DrumAce Blog - The Bonham Triplets
Here is a cool little lick that I hear a lot of drummers talking about on a regular basis.
Its called the "Bonham Triplets" and it involves playing three notes. Two with the hands and two with the feet. Here is the basic pattern in all three of the basic permutations...
Basic Pattern
Once you have the basic patterns covered you could then love your hands around the drums for some interesting and exciting variations. The following examples are just some suggestions of how you might orchestrate the basic patterns. Only basic patterns 1 and 2 have been used to save time, these are also the most popular variations by far due to the more familiar placement of the bass drum.
Orchestration 1
Orchestration 2
Orchestration 3
Orchestration 4
Played in Context as a Drum Fill
Once you have some orchestration variations down the next step is to play them in context as actual drum fills. The best way to do this is to play a whole bar of basic drum beat and then play a whole bar of Bonham Triplets straight after in a two bar loop. That way you can loop the Bonham Triplets with a drum beat around and around until you feel comfortable playing the two together. You can then change the drum beat and try again. Try as many different drum beats as you like to ensure that you are comfortable going in and out of the triplets.
The following drum fill suggestions are only suggestions. Do try your own drum beats and orchestration ideas to make this lick your own.
Drum Fill Suggestion 1
Drum Fill Suggestion 2
Drum Fill Suggestion 3
Drum Fill Suggestion 4
Played in Context as a Drum Fill (Sixteenth Note Triplets)
If you really want to impress people then try playing these bad boys as sixteenth note triplets. Their played at twice the speed of eighth note triplets (previous examples) and so two groups of Bonham Triplets are played each beat instead of one. This means that they sound faster!
The following examples start on beat 3 of the second bar but you can of course start them anywhere. Again, do try your own drum beats and orchestration ideas.
Drum Fill Suggestion 5
Drum Fill Suggestion 6
Played as Sixteenth Notes
For a bit of fun, you might also like to try playing the basic three note pattern of the Bonham Triplets through sixteenth notes. Although technically they wouldn't be triplets anymore you are taking a lick you've spent long and hard practicing and recycling it into something else equally cool and interesting. It just so happens that this is also a very popular idea anyway.
Drum Fill Suggestion 7
Drum Fill Suggestion 8
Drum Fill Suggestion 9
For a full and detailed explanation and lesson on the Bonham Triplets please visit www.DrumsTheWord.com by clicking on this link http://www.drumstheword.com/blog/bonham-triplets-cool-drum-filllick
Happy drumming!