Chords for Dave Mattacks on Achieving the John Bonham Sound
Tempo:
151.65 bpm
Chords used:
C#
D
G
E
Em
Tuning:Standard Tuning (EADGBE)Capo:+0fret
Start Jamming...
The John Bonham sound.
Anybody have any ideas about his general approach to tuning?
[C#] Overall the sound is very high.
[G] Exactly.
[D] It's as high, relatively speaking, if not higher, than these strings.
Really, really high.
And there's a lot of stuff talked about, you know, the big Bonham sound.
And I notice guys kind of tuning kind of medium to medium-low.
And that's not the way to do it.
[Em] But the essential thing when you tune that way [D] is it really helps if you've got the acoustics that go with it.
And [A#] he really reinforced what I've kind of learnt over the years.
That the balance thing that I talked about with the imaginary microphone over the head, you've got to do that.
Now you can hear sometimes in some of those recordings when he was wailing away,
you hear the compression kick in.
And that's to stop the cymbals [C#] taking over.
And sometimes you can use compression in a really kind of cool way.
You can hear it on some Beatles records.
You can certainly hear it on some of the Zeppelin records.
But he would say, I mean, I don't know if anybody here knows, but I knew John.
And that's how you do it.
You say, no, put the microphone here.
[F#] [D] And that's [Em] basically the balance.
Although [G] he played really [G#] frigging loud, it was balanced.
He played really loud, but it was in balance.
That's the difference that I see.
I see a lot of guys [F#m] with 26 [G]-inch bass drums with three foot of foam all the [F] way around.
And they're trying to recreate that sound, [D] and they're not going to do it.
The other thing that's really pertinent about that, and [C#] all good jazz players do this,
[E] and John certainly knew how to do [D] this, and that's to play off the bass [C#] drum.
Does anybody not know what playing off the bass drum [G] means?
Okay.
[D] It's basically the difference with the beater.
When I was trying to play some of those things now, I wasn't executing it as well as I would have liked.
It's the difference [A#m] with the bass drum beater between doing [C] this and this.
[N]
Okay.
When you play off the bass drum, you have [E]
to
[F] When you bury the [E] bass drum the way some [G#] players do, [C#] okay,
[F#]
A, you're choking [D] the sound, and B, you're getting close to a
[C#] You're getting kind of like a miniaturized [C#] version of that.
[E] [B] Now, you can hear how the thing [G] is
Yeah, and if I
Anybody have any ideas about his general approach to tuning?
[C#] Overall the sound is very high.
[G] Exactly.
[D] It's as high, relatively speaking, if not higher, than these strings.
Really, really high.
And there's a lot of stuff talked about, you know, the big Bonham sound.
And I notice guys kind of tuning kind of medium to medium-low.
And that's not the way to do it.
[Em] But the essential thing when you tune that way [D] is it really helps if you've got the acoustics that go with it.
And [A#] he really reinforced what I've kind of learnt over the years.
That the balance thing that I talked about with the imaginary microphone over the head, you've got to do that.
Now you can hear sometimes in some of those recordings when he was wailing away,
you hear the compression kick in.
And that's to stop the cymbals [C#] taking over.
And sometimes you can use compression in a really kind of cool way.
You can hear it on some Beatles records.
You can certainly hear it on some of the Zeppelin records.
But he would say, I mean, I don't know if anybody here knows, but I knew John.
And that's how you do it.
You say, no, put the microphone here.
[F#] [D] And that's [Em] basically the balance.
Although [G] he played really [G#] frigging loud, it was balanced.
He played really loud, but it was in balance.
That's the difference that I see.
I see a lot of guys [F#m] with 26 [G]-inch bass drums with three foot of foam all the [F] way around.
And they're trying to recreate that sound, [D] and they're not going to do it.
The other thing that's really pertinent about that, and [C#] all good jazz players do this,
[E] and John certainly knew how to do [D] this, and that's to play off the bass [C#] drum.
Does anybody not know what playing off the bass drum [G] means?
Okay.
[D] It's basically the difference with the beater.
When I was trying to play some of those things now, I wasn't executing it as well as I would have liked.
It's the difference [A#m] with the bass drum beater between doing [C] this and this.
[N]
Okay.
When you play off the bass drum, you have [E]
to
[F] When you bury the [E] bass drum the way some [G#] players do, [C#] okay,
[F#]
A, you're choking [D] the sound, and B, you're getting close to a
[C#] You're getting kind of like a miniaturized [C#] version of that.
[E] [B] Now, you can hear how the thing [G] is
Yeah, and if I
Key:
C#
D
G
E
Em
C#
D
G
The John Bonham sound.
_ Anybody have any ideas about his general approach to tuning?
[C#] Overall the sound is very high.
_ _ [G] Exactly.
_ _ _ _ _ [D] _ It's as high, relatively speaking, if not higher, than these strings.
_ Really, really high. _
_ _ And there's a lot of stuff talked about, you know, the big _ Bonham sound.
And I notice guys kind of tuning kind of medium to medium-low.
And that's not the way to do it. _ _
[Em] But the essential thing when _ you tune that way [D] is _ _ it really helps if you've got the acoustics that go with it.
_ And _ [A#] _ he really reinforced what I've kind of learnt over the years.
That the balance thing that I talked about with the imaginary microphone over the head, _ you've got to do that.
Now you can hear sometimes in some of those recordings when he was wailing away,
you hear the compression kick in.
And that's to stop the cymbals [C#] taking over.
And sometimes you can use compression in a really kind of cool way.
You can hear it on some Beatles records.
You can certainly hear it on some of the Zeppelin records.
But he would say, I mean, I don't know if anybody here knows, but I knew John. _
And that's how you do it.
You say, no, put the microphone here.
_ [F#] _ [D] And that's _ _ [Em] basically the balance.
Although [G] he played really [G#] frigging loud, it was balanced. _
He played really loud, but it was in balance.
That's the difference that I see.
I see a lot of guys [F#m] with 26 [G]-inch bass drums with three foot of foam all the [F] way around.
And they're trying to recreate that sound, [D] and they're not going to do it.
The other thing that's really pertinent about that, and [C#] all good jazz players do this,
[E] and John certainly knew how to do _ [D] this, and that's to play off the bass [C#] drum.
Does anybody not know what playing off the bass drum [G] means?
Okay.
_ [D] _ It's basically the difference with the beater.
When I was trying to play some of those things now, I wasn't executing it as well as I would have liked. _ _
_ _ It's the difference [A#m] with the bass drum beater between doing [C] this _ and this.
[N] _
_ _ _ _ _ Okay. _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
When you play off the bass drum, you have _ [E] _
to_
_ [F] _ When you bury the [E] bass drum the way _ _ some [G#] players do, _ _ _ _ [C#] okay,
_ [F#]
A, you're choking [D] the sound, and B, you're getting close to _ a_
_ [C#] You're getting kind of like a miniaturized [C#] version of that. _ _ _ _
_ [E] _ _ _ _ _ [B] Now, you can hear how the thing [G] is_
Yeah, and if I _ _
_ Anybody have any ideas about his general approach to tuning?
[C#] Overall the sound is very high.
_ _ [G] Exactly.
_ _ _ _ _ [D] _ It's as high, relatively speaking, if not higher, than these strings.
_ Really, really high. _
_ _ And there's a lot of stuff talked about, you know, the big _ Bonham sound.
And I notice guys kind of tuning kind of medium to medium-low.
And that's not the way to do it. _ _
[Em] But the essential thing when _ you tune that way [D] is _ _ it really helps if you've got the acoustics that go with it.
_ And _ [A#] _ he really reinforced what I've kind of learnt over the years.
That the balance thing that I talked about with the imaginary microphone over the head, _ you've got to do that.
Now you can hear sometimes in some of those recordings when he was wailing away,
you hear the compression kick in.
And that's to stop the cymbals [C#] taking over.
And sometimes you can use compression in a really kind of cool way.
You can hear it on some Beatles records.
You can certainly hear it on some of the Zeppelin records.
But he would say, I mean, I don't know if anybody here knows, but I knew John. _
And that's how you do it.
You say, no, put the microphone here.
_ [F#] _ [D] And that's _ _ [Em] basically the balance.
Although [G] he played really [G#] frigging loud, it was balanced. _
He played really loud, but it was in balance.
That's the difference that I see.
I see a lot of guys [F#m] with 26 [G]-inch bass drums with three foot of foam all the [F] way around.
And they're trying to recreate that sound, [D] and they're not going to do it.
The other thing that's really pertinent about that, and [C#] all good jazz players do this,
[E] and John certainly knew how to do _ [D] this, and that's to play off the bass [C#] drum.
Does anybody not know what playing off the bass drum [G] means?
Okay.
_ [D] _ It's basically the difference with the beater.
When I was trying to play some of those things now, I wasn't executing it as well as I would have liked. _ _
_ _ It's the difference [A#m] with the bass drum beater between doing [C] this _ and this.
[N] _
_ _ _ _ _ Okay. _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
When you play off the bass drum, you have _ [E] _
to_
_ [F] _ When you bury the [E] bass drum the way _ _ some [G#] players do, _ _ _ _ [C#] okay,
_ [F#]
A, you're choking [D] the sound, and B, you're getting close to _ a_
_ [C#] You're getting kind of like a miniaturized [C#] version of that. _ _ _ _
_ [E] _ _ _ _ _ [B] Now, you can hear how the thing [G] is_
Yeah, and if I _ _