Chords for Mike Portnoy's Influences: John Bonham

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[N] _ _ _ _ _ _ Mike Portnoy here, and welcome to Drum Guru.
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I've never been one to hide my influences.
I am proud of the drummers that I grew up listening to
and still do to this day.
I am utterly inspired by so many kinds of drummers,
from pop to classic rock,
classic rock to progressive rock to metal.
_ I mean, I'm just a musical sponge.
I love listening to other drummers.
I love listening to what they're doing
and how they're doing it and wonder why they're doing it.
And basically, I'm going to pay tribute right now
to some of my biggest drum heroes
_ and kind of just give you my interpretation of their styles.
_ I didn't really prepare anything.
I didn't really learn the exact parts.
I'm kind of just doing this from the heart
and from the memory of growing up with these drummers.
And there's probably people out there
that can transcribe the exact drum parts.
I'm kind of just going to play my interpretation
of a lot of my favorite drummers' general styles. _
_ _ _ John Bonham is one of my all-time biggest drum heroes.
In fact, I have his _ symbol tattooed on my leg,
_ and he's always _ been one of my biggest drum heroes.
And not only me, I mean, he's influenced, I think,
every drummer that's picked up a pair of sticks,
you know, beyond the 70s.
_ His style was just _ so _ universally _ _ _ _ _ _ _ able to transcend genres.
I think jazz drummers loved him.
Rock drummers loved him.
He's one of those guys that, you know,
he played with such a heavy groove,
and he had these nuances in his playing
that _ _ just made him one of a kind.
And I've heard people say, you know,
how did John Bonham get that drum sound?
You know, was it the way that he mic'd the drums
or the way you tuned the drums?
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The reason John Bonham sounded that way
is because he was John Bonham.
It wasn't the way that the drums were mic'd
or the way the drums were tuned
or the type of drums or the type of sticks.
It was him that made those grooves sound the way they did.
And he just played with weight and groove _ and feel.
[F] And I don't know if there's ever been a drummer
that has really _ duplicated his feel exactly. _ _
A lot of times people think about Bonham,
and they talk about the kick drum.
_ And yes, I mean, he had this big 26-inch kick drum.
The big, boomy, _ roomy-sounding kick
was definitely part of his signature.
But I think people underestimate the sound
of his snare and his hi-hats.
I think his snare and hi-hats were very, very,
very much a part of his signature sound as well.
And I think probably one of the most iconic drum beats
of Bonzo was the intro to When the Levee Breaks.
And it's one of those drum intros that's just,
_ _ you know, I'll play it for you right now,
but it's not going to sound like him.
And millions of drummers have played this intro,
and it still doesn't sound like him.
It only sounded like him because it was in his hands
and in his feet and in his body and his soul.
So I'll play it for you.
And this is my rendition of When the Levee Breaks.
And you can kind of feel _ how he really laid
into the hi-hat and the snare.
It wasn't all about the kick.
It was the combination between the kick, snare,
and the hi-hat.
So here we go.
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_ _ _ _ _ Long live the king.
_ _ _ _ _ A signature Bonham fill is based on the triplet feel.
And he played with one bass drum and one pedal. _
_ _ _ So basically, you know, the signature Bonham triplet feel
was _ snare, tom, kick, snare, tom, kick.
In fact, I'm not sure if that was the correct sticking
that he used, but when I kind of try
to cop Bonham's signature fills,
that's kind of the way I stick it.
So basically, it would be like this. _ _ _
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_ _ _ _ _ _ So that's it.
That's the clip of the week.
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Rob Wallace signing off from Drum Guru. _ _ _ _
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