Hip Hop Lesson 2 - Introduction to Eighth Note Beats

Preview

# Developing Hip Hop Grooves with Hi-Hats

In this next hip hop section, we're going to look at developing our grooves even more by incorporating regular 8th note hi-hats.

## Playing the Hi-Hats

Now, we're going to try and play the hi-hats as evenly as possible, just while we get used to them. You have a choice:

- **Tip of the Stick:** This method gives a lighter sound.
- **Shaft of the Stick:** If you want a little bit more weight to your playing, you can use the shaft of the stick. This part contacts more on the side of the hi-hats.

### Stick Height

Do try to think about the stick height.

- If you're playing, what’s quite common is to accent **beat one**.
- If you find yourself playing like this, you might want to reassess and, at this stage, try and play them as evenly as you can.

### Incorporating Accents

In reality, if I'm playing with different people and different styles, I like to incorporate some accents on my hi-hat.

- You might choose to emphasize the **quarter note pulse** like this:
- This can be more challenging, especially when you're adding bass, drums, and snares.

I often like to accent the **ands**—like this.

> "Now I'm exaggerating slightly just so that you can clearly hear that."

### Bringing in the Rest of the Kit

At this stage, I thought it might be worth bringing in the rest of the kit, just by playing some kind of hip hop-inspired groove that includes the toms.

- Although we're not teaching that at this stage, I'm aware that in hip hop, if you see Tony Royster Jr.—who plays with Jay Z sometimes—he'll have a massive drum kit and a sampling pad as well. That's a whole other world. It’s a very exciting world that you can get into!

### Demonstrating Hi-Hat Sounds

I thought it would be worth demonstrating the different hi-hat sounds you can get. Once you've developed a consistent approach, you can then mix things up.

So, I'm going to play one example of a groove where I accent the hi-hats on the numbers:

- **1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and.**

Then, I'll try accenting the hi-hats on all the **ands** and see how it feels really different.

> "Here we go."

Now, I'll shift the hi-hat accent to the end, and it’ll feel pretty different.

> "Felt different, didn’t it?"

But I don't want to confuse anyone.

- I'm just saying that we don't forever have to play the hi-hats in a really even manner.
- However, I really recommend when you're starting out to go for a consistent hi-hat sound—whether you choose to play with the tip of the stick or the shaft of the stick, which has a heavier, weightier sound.

About the instructor

Explore the course