a natural groove progression into the bridge. You can't come out of that back into triplets - it does not work!!! Grace or ghost notes on snare are just that - not written but felt!!!

[Phrase]

@yahatinda2012

I'm afraid you are wrong my friend. This groove is based on a Jazz shuffle pattern, which although it's often written as a dotted 8th note, followed by a 16th note, that is not how it is actually played or felt. To make a shuffle groove "swing" the notes have to be interpreted as triplets otherwise the groove would sound very straight and would have no swing or bounce. It's also the reason why triplet fill ins blend perfectly into this groove and 16ths don't.

[Phrase]

I found a very interesting article on this at Tiger Bill's website, which should help you learn how to interpret Jazz swing or shuffle patterns with a triplet feel. I have added the link to the video description for those who are interested.

[dostoyevesky12]

Great job. I am just having a little trouble on this. So it's two hits on hh then ghost on snare, then once you play that for the second time you hit the snare instead of a ghost note? Is this correct?

[Phrase]

@dostoyevesky12

The pattern I played in the video (starting on the first beat of the bar) is r l r r l r r l r r l r, so it's actually one hit on the hi-hat, then a ghost note on the snare then another hit on Hihat. When you add the accented snare note on beat 3, both hands play together (LR) so the pattern becomes this: r l r r l r (RL) r r l r.

As a few people have pointed, Bonzo only played snare ghost notes on the and of 2 and and of 4, so the pattern he played was more like this:

[Phrase]

r - r r l r (RL) - r r l r.

If you count the triplets like this: 1-&-a-2-&-a-3-&-a-4-&-a, then for Bonham's original pattern, you would get: 1---a-2-&-a-3---a-4-&-a. The right hand plays the 1,2,3 and 4 and all the "a"s, with the left hand only playing a ghost note on the & of 2 and & of 4, plus the accented note on beat 3, where both hands play at the same time.

Hope this helps

[animalnoise1]

nice work my friend!

[chucholetsm8one]

This was fucking awesome!!!!! I had a drumgasm!!! POWW!!!

[weezer619]

i giggled like a lil girl when you played everything to gether...lol thats fucking rad

[ColonialDrummerDad]

Thank you, Fronzo, for breaking down the triplet shuffle and bass drum into a sensible follow-along lesson

[1scruluse]

Thanks for the great video. Starting to get this one and can kind of do the "good times bad times" lesson you posted. I don't know if I could ever do the high hat in GTBT through out.

'

[robmanzanares]

Dude! What a gem you have uploaded. Thank you. I am a new drummer and this is right up my alley. I am currently working on separating the right hand from the right foot: whew this is a chore. but all in on my way - thanks to you!

Rob

Henderson, nevada

[davss5]

@xxmickeyzeroxx I appreciate your point about 2 separate grooves...actually, although I feel that Phrase did an overall good job here, separating out the kick pattern may sometimes make it sound more difficult than necessary...as drummers (including myself) might get more proficient at using the kick, the actual kick "pattern" within a groove might seem less a "polyrhythm" than expected (i.e., spontaneously playing it within the groove may be easier than extracting/discerning the pattern...

[davss5]

@cheekynarnar1970 Assuming what may be Bonham's version, the basic notation for the groove: 1 r2gr(3L) r4gr1 r2gr(3L) r4gr

g = (left hand) ghost note

L = snare downbeat

The kicks come in at 1 and r of the 1st triplet, and r of the 2nd triplet, and then r of the 4th triplet. As the first measure flows into the second measure, the kick at the r of the 4th triplet r flows immediately into the kick at the 1 of the 1st triplet, giving 2 kicks in succession.

[davss5]

@mdstalla Regarding your last point, a drummer can play a triplet using any kit piece (drum/cymbal/etc.)...one common one is (1)tom-(2)tom-(3)kick - which in rapid succession can sound different than the written notation...in the Bernard Purdie Half-Time Shuffle (the basis of the Rosanna and FITR beats), the triplet instead is (1)hihat-(2)snare ghostnote-(3)hihat - which in rapid succession can give a much more fluid feel/sound

[davss5]

@virtualvirus1996 I initially had the same problem...then one day, by "accident", I was able to do it...muscle-memory may have helped, but I think that another part of it was learning to perceive the triplet groove as an expansion of the 4/4 groove (with the 1st stroke of each triplet being what would be the 1/4 note of the 4/4 groove):

1gr2gr(3L)gr4gr1gr2gr(3L)gr4gr

g = (left hand) ghost note

L = snare downbeat

Bonham's version was possibly:

1 r2gr(3L) r4gr1 r2gr(3L) r4gr