Bonham's right foot - how did he do it?

C.J

Member
I did a search for this subject and couldn’t find anything, but I apologies if this has already been covered.
I'm not particularly interested in copying his technique but I do find it intriguing regarding how he did it. Did he use heel-toe, heel up or did he just have freakishly good twitch muscles?
I heard that he had his pedal tension set quite high. Any ideas?
 
Re: BONHAMS RIGHT FOOT - HOW DID HE DO IT?

Its heel-toe and trust me its not very impressive. Impressive "at the time" yes!
 
Re: BONHAMS RIGHT FOOT - HOW DID HE DO IT?

i thought it was heel-toe, but after watching his right foot closely i concluded that its either purely is right foot twitching away OR the slide technique...
 
He used heel-toe, slide and heel down "I got a strong fast ankle". And he used the "state of the art" Ludwig Speed King pedal. Basically, he was good.
 
Ok, I'm obsessive with Led Zeppelin and I had to say this just to get it right, but Bonham never used heel-toe, but he did kind of somewhat have the motion. He actually played with the ball of his foot and added somewhat of his knee with the motion. He played heel up and he would play fast by moving his leg down with his knee(somewhat), and then would hit with the ball of his foot again while brining his knee up and then would start the same process over again, creating kind of a ...ball-ball technice.
First hit-with ball while whole leg going down with knee
Second hit-ball of foot hitting with push of Ankle, while lifting leg.
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But other times he would would sort of have his leg hovering over pedal and sort of twitch his ankle to hit the pedal.
 
Klittle is right. bonham did not use heel toe. watch any vidoe of him, especially the live dvd moby dick, and ull see for urself its not heel-toe.
 
KLittle123 said:
Ok, I'm obsessive with Led Zeppelin and I had to say this just to get it right, but Bonham never used heel-toe, but he did kind of somewhat have the motion. He actually played with the ball of his foot and added somewhat of his knee with the motion. He played heel up and he would play fast by moving his leg down with his knee(somewhat), and then would hit with the ball of his foot again while brining his knee up and then would start the same process over again, creating kind of a ...ball-ball technice.
First hit-with ball while whole leg going down with knee
Second hit-ball of foot hitting with push of Ankle, while lifting leg.

Ya know, the technique what you are describing IS heel-toe! ;-) Heel-toe technique is not heel - toe - heel -toe...etc but:
toe downstroke - toe upstroke - toe downsrtoke - toe upstroke... etc
the heel actually never touches the footboard in order to make a stroke.

Listen to what Jojo Mayer says about that: (http://www.jojomayer.com/html/faq_.html#PEDAL)
''The basic idea is to generate the first "down"- stroke launched from your heel up position, generated from your knee, not your toes (important!).Followed by a 2nd " up"- stroke, generated by the calf. So your leg goes :
up-down, up-down,(bam-bam, bam-bam..).

It LOOKS's like a heel toe action but really it is kne (heel) -toe. That's the secret !''
 
jammaster said:
Ya know, the technique what you are describing IS heel-toe! ;-) Heel-toe technique is not heel - toe - heel -toe...etc but:
toe downstroke - toe upstroke - toe downsrtoke - toe upstroke... etc
the heel actually never touches the footboard in order to make a stroke.

Listen to what Jojo Mayer says about that: (http://www.jojomayer.com/html/faq_.html#PEDAL)
''The basic idea is to generate the first "down"- stroke launched from your heel up position, generated from your knee, not your toes (important!).Followed by a 2nd " up"- stroke, generated by the calf. So your leg goes :
up-down, up-down,(bam-bam, bam-bam..).

It LOOKS's like a heel toe action but really it is kne (heel) -toe. That's the secret !''

That is exactly how I was taught top do it. It gives way more power on both of the bass drum hits. It's really the only way to truly do good doubles!
 
In hindsight, he wasn't that fast. I don't have any problems playing the stuff he did (the only problem being 'Good Times Bad Times', but that is a coordination thing, not speed).
 
yeeah stu, i was gonna ask earlier in this thread but i decided not to. But is there some secret recording everyone else has that i've missed? because i always hear people talking about his fast bass work or something and I've never heard it. I always think its maybe just people getting confused about his tom/bass triplets.
 
Indeed, the secret video. I wonder the same thing. I wish the DVD footage was out 20 years ago. There are all these myths now. And I get so tired of everybody saying how hard he hit. Yes, he hit hard sometimes. Bonham was a rock drummer, and one of the best, but to me what made him so good was the sum of his qualities and his application. His use of dynamics. How he and John Paul Jones made one of the most forceful rhythm sections ever.
 
harryconway said:
Indeed, the secret video. I wonder the same thing. I wish the DVD footage was out 20 years ago. There are all these myths now. And I get so tired of everybody saying how hard he hit. Yes, he hit hard sometimes. Bonham was a rock drummer, and one of the best, but to me what made him so good was the sum of his qualities and his application. His use of dynamics. How he and John Paul Jones made one of the most forceful rhythm sections ever.

He didn't hit hard? His bass drum hits sound like Civil War cannons. You've seen the DVD, and listened to the studio cuts, that's about it, right? Probably.
 
What's impressive about Bonzo, is that he was doing it 40 years ago, ever since the mid 60's. Other than the occasional advice he seeked out, he could've developed that all by himself. He was doing heel-toe before there was heel-toe.

Not saying that others didn't "develop" it also, he was probably one of a bunch of drummers developing the same techniques at the same time.
 
dothecrunge said:
What's impressive about Bonzo, is that he was doing it 40 years ago, ever since the mid 60's. Other than the occasional advice he seeked out, he could've developed that all by himself. He was doing heel-toe before there was heel-toe.

Not saying that others didn't "develop" it also, he was probably one of a bunch of drummers developing the same techniques at the same time.

heel-toe technique is damn old! It was invented soon after hi-hat stand. You know that splash-click-splash-click sound? it's heel-toe!
 
The hi hat 8th notes are pretty darned fast on "Whole Lotta Love though"! I have a very hard time playing those evenly.
 
guys u dont thik a quad on one foot isnt fast? buy the two disc dvd of live performance and watch the moby dick, the one on the site isnt in full. he playys hats and snare with his hands then plays quads with on fooot inbetween beats. anyone who can do this AS powerful as bonham can then truly say i am GOD.
 
Bonzo_88 said:
guys u dont thik a quad on one foot isnt fast? buy the two disc dvd of live performance and watch the moby dick, the one on the site isnt in full. he playys hats and snare with his hands then plays quads with on fooot inbetween beats. anyone who can do this AS powerful as bonham can then truly say i am GOD.
what's the tempo?

20 characters
 
jammaster said:
Ya know, the technique what you are describing IS heel-toe! ;-) Heel-toe technique is not heel - toe - heel -toe...etc but:
toe downstroke - toe upstroke - toe downsrtoke - toe upstroke... etc
the heel actually never touches the footboard in order to make a stroke.

Listen to what Jojo Mayer says about that: (http://www.jojomayer.com/html/faq_.html#PEDAL)
''The basic idea is to generate the first "down"- stroke launched from your heel up position, generated from your knee, not your toes (important!).Followed by a 2nd " up"- stroke, generated by the calf. So your leg goes :
up-down, up-down,(bam-bam, bam-bam..).

It LOOKS's like a heel toe action but really it is kne (heel) -toe. That's the secret !''
Yea that is heel toe technique. I kind of rock my foot with the heel up and push off the pedal with my toes to get my leg/knee bouncing. I don't force or left my leg up I let the pouncing motion do it. Know what I mean? I don't know if I explained it that well.
 
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