"When most people think of Led Zeppelin, they think of John Boham's crushing 4/4 beats," says noted drummer and instructor Rod Morgenstein. "But like the rest of the band, Bonham had many different sides to his playing."
The 1979 song Fool In The Rain, from Led Zeppelin's last studio album, In Through The Out Door, "illustrates this beautifully," says Morgenstein. "It incorporates an Afro-Cuban beat called a bembe, a wonderful rhythm that can be played fast or slow, and it's the perfect groove for the song."
In this video, Morgenstein demonstrates how John Bonham used a 6/8 time signature and helped create a track that "just flows with the right amount of cool shuffle. It's a tricky style to tackle at first, because you're playing parts that interlock in some strange ways, but that's the beauty of the bembe: once you master it, it becomes effortless, and it can really spice up your rock drumming."
Rod Morgenstein is an original member of the six-time Grammy nominated fusion band Dixie Dregs, multi-platinum heavy metal group Winger, the Rudess/Morgenstein Project and the jam band Jazz Is Dead, among others. In addition, Morgenstein is a Professor Of Percussion at Berklee College of Music.
Morgenstein has written hunreds of articles for magazines such as Rhythm. He has also authored two books, The Drumset Musician and Drum Set Warm Ups.
