The HiHat Chick

What's so important about incorporating the hi hat chick into your playing? Why should you explore it? Well, if you want to take your playing to the next level, and if you want to sound more modern, then you need to start using your hi hat foot more musically. I noticed that something was missing in my playing when I would hear myself back in recordings. I would listen to recordings of myself, and then listen to recordings of my inspirations, and hear that my playing was lacking something. And then one day, it hit me. It was my left foot. It was just sitting idle. The only time I really ever used it was sometimes to keep a steady quarter or 8th note pulse, or maybe a latin ostinato, but I never truly developed the independence/freedom to comfortably phrase with it like I could phrase with my right foot on the kick drum. That's how you can easily distinguish an intermediate drummer who is good, from an advanced drummer who is great. So, I decided to dive into exploring grooves and phrases incorporating the hi hat chick, not the typical way I was used to (a steady pulse), but exploring how to be more free with it... using it as a ghost note, a pickup note, or just another voice freely placed in a phrase. The goal is to become so comfortable with your hi hat foot, that it serves as a whole other voice that you can speak with, just like you can with your kick drum foot and hands. This is a collection of grooves and phrases that I've come up with on my journey incorporating the hi hat chick thus far. - Marco Cirigliano (from the Preface)