Bonham-Style Triplet Kick drum pattern
A two-bar heavy rock groove on a 16th-triplet grid: straight eighth hats, a huge backbeat, quick triplet kick doubles into beats 2 and 3 and a hands-hands-foot triplet into the loop. Press Play to hear it with a sampled drum kit at 92 BPM, change the tempo or swing, and follow every hit on the grid.
How to count the Bonham-Style Triplet Kick
Count it as: 1 ta la & ta la 2 ta la & ta la 3 ta la & ta la 4 ta la & ta la · two bars. The pattern is a 2-bar phrase in 4/4 (two-bar 16th-note-triplet grid · six slots per beat).
The Bonham-Style Triplet Kick pattern, hit by hit
Each character is one step of the grid and each group is one beat. X is an accented hit, x a normal hit, o a quiet or ghost note and - a rest.
| Voice | Bar 1 | Bar 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Kick | X----- ----xX X----- ------ | X---xx ------ X----- -----X |
| Snare | ------ X----- ------ X----- | ------ X----- ------ X----- |
| Closed hat | x--x-- x--x-- x--x-- x----- | x--x-- x--x-- x--x-- x----- |
| Open hat | ------ ------ ------ ---x-- | ------ ------ ------ ------ |
| High tom | ------ ------ ------ ------ | ------ ------ ------ ---x-- |
| Low tom | ------ ------ ------ ------ | ------ ------ ------ ----X- |
Tempo and feel
Heavy and springy. The hats stay straight while the foot snaps triplet doubles underneath; the doubles lead into the beat rather than decorate it. The default tempo is 92 BPM. Slow it down until every hit is controlled, then raise the tempo a few BPM at a time.
How to practise the Bonham-Style Triplet Kick
Play straight eighth hats on slots 1 and 4 of each beat with the backbeat. Add the kick doubles on the last two triplet slots before the beat, slowly. Learn the bar-two tom, tom, kick triplet on its own before joining it to the loop.
Variations to try next
Drop the doubles and keep only 1 and 3 on the kick. Play the doubles before every beat for a solo break. Move the right hand to the ride bell.
Where to hear this feel
Records in this family include Led Zeppelin - Good Times Bad Times and Led Zeppelin - Achilles Last Stand. A practice study of the heavy straight-eighth rock associated with John Bonham, built around quick kick doubles on the 16th-note-triplet grid (six slots per beat) and a hands-hands-foot triplet that turns the phrase around. Single-pedal speed, the ringing open kit and the room sound are not reproduced; it is authored for practice, not transcribed, and differs from the library's Bonham shuffles by its straight eighths.