Should one be worried about the high level of noise reaching her still immature ears. Does she (should she) probably wear ear plugs?
She is. She has those in-ear monitors. Rather than the (now) old fashioned speakers directed toward the musicians.
She’s pretty good. What impresses me is that very few 8-year-olds have the motivation to work hard enough to get where she has gotten, and she deserves the recognition. But really, the unusual thing about this video is that she is 8. Google “child prodigy drummers” and you will find all kinds of this stuff.
Kids that are that accomplished that young almost never keep up that trajectory to become musical superstars. They might become pros, but they melt into the woodwork.
The video sounds like it is the full Zep recording; if it had been a minus-drums recording it would have shown up any weakness in her performance a little more.
Thanks for posting this. I’m not “techy” at all - in fact I don’t even know how to play an instrument - but now I finally understand how and why certain Zep songs work the way they do.
Thanks, same here. I could have written your post myself had someone else posted the link. Wouldn’t it be great to have a video like this for each Zeppelin song and on the playing/singing of each band member? It would be monumental task but imagine how much more magnified and intensified your appreciation of their music and of them as individual musicians would be.
I am not a musician either, but I watched the video, and I think I understood about 70% of it. I can feel what LZ are doing in my gut, but this gives me a little more insight into how they’re doing it.
I was recently having a discussion with a musician buddy of mine about Bonham vs. Neil Peart. (Apples vs. Oranges - both of us admire them both, just for different reasons.) I’m forwarding the link to my friend. Thanks, StarvingArtist!
It’s an interesting video, although I don’t quite agree with all his explanations, like especially the Fool in the Rain one. It’s a cool beat, but calling it polyrhythmic in 4/4 with 12/8 guitar/keyboards over it is seriously overcomplicating it. It’s definitely a cool beat, but it’s just a type of shuffle groove (based on Bernard Purdie’s work.) But it does feature a couple of the things that make me love Bonham so much: those ghost notes (which contribute immensely to the groove), a solid kick drum, pounding the hell out of the drums while incorporating subtle dynamic touches (like the ghost notes on the snare, open hi hat flourishes, etc), and his laid back, slightly behind the beat feel. Oh, and that snare sound!
Or just listen to the isolated track (Warning: starts off with a “fucking hell,” so the link is set to go a few seconds into the video to avoid it just in case) and how it just grooves and makes you want to stand up and shake your ass. Just listen to the balance of power between the kick and the snare, intermixed with the subtleties of the rest of the kit. I mean, that is a groove.
I agree it’s in 4/4 but it is informed by an underlying 12/8 feel. That’s nothing fancy–blues players have been doing that for many decades (a fun example is how the Allman Brothers did Stormy Monday in 4 with a 12/8 foundation, and broke into a straight 12/8 feel for the organ solo). You can hear Bonham throwing in those triplets. Even Purdie himself explains his shuffle by relating it to 12/8. A standard shuffle is dotted quarter-eighth.
Yes. I’ve seen all that. There’s a lot I would unpack there, but I don’t want to derail the discussion. You can look at the whole thing as a 12/8 feel, or a 4/4 swing. Two different ways of saying the same thing. What you don’t need to do is say that the drums are in 4/4 and the guitars are in 12/8. They’re all locked into the same time.
And this I would disagree with. The term is more nebulous than that. A triplet pattern of 2:1 is also a standard shuffle. Just google “shuffle rhythm.” What you’re describing is what I’d call a “hard shuffle.” All the term means is that in an eighth note pair, lengthen the first eighth note and make the second shorter. I used to use the term like you’re using it, to indicate a 3:1 ratio (like dotted eighth followed by a sixteenth), but I’ve realized that it more often refers to a 2:1 ratio (quarter followed by eighth in a triplet.) It just means what it sounds like: somebody shuffling along as opposed to rigidly marching in time.
Love his reaction to those triplets in the kick. 
Concede. I think about 40 years ago my definition was the standard one but times have changed and I have not adequately kept up.
That was wonderful.