16th note hi hats are a rock and pop drumming staple. They can be heard in hit songs such as Mr. Brightside by The Killers, Everlong by the Foo Fighters, and Parallel Universe by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. They are also used on intros to songs such as in Run To The Hills by Iron Maiden and The Game by Disturbed. English Summer Rain by Placebo and The Funky Drummer by James Brown are some other tracks with 16th note hi hat beats.
How to play the warm up sheet
You could learn each line seperately and then try to play the whole exercise sheet in one go, or you could loop each line for as long as you want to. What we are working towards is the last two lines of the sheet. The other ones are building up to them, but could also be used in their own right as build ups in songs.
Line 1 – Just focussing on the hi hats and making sure to accent beats 2 and 4 so that you are preparing to move to the snare drum.
Line 2 – On beats 2 and 4 of the bar, right handed drummers should move over the right hand to the snare drum and no hi hat should be played at the same time. The next hi hat after the snare drum crucially should be the left hand. This often gets played wrong by students and the sticking ends up as RLRL RRLR (and then gets stuck), instead of RLRL RLRL.
Line 3 – Back to the same as line 1 but adding in bass drums on beats 1 and 3.
Line 4 – Ok, here is the main drum beat. Bass drum on 1 and 3 and snare drum on beats 2 and 4. Make sure to keep alternating the sticks and moving the right hand back and forth between the snare and hi hats when the snares are played, and keep the left hand raised and staying where it is for the hi hat notes
Line 5 – Same as line 4 but now we are turning it into a disco beat or a rock groove by adding bass drums to the snare drums. This is pretty similar to Mr. Brightside by The Killers, but in that song the hi hats get messy with open hi hats and extra snare drums.
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