Hi Hat Playing
If you want to improve your sound I thoroughly recommend that you take a close look at your hi hat playing/technique.
TIP: A flat technique with no dynamic contour and played too loud in general is a good way to describe not very good hi hat playing.
All of my favourite drummers - and the great grooves that they play - have a beautiful hi hat sound. One of the very best (imo) was Jeff Pocaro. JP's hi hat sound is a study in subtlety and control. Two MUST study tracks which illustrate this point are 'George Porgy' and 'Keep Forgettin''. If you don't know these tracks, look them up, you'll be glad you did!
These tracks are very well known to many drummers because they employ the famous one-handed 16th notes on the hi hat technique at around 100 bpm, which is not easy to do. But if you are not familiar with these tunes, read on and then go and listen to the songs (buy them, and get them into your music library).
It takes patience to get this technique really happening. There is a fair bit of Moeller involved, but you also need to be able to play steadily at a very soft volume, and when it starts to really cook, the stick feels like it's floating in your fingers.
It's not just about being able to maintain 16ths on the hats at 100 bpm for the entire tune, it's about creating the inner accents as well, which gives the hi hat part (and by extension; the entire groove) an awesomely hypnotic quality; which all musicians will dig playing with, and everyone else will just want to dance.
My approach to learning these tracks was to create a practice project on my Mac, for play-a-long purposes. First, I drag the audio file into my DAW, and call that track "100 bpm". Then I made several copies of that track and time stretch each one (this is really easy to do in Logic Pro X) so that I ended up with tracks @74, 84, 88, 92, 96 bpm. I may do a TIP on how do actually create this one time if I get enough requests to do so, but for now i'll just assume that you are following along.
My practice session then goes like this......play each track through twice starting with the slowest, and do it every day. I spend about an hour doing this before I have a break and then move on to something else. Over a few weeks you will start to feel the improvement in your hi hat playing as you 'learn' the tune and you gradually achieve the ability to play through the whole tune at the original tempo more easily. To begin with you may not be able to do it all. Don't worry! That's the point. Follow this practice method and you will get there.
Then do the same with 'Keep Forgettin''.
Apart from the fun of playing these fantastic grooves, you will find that you have gained a new sort of awareness in your playing (hence musicianship) that will affect everything you do from that point on in one way or another, because you are now more aware of some of the subtleties of good hi hat playing that you may not have been aware of (or in control of) before. I liken this to the type of technical development experienced by a concert pianist. They have to gather an enormous library of technical skills which accumulate into what is referred to as their 'technique', over years of dedicated work. Well the very best drummers do this as well.
In closing: Things to notice and focus on while doing this work
- Where the accents are on the hi hat
- Where the hi hat opens and closes
- The bass drum variations
- The simplicity of the fills - not too sparse or busy - each is a lesson in good taste. Jeff Pocaro was an incredibly talented and tasteful drummer. Listen to as much of him as you can!!!
Have fun and enjoy listening to this great master.
I am going to post the chart for Geory Porgy very soon. I'll update this site when I do.
Also coming, many charts by the drummers of Steely Dan.
Have fun!