Video: Ilan Rubin Teaches John Bonham's "Fool in the Rain" Shuffle

A note from Ilan: "It was brought to my attention that a bass drum note was omitted before the snare hits in the verse groove. This is correct, I oversimplified it. Rather than redoing the video I figured I could direct your attention the second groove on the ride cymbal where the bass drum precedes the snare hits. That’ll give you an idea of where the missing notes should’ve been. The rest of the video should do a good job of explaining the different parts to this groove. Thanks!"

Over the past few weeks, we've watched drummer and multi-instrumentalist Ilan Rubin teach various lessons to help you nail the techniques of his favorite drummers. His first lesson centered around John Bonham's "The Crunge" drumbeat, and this week, Ilan's back to teach another Bonham groove—the "Fool in the Rain" shuffle.

Although this groove has been played by many other drummers, Ilan is teaching Bonham's version because it's his favorite. "I'm calling it the 'Fool in the Rain' shuffle, the John Bonham shuffle. People can argue all day long who invented it—Bernard Purdie, this guy, that guy—I don't care. My favorite is the Bonham one, it's the most popular one, and in my opinion, it sounds the best. Sorry—I love it."

Ilan starts by showing the basic template for the beat, trimming it down to its barest form by eliminating the ghost notes and replacing the shuffle on the hi-hat with straight-ahead hits. The beat still retains some of its swing in the bass drum, but stripping it down like this is the easiest way to get a handle on the groove before filling in the flourishes.

After you've mastered the bones of the groove, Ilan demonstrates how to work in the accent hits on the hi-hat and how they should line up with the swing of the bass drum. To help you line this up, you can take out the snare to really dial in your hits. After that, Ilan works in the hi-hat opening, and then, finally, demonstrates how to work in ghost notes on the snare to tie it all together.

Be sure to check out the full video above and check out his previous lessons on Stewart Copeland's hi-hat and ride cymbal techniques as well.

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