Weekly Drum Lesson: Two-Handed Hi Hat Beats

Hello drummers!

In this lesson, we're going to look at two-handed hi hat beats. This is a common type of pattern where 16th notes are played using both hands on the hi hats, while sometimes playing backbeats on the snare. If you haven't encountered this type of beat very much yet in your drumming career, but are ready for a new challenge, this video is for you.

 By the way… Grab the sheet music for this lesson here! (Right-Click [or Control-Click on a Mac], “Save As”.)

We're going to break down the foundation of this beat type, and then add kicks to create a few different variations. 

I find it helpful to conceptualize this pattern into groups of four. Let's play RLRL on the hi hats. And then we'll do another RLRL, but we'll do the first one on the snare instead.  

Next, let's add a kick on 1 and 3. And this will give us a basic rock variation of this beat.

Next we'll try a kick on all four counts, which will result in a 4 on the floor, or dance beat.

Now let's try playing a couple 8th notes before we hit the snare. Both kicks will land along with the right hand hitting the hi hats.

And let's end on this more advanced variation. In the song "Ten Tonne Skeleton" by Royal Blood, the song ends with this pattern. I'd recommend practicing this one super slowly, starting with just the first five notes. Be careful that the kicks are landing with the correct hi hat notes.

I hope you were able to learn something new from this video. And if you have, definitely make sure you sit down at your drum set to try some of these out. If you have any questions please leave a comment below, and of course, like, and subscribe. That's all for now, thanks for watching!

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