Staggering Four 16th Note Hi Hats Over A Bar Line

In this lesson you will be learning a simple method of decorating a two bar groove with short runs of 16th notes that are spread over the beat 4 of one bar and beat 1 of the next. The construction of this part is fairly straight forward but creates a really nice 'funky' sound. I'll start by showing the hands for a version of this pattern followed by some full grooves. I'll then discuss some straight forward variations on the part.

First of all, here's the hand pattern:

The hands for this concept

So snares can fall as normal then on the '+' after beat 4, move the left hand over to the hi hats and play '+ a 1 e +' as a single stroke roll, all accented. If the tempo isn't too high and your hand stamina is decent enough you could play this all on one hand. I find using two helps 'lift' the 16th notes a bit and makes them stand out a little more so I tend to do it two handed.

Below is a list of four grooves using this hand pattern. I find if you leave a kick off beat 1 of the second bar it gives the extra 16ths a bit more emphasis too, I have shown this in most grooves below.


Groove 1

A two bar groove with staggered 16th note hi hat decoration


Groove 2

A two bar groove with staggered 16th note hi hat decoration


Groove 3

A two bar groove with staggered 16th note hi hat decoration


Groove 4

A two bar groove with staggered 16th note hi hat decoration


Let's have a quick look at some simple variations on this part.

Play The 16th Note Placement In The Middle Of The Bar

As the title says, in this first first let's try budging the decorative 16ths to the middle of the bar rather than the end. That gives you something like this:

A two bar groove with staggered 16th note hi hat decoration in the middle of the bar


Using The Ride And Hi Hat

Obviously the hi hats in this groove could be re orchestrated to any other part of the kit but a more interesting version is the play the ride with the right hand and the hi hat on the left. That would give you something like this:

A two bar groove with staggered 16th note hi hat decoration in the middle of the bar


16th Note Toms

Another interesting orchestration idea is to play the 16th note run over toms. That would look like this:

A two bar groove with staggered 16th note hi hat decoration in the middle of the bar


TASKS

  • Learn the grooves above up to a tempo of at least 150bpm.
  • Create further variations.
  • Think about how this concept could apply to fill construction.
  • Create some 4 bar phrases using these grooves.

Lessons

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