How To Play THAT Drum Fill From Stairway To Heaven, Led Zeppelin!

[@jimboclusk4968]

Never really knew exactly what he was doing there. I searched it & you’re at the top. Thank you. Brilliant! Thank you from Philadelphia PA, USA

[@tonychristiano]

Finally Someone that teaces longer then a minure and a half on a fill without expecting you to catch it all and say here ya go and then move on to the next part . Very well explained and easily understood . thanks so much ya got another fan 👍👍👍👍

[@greg_musician92]

You’re a phenomenal teacher! Freaking love this fill! Thanks!

[@brunoleclercq1825]

You just solved a 40-year-old mystery for me. Thanks a lot !

[@robplim2747]

Best drum teacher hands down on YT!,I've been working on a few intros fills etc for some new songs my band are doing,and every single one of them is taught by you Mike,and once again Bonzos fill is simply explained by you and spot on man and now I can play it with confidence so thanks Mike you're a bloody legend,awesome drummer as well:)

[@MikeBarnesDrums]

Cheers Rob!

[@AWKING41]

FANTASTIC

[@WilliamHausen]

Mike I appreciate that lesson I've been playing the riff A bit different for years I like yours better thanx

[@coloaten6682]

Your lessons are always so inspiring! I've been off the drums for a few weeks, just lost interest temporarily - I'm attempting to learn guitar - but this vid has me determined to wake up tomorrow, Sunday morning, and bash out some Bonham!! Love it, your lessons are so clear and easy to follow as well, so thanks a lot Mike! :)

[@MikeBarnesDrums]

Great! How did you go? Thanks for watching.

[@steveanderson6180]

The lesson is great, The message is of even greater value. Well played, sir!

[@MikeBarnesDrums]

Cheers Steve!

[@tkelly830]

Another amazing lesson Mike! You rule man, great teaching and approach. Really hope your channel continues to grow 🤘

[@MikeBarnesDrums]

Cheers man, so glad you dig!

[@glynnp42]

Great job Mike. Thanks for letting me nail this lick. Also, love your enthusiasm. It really helps one get excited about trying to master this. Going to now check out all your other vids.

[@annmarieladuke1709]

LOVE this breakdown ❤ thank you!

[@glorendil]

Awesome walkthrough of this part. Had a rough time breaking it down, this video will have me going in the right direction. Thanks for uploading and explaining this!

[@MikeBarnesDrums]

Thanks for watching.

[@neganoth8027]

You just earned a new subscriber ❤

[@emidiosdrumtrax9960]

You really Rock Dude. Your teachings are amazing... Thank you its greatly appreciated....

[@AzulenoSpaMonterrey]

great lesson 🤩 you made it so much easier , thanks a lot

[@michaelcahill1016]

Will be doing this on Monday...thanks Mike

[@sylviewheeler6237]

Super excellent explanation!

[@RobAbfallDrums]

excellent clarification once again, Thank you, thumbs up and subscribed!

[@priyashaadv6234]

Explained so nicely. Thank you.

[@ahlrichsangen-emden7936]

I love Bonham! But 'm still far away to play these beats. Thanks for the lesson Mike.

[@MikeBarnesDrums]

Cheers Ahlrich, thanks for watching.

[@maxbomo]

Thanks Mike, from Chile!!!

[@tomfletcher5068]

Yesss Mike. Thank you!

[@MikeBarnesDrums]

One of THE drum fills of Rock and Roll history! 6:21 into Stairway To Heaven (full song here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/h5ypZKKur86If5Y) Transcription here: drive.google.com/file/d/1d4py-Gatv5cNSfQGX6Tr1XGTTvGKYJVm/view?usp=sharing The sticking I’ve written is just a guide. It's possible Bonham may have played "RLKLRK" on the sextuplet at the end, but I personally felt the sticking I've done was simpler and flowed better when I played it, so went with that. Obvs change to suit you if you like :) Video about building up simple linear patterns such as "RLK" is here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z3bQgqmeeNZ3jtk Mike 😊 
 Please check out my “Buy Me A Coffee" page here: www.buymeacoffee.com/mikebarnesdrums, where you can support this channel and/sign up as a monthly member. As a channel member, you get a complimentary zoom session as well a personalized practice plan and lots of other benefits including priority requests for videos on this channel, a 20% discount on drum lessons and access to full notation for tutorial videos

[@margaritafairbanks907]

AWESOME!!! Thank you so much!!!

[@philholland3505]

Hello, Drum playing is not my craft but I’ve heard this fill a thousand times and tried following along on the floor board and steering column 😂 Always wondered how Bonham did it, thank you!! Cheers!

[@TheBTEAMwins]

this is spot on man, great job...this is the first song I ever learned on drums many moons ago lol. What's weird for me is I'm a left handed drummer that plays on a right handed kit. I start fills with my left hand and double bass with left foot. So doing this fill was odd to make it flow starting with the right hand so I had to make a different approach to this

[@daver7465]

That's awesome, I've been learning to play Stairway and feel like I can play most of it half decently, but for this part would just hit some random toms to get past it haha. Time to learn it properly, great lesson.

[@janotamboletskie2343]

Very clear...very nice Sir mike your explanation and approach are awesome...your a good teacher 👍

[@MikeBarnesDrums]

Thanks for watching! :)

[@mradvsree]

Mike u r just fabulous Ozzum way of explaining...

[@iris21ful]

Nice sound. You play very well.

[@MikeBarnesDrums]

Cheers Dominic!

[@NEdrumsUK]

Thanks so much I like this song to do and it will improve my playing

[@PhilipCullen-of1lj]

Great job , have a good feel Have been told bonham always lead with his left hand for his triplets

[@MikeBarnesDrums]

Yeah, he was left-handed! As I say in the description, it's of course possible to use different stickings, this is just what I would do. Thanks for watching.

[@yummygummy3936]

It was the 50th anniversary of the first live performance of stairway in Belfast, yesterday 5th March 1971!

[@MikeBarnesDrums]

Wow cool!

[@spunkybrewster1972]

man....I've played guitar forever and there's certain speedy stuff I can play that beginner guitarist have thought was impossible. But it really was nothing I considered that impressive. Now that I'm learning drums, I totally get where they are coming from. I can't see myself ever playing that fill up to tempo.

[@MikeBarnesDrums]

But as your own experience tells you, you will! Cheers man, just keep going and thanks for watching :)

[@Ts_rudna_5]

just came across you - very inspierd by your approach

[@MikeBarnesDrums]

Cheers!

[@anthonyj6831]

Thanks for deconstructing this one Mike. The other aspirational Led Zeppelin song is Smoke on the Water - would love to spend more time on that and not get disheartened along the way. Would really appreciate any help with that.

[@MikeBarnesDrums]

Cool! Can't believe I haven't covered that one tbh. That's Deep Purple. Cheers for watching :)

[@rubemmachado7529]

Muito obrigado!!!!👍👏👏👏

[@MikeBarnesDrums]

de nada! 👊🏻

[@6leadcrush6]

I'll show this to our drummer, so he'll have the idea how it's done. Coz he's doing it the wrong way. Thanks for this tutorial.

[@tr5826]

Nice breakdown , but what happens at the very end ? Is there a bass drum under the final cymbal ? I guess there should be, but it’s not clear and the double bass drum at the very end doesn’t feel natural.

[@paulforrest6000]

That fill is so satisfying...I need a smoke after hearing it🥁🚬

[@6leadcrush6]

I hope it's okay if I'll share your video. Thank you.

[@MikeBarnesDrums]

Please do!

[@steveferraro3357]

Regarding the "big fill" in the guitar solo: I've seen people teaching this lately with only a single bass drum stroke after the floor tom and this is just plain wrong (IMO). It is NOT a herta pattern, it is more like a 4-stroke ruff (snare-tom-floor-bass) followed by an extra grace note on the bass drum after each ruff. There are definitely two bass drum notes played there. You can hear this clearly in the Zeppelin song Night Flight, where Bonham plays the exact same fill as in Stairway but the two bass drum strokes are more clearly audible. It's harder to hear on Stairway, but it's definitely there. You can listen to the alternate Sunset Sound mix on the 2014 remaster of the album and here it more clearly as well. Also, the more recent "official" drum transcriptions by both Joe Bergamini ("Drum Techniques of Led Zeppelin: Note for Note Transcriptions of 23 Classic John Bonham Drum Tracks") and Marc Atkinson ("Led Zeppelin - IV Platinum Album Edition: Drum Set Transcriptions") get this right and both show the two bass drum strokes being played. Bonham's style and playing was just too fluid and smooth for there not to have been two bass drum strokes played. Introducing that delay as described here and only playing a single bass drum note feels to me like I'm getting whiplash from just listening to it. This of course is just my opinion, and I do not have access to the isolated multitracks of Bonham's drums on this song, but I am as certain of this as I've ever been of anything. Check out this link for the proper notation of this fill: www.theblackpage.net/technique/bonhamisms

[@NotYoung3592]

thought it was the other one

[@anthonyj6831]

Yes indeed Deep Purple and not Led Zeppelin! I must have been watching 2 videos at the same time!