John Bonham - Whole Lotta Love

What?! A rock groove on a jazz drumming website!!!

Well, jazz drummers have to learn from the best, and John Bonham is one of the greats. An incredibly creative drummer with a deep sense of groove, there is a lot to learn from him.

John Bonham and Led Zepplin are legendary. "Whole Lotta Love" is the opening track from Zed Zepplin II and was their first big hit in the US.

Included here is the intro fill and the first 8 bars. After a few variations, Bonham seems to settle into the groove in bar 4.

It is a great groove and deceptively simple with the use of the displaced snare drum on the "and" of four {or missing it altogether} sometimes throwing up a few problems.

As always with Bonham it grooves.

Check out the whole track, play along and listen to see how he develops the groove further. Then work out how you can apply this to your own playing whether that is jazz, rock or anything else.

This was originally posted on "Jazz Drumming Blog" back in 2009.