Do I have some sort of a freak hi-hat hand or something?

[kysrsoze]

Hey, all. I'm doing all my paradiddles and whatnot, and feel like I've developed some reasonable speed (and accuracy) in left-right movement, with rather nice 16th notes on the hi-hat. I feel very comfortable with the ride cymbal, but when I try to play somewhat fast 8ths on the hi-hat with my right hand, it's like garbage. It feels slow, inaccurate and like I'm straining my forearm to play the quick 8ths.

Any good exercise or ideas on improving my technique when playing these fast 8ths on the hat?

[cstoliker]

Play along to something like Tom Sayer by RUSH. They are 16th notes that are done with 1 hand in a traditional crossover posture. It forces you to develop good wrist/fingure technique on hihat and become more efficient in order to last the entire song. After that, 8th notes are a breeze.

[kysrsoze]

Wow, that sounds completely masochistic, but it's probably the best advice anyone could give. I'm envisioning right now, how much my wrist is going to hurt until I get it down.

Thanks.

[John.b]

Only do 5 mins on it, then do 30 of something nice. Then go back to it for 5 and so on. Then have a day off from it.

You can get too bogged down practicing. Some of the best stuff comes out of just playing.

When I was gigging. most of my new feels came from covering old feels that had gone wrong.

[Fat Rich]

If you're not having any problems on the ride but finding it difficult on the hi hat it may be a posture problem. Check your arm position to see if it's fairly relaxed and re-arrange your kit if necessary.

Also have a look to see if you're using the same grip when you go from ride to hi hat... I go from American grip to French grip as I move around the kit. You might find you need to practice your rudiments in both grips.

Rich

[Colquhoun]

As Fat Rich mentions, it may also be a grip problem. I find in order to play the ride quickly, my thumb is facing up. When I move to the hihat, my hand naturally turns so that the back of my hand is facing up, and restricts my movement a bit. If I turn my hand so that my thumb is facing up, hihat play is much easier.