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Mr. Hudson

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About Mr. Hudson

  • Birthday 07/28/1988

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  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Southampton, England
  • Interests
    Music, Eating, Drumming, Travelling, Any form of socialising, Fitness, Women, Men, Dogs, Life.

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  1. Just did this raw take of Achilles Last Stand. Quality isn't amazing but it's a gradual process to clarity Oh and you can actually SEE me now.
  2. What a great post, feller. You've highlighted some of the simple aspects that truly were the secrets to his sound. I particularly can concur on your observation of the way he played the snare drum as I do exactly the same thing. I also habitually rim shot the snare drum, and have done since I was a kid, but for that habit I'd have to thank the influence of Dave Grohl(of whom is also a massive Bonham fan), but it was when I began listening and learning from Bonham's playing that really taught me to play that way with finesse. The difference between those two examples; Grohl and Bonham, is exactly that. Grohl plays with as much power as Bonham did, but he lacks the finesse element, in my opinion. He's more on the beat, like a machine, although this is not to criticise him as I was heavily influenced by his playing, most particularly his creative drum fills, and pure power. Bonham was a diffirent bag altogether though, and I had actually discovered him through Grohl when he cited Bonham as an influence. So began my lifelong devotion to a newfound master, who's playing was not only raw power and creativity, but subtlety as well, and he really could push and pull the feel of each song like he was truly in control, and a leader in his own right, but I digress. John Bonham's technique on the snare was far more honed, and he had incredible control, wrist and finger technique to go hand in hand with the power of those rim shots. It's not as though he rimshot his entire way through a song, rather, he would only do it to serve as a powerful accent to the back beat. You can often hear and feel his use of ghost notes between the back beat, which was proof that he was not just a BOOM BASH drummer. This is an example of the colouring in John Paul Jones mentioned - the dynamic control. And with as much skill and technique, he provided the same on his bass drum too. Again, not just BOOM, and BASH. Granted, his bass drum was huge and he utilised it to it's loudest, but also it's fullest potential. A lot of players play the kick drum with a heel up technique, with your toes firmly planted onto the kick drum pedal. This technique is popular in rock music mostly, as it provides the power and sometimes the speed necessary in rock music. There is another kick drum technique generally used elsewhere or in jazz, and/or gentler styles of music depending largely on ambience and that is the heel down technique which basically is the opposite. Rather than kicking down the toes, you are pivoting your toes down from the ankle, which doesn't give you as much speed or power but provides a nice warm tone as it allows the beater of the kick drum pedal to essentially bounce off the skin of the bass drum, allowing for resonance and tone. This is the key differences in sound between those two previously mentioned techniques. Heel up usually forces the beater into the skin of the drum, or as it's usually called: burying the beater. This chokes the sound of bass drum, providing a more deadened tone, and less resonance, whilst heel down provides the opposite, but lacks in speed and power. I used to play heel up because I wanted to get as much speed and power as possible in order to emulate my hero, but to no avail. I had the attack down, but I was burying the beater without realising I was doing so. It wasn't until I noticed this that then began trying to learn by playing heal down, and it sounded a lot closer to the sound Bonham would get from his bass drum, but I realised that I was struggling to play with as much speed and attack this way. To compensate for this, I would play harder and harder from the heel down position, which eventually strengthened the muscles in and around my ankle, as well as the muscles I had developed using the heel up until I finally discovered the magic formula! Huzzar! Bonham's technique was actually a combination of the two! (A quick Google check could have confirmed this for me, but I learnt the hard way, I'm grateful to say). The two different muscle groups I had developed altered my footing position entirely, and what I now play is Bonham's heel-toe technique. His foot I imagine sat the same as mine on the pedal; neither heel up, nor heel down, rather resting at the centre of the pedal board sort of floating. This technique allows for greater speed, and power, but also efficient use of the beater on the skin, and actually allows for the use of bass drum ghost notes! Funnily enough, after developing this alone, I discovered this video which not only demonstrated what I already knew, but explained it in a way I couldn't at the time: https://m.youtube.com/results?q=bonham heel toe bass drum&sm=3
  3. I get what you're saying. I would have to conclude that to avoid any wrist injuries, just learn a better technique haha.
  4. Hey, thanks Mithril I would say that it is the other way around. The lower tuned you have the drums, the more resistance you get when striking them. That's what I've found anyway. Like I said, the higher the bottom skin is tuned, you get less resistance and more sensitivity, or bounce for your stick which means you play much faster and with more ease.
  5. I would have quoted you in the same post as the last but I can't do it properly via this phone, I really hate it! Haha. But yeah, you're right on the money with that. The other good thing (in my opinion) about his tuning the drums higher is that you get a much better response time from your sticks. The bottom skin is known as the resonant head, and if you tighten that right up (which many don't, either for preference or because they don't know any different) then what you get is more resonance of the tone, but faster reaction time and sensitivity on the top head meaning you can do much faster rolls and more eloquent and subtle notes too. The top skin, or batter head, is mainly used for tone and Bonham would have his around medium high - he definitely tuned it to a particular key. I know that. I tune it to the same key, but I'm not sure what that key is yet, I just know it by ear haha. It is a beautiful tone though.
  6. Thank you very much! You're completely right by the way, I'm not fond of using Dropbox to link songs but at the time of posting my cover originally, I was on my phone and couldn't upload the audio file anywhere; not YouTube or Soundcloud unfortunately. In terms of playing it almost exactly to the track, then yes I would say I eclipsed Chad Smith haha, but he was improvising the whole thing! Which by far eclipses what I did! I appreciate your compliment though
  7. Plus, I'm just gonna put this here: I could give you a few other things that I've personally taken from Bonham's work. I'm 27 now, a British drummer, and have been listening to and learning from Bonham since I was 15. To me he is the master, and I was his student, now disciple, as I feel his soul is within me (not literally!), but I have essentially picked up the banner he once carried, and seek to carry to until my death. There is something holy, or unholy about Bonham's playing, whatever it was, it transcended time, and was completely immortal. Though us lesser mortal men are able to learn and de-construct his tracks so that we may play them accurately, and with his spirit, we still can not even hope to come close to what that demi-god of a man achieved in his short time here on Earth. Some of my favourite songs of his to play (and I love playing them all) are: Achilles Last Stand: For years I struggled to play this number, and simply would not practice it as much as some of the others, mainly because my bass drum foot speed and power was not quite up to it yet, and it was a total drain on my stamina to try and play a song that lasts for roughly 10 minutes straight without a stop, and I had decent stamina too! It is only in recent times that I have found the confidence and the ability to play this mighty beast, and attempt to do it justice. When I was younger, I had little wrist and kick technique, as I mentioned, and these were the main components holding me back with this song. I read a story somewhere recently that allegedly, after recording the drums for this song, Jimmy Page increased the tempo of the track. If this is true, then it's an amazing revelation to realise that this blistering beat was not recorded at the tempo we have all been playing along to for so many years, but a big part of me hopes it isn't so. Anyway, the galloping rhythm is what really makes this song, equalled with the strong, and consistent back beat - two things I eventually got down, and couple that with my newfound wrist and kick strength, I am now fully able to appreciate and play this song as it should be done. A few other things to note about this song are: The drum fills. They are the simplest, yet most powerfully executed fills you will ever hear. There is one fill that comes in at 1:17 that is a blindingly fast single stroke 16th note roll that goes around from the snare, to the two other descending toms. It's played with a smoothness that almost can't be fathomed. Some argue that it is in fact, a buzz roll, but I disagree after having mastered this particular roll, I can say that it is performed as your average, even handed single stroke roll, but counted in triplets and with an exceedingly fast execution, and the secret? Light touch. The next set of fills are the most insane out of the lot. They're hard to explain though, ha, but a short version of the two fills comes in at the 2:30 mark, and at that tempo is quite hard to pull off without having fast arms and leg, I'm telling you. The next one is in my opinion, one of the hardest John Bonham fills to execute of all time, and it is the same as the former drum fill, but is repeated 4 times in succession, and that comes in at 5:27, even I struggle to play that correctly at that tempo. Either way, this song is hands down one of Bonham's greatest compositions as a drummer, and is completely peerless in it's execution. I even did a drum cover of this recently: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0jru1P9BW8 I will post some other songs shortly, but I'm high right now and don't have the mental capacity to think too critically
  8. Here's an awesome pic you may not have seen before
  9. Also this guy Dean Ween of the band Ween comments on Jimmy Page here in this video, also from Guitar Moves:
  10. Josh Homme of Kyuss/Queens of the Stone Age/Them Crooked Vultures often says he considers Jimi Hendrix the light side of guitar, and Jimmy Page the dark side of guitar, meaning to say that he's heavily influenced by both. He talks a bit about that in this guitar jam/interview for Guitar Moves in which they are both clearly high...
  11. Hey guys. I'm new here, my name's Ash, I'm a drummer from England, and I've been a big Zep fan since I was about 16. Just thought it would be relevant to tell a bit about myself and show you who I am. We'll be fun discussing topics in the future with you all!
  12. Hey, guys! Just joined up and thought I should let you know because…...

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