Oh God...do I Really Have To Ask?

[MattGTO]

I have been trying to do a cover of the last half of Stairway to heaven on Drums and I can pretty much play the entire song except for that SINGLE FILL!!!! The one at 6:23 in the song. Here is what I do:

I use my right hand for my snare and tom 2 (I am subbing tom 2 for my floor tom until I can get it good, its less of a leap), and my left for tom 1. I then pretty much play the fill (I would draw out some sheet music, but I'm too lazy), adding a triplet on the toms, ending with a snare. I managed to do this at 100bps (the speed of the song), but it sounds incomplete, not full. I know I need to add a second hit per tom before the triplets, but how exactly? My hands are straining just to get one hit...any suggestions? Tips? Exercises?

[john]

Hey

I haven't played a kit for quite a long time now. I remember being shown some of Bonham's fills by my then drummer who was a Zep addict.

Basically he used the bass drum in triplets and multi-drum quadruplets. I'm not sure of that particular fill but Bonham did that with a lot of his fills (think Moby Dick).

To practice he simply used his hands and feet (clap being one tom, hit right leg as floor tom, left as snare, and right foot stomp as bass drum. I got pretty good at triplets and quadruplets but it took a lot of practice to do them well as a fill. One thing I found made it easier was to really take my time with building up speed.

I am no expert but maybe it might be of some help.

Cheers

John

[Donna]

Matt,

I agree w/ John.

Is it the fill right before "And as we wind on down the road"?

If so, it's "foreigner rolls" (that I hear, anyway). M. Derossier of Heart did 'em a lot. It's a roll done that ENDS with the kick or bass drum.

Here's a key: S (snare) t (left or small tom) T (right or large tom) B (bass)

The roll is four 'hits': S t T B - it might screw you up to think of it as a trplet...if you're thinking "triplet" then adding that forth hit (the bass) might sound like an afterthought rather than coherent fill.

The amt of rolls in that measure is 4, followed by the two snare hits (or flams).

Begin the rolls on the bolded parts below; the last two bolded parts - 4 & are for the snare hits:

1 E & Ah 2 E & AH 3 E & AH 4 E & AH

...................................

DOH - I see. OK, if you wanto end the rolls on the snare then a much easier (potentially) way would be, instead of the triplet on toms (or w/ snare or whatever), do only two hits, but the third hit do the kick drum. Hmmmm. Well, at least you'd have a BIT more time to get back on the snare for that forth hit. I'm trying to imagine this roll ending on the snare...I think I'd have to go back to school awhile, as it were.

Edited June 27, 2008 by Donna

[john]

Hey Donna

Almost. Using your key....

tTBS

That gives a two stroke gap, but if the dquad is repeated you do have to get up to speed with TtBS

My friend also did a right hand T to FT drag when doing Bonham parts.

Sorry I can't be of more help.

Cheers

John

[Nightwolf]

[smiley=bounce.gif] Happy happy joy joy [smiley=bounce.gif]

WELCOME BACK

[Nightwolf]

Kudos Matt for sticking with it, finding a part you can't figger or play and attacking it with everything is what is gonna take you to the next level

[JHubbard]

The entire fill there is made up of hurricas with the last phrase being a sixteenth note triplet followed by an eighth note on the snare. A hurrica is drummer slang for two thirty-second notes followed by two sixteenth notes. Go to vicfirth.com and look up the rudiments. Practice those. Those are essentially the equivalent of scales for guitarists and bassists....just on drums. It's a list of the most basic and essential strokes you'll use as a drummer.

Edited July 18, 2008 by JHubbard

[Donna]

Lawdy Mama, what're you saying , Mon C?

What is J Hubbard saying?

Well my memory mustbe wrong of this fill. But if it's 32nd notes, wouldn't it work to:

double stroke (*once) small tom

" " large tom

one hit on the kick

and end up @ the snare?

No crossovers on toms that way, anyway.