Overview of Drums for "The Immigrant Song" by Led Zeppelin

Series Summary

The drum is the oldest known musical instrument in the history of man and its basic design has not changed in thousands of years. Far from today’s uses as a percussive foundation for pop music or for fueling marching band excitement, drumming has a more profound history as a method of communication, and the drum as an implement of religious symbolism.

The drum was perhaps first created from the primal idea of mimicking the human heartbeat, yet today its music has developed into a technical, complex arrangement of beats and grooves. Different sized drums and cymbals are arranged into kits, where a drummer can pick from a variety of sounds to lead or accompany a particular song. Kit sizes vary from the simple to the outrageous. Modern drummers, including the likes of Buddy Rich, Billy Cobham, Neal Peart, Dave Weckl, and Jimmy Chamberlain, have helped drummers develop their playing skills by inspiring new beat and rhythm patterns, new combinations of sound upon sound. The modern approach to drumming, then, is to try and master the fundamentals of beat and time signature, and then to create fresh, innovative patterns and fills for each song.

In this free instructional video series, learn how to play the song "The Immigrant Song" by Led Zeppelin on the drums.

Video Transcript

"JOEL SIEGEL: All right. Here's another great Bonham beat from the "Immigrant Song". This is Led Zeppelin--this is a great beat like, for exercise really. It's a cool beat to know and play in the context of music but it also will really help work your doubles and your kick. So, if you're kinda like me, like growing up and learning how to play drums, I didn't like to play exercises that much 'cause it was kinda boring. I like to just learn tunes and beats and just play those like, with the recording and that's kinda how I figured out what I needed to learn and stuff like that. So, if--instead of sitting there and sitting around and just doing exercises, you want to play a tune, you can kinda find tunes that work certain aspects. And so, this is the perfect one to work in getting like, controlled double sixteenths on your kick drum, okay? So, we'll talk about that. That's really--again, the main feature of this beat is what's happening in the kick drum 'cause as far as mechanically and your two hands and your left foot, it's going to be the same; it's just the eighth notes and two and four. So, check out these next few clips and we'll talk about what's going on in the right foot."