I finally had a chance to work on the drum micro pattern I mentioned in a previous post. I had a couple new songs to work out that pushed this pattern to the back burner for a couple weeks. The funny thing is the concept I was trying to workout from this pattern works perfectly in one of the new songs.

Pattern

RLRL
K HK

Very cool pattern. A struggle at first for sure. I couldn't do the hi-hat at first. I had to split that out, get used to it, and then I could do it.

Steps

This..

RLRL
K    K

Then this...

RLRL
K H

Then both...

RLRL
K HK

Reasons

The reason for focusing on this little pattern is getting my feet separated from my hands more. If the feet are on auto-pilot then I have a little more brain to pay attention to the hands. I am shooting for "complex simplicity". Meaning I just want to be able to drop a single hi-hat "chick" whereever I want whenever I want.

Another reason is subtle. When I play a beat on floor tom or ride, it sounds good. When I play the same beat but add the hi-hat with the left foot, it elevates. It's hard to describe the dimension that tiny "chick" sound adds. It's like when I hear chefs talk about adding Bay Leaf to their dish.

If it isn't there, the beat still holds up. The song goes on. When you add it, it sounds/feels more complete.