How to Play Hi Hat Beats

Video Transcript

"PAT LOUIS: On behalf Expert Village, I'm Pat Louis in Miami, Florida. And today, I'm going to show you some basic drum rhythms. The next step would be of course keeping time, and the high hat is used instrumentally in that. The one, two, three beat on the bass drum would be actually divided up here on the high hat. One-and, two-and, three-and, four-and, one-and, two-and, three-and, four-and, one-and, two-and, three-and, four-and, one-and, two-and, three-and, four. Most of your rock beats are going to be basically that. When you start out, I suggest getting some CDs or tapes and actually just practicing that. So this is one, two, three, one, two, three, four then you divide that up here on the high hat, and that's one-and, two-and, three-and, four-and, one-and, two-and, three-and, four. That is your basic rhythm from most rock beats. You can also use that in the way of a swing because all you're doing there is you're using the ride cymbal. One, two, three, four and that's usually all you need to do to keep it going to the one, two, three, four. Two and four will be here on your high hat. We'll go into that as I show you how that works on the bass - on the standard drum as well."