Lesson 4: Hi-hat variations

Same kick, same snare, and yet a song can feel completely different depending on what your right hand is doing. This lesson is four hi-hat ideas, each of them a beat a real record has used.

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Quarter notes: bigger and slower-sounding

Half as many hat notes, each hit harder. The beat sounds heavier and more open, and it is easier to play at fast tempos because your hand is doing half the work. Arena rock lives here.

▶ Play90 BPM−5+5

The open hat on the “and” of four

Lift your hi-hat foot slightly on the last eighth note of the bar so the cymbals sizzle, then press it shut exactly as the kick lands on “one”. The close is the important part: it makes the “one” arrive with a little “tsst”. Practise the open note alone first, foot and hand together, before you put it in the beat.

▶ Play90 BPM−5+5

The small circle above the note is the notation for “open”. Try opening on the “and” of two as well; that is the disco hat.

Sixteenths: busier

Sixteenth notes on the hat, played with one hand, give a beat more motion. Alternate the hands (right, left, right, left) if one hand cannot keep up; the snare hand then has to jump from the hat to the snare on two and four and back. It is a big step, so start at 70.

▶ Play70 BPM−5+5

To the ride

Move the right hand to the ride cymbal for the chorus and keep the hi-hat going with your foot on two and four. The foot hat is written on the hat line here; it is the same pattern the snare plays, and stepping it with the backbeat is the easiest way to learn it.

▶ Play90 BPM−5+5

Practise

Two minutes each, in the order above, all at the same tempo. Then play the money beat for a verse, the open-hat beat for a chorus, and back again without stopping. That switch, mid-song and in time, is what a drummer actually does. Open the open-hat beat in the lab to hear the “tsst” on one.