The role of the hi-hat in a drum groove

Hello, my name is Mrs. Tipping and I'm really looking forward to learning with you today about the role of the hi-hat in a drum groove. We're going to do lots of thinking, talking, and exploring today in this lesson. So shall we get started? Let's go. By the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to create a typical rock drum groove by adding hi-hat quavers. Before we start, I would like to introduce you to some keywords. We'll be using these keywords during the lesson, so it might be a good idea to write these words down. The keywords we'll be using today are hi-hat, cymbal, metronome, quaver, quantize. I'm gonna say those again and I'd like you to repeat them after me. Hi-hat, cymbal, metronome, quaver, quantize. Good work. Now let's think in more detail about what these keywords mean by taking a look at their definitions. A hi-hat is a part of a drum kit made of two cymbals. A cymbal is a round metal disc that makes a bright sound when struck. A metronome is a device that clicks or ticks a beat to keep a player in time. A quaver is a note lasting half a beat. Quavers often come in pairs. The quantize function in a digital audio workstation pushes the notes perfectly in time. Pause the video here to make a note of these key words and when you're ready to continue, press play. These are the learning cycles that'll be working through together in today's lesson. Identifying the sound of the hi-hat, learning to perform a hi-hat pattern in a digital audio workstation, and learning to quantize in a digital audio workstation. So in this first learning cycle, we're going to be identifying the sound of the hi-hat. The hi-hat is the third part of the drum kit with the kick and snare that creates a fundamental groove. It has two cymbals, which are either played together, closed or apart, open. You can see the hi-hat here in this image. In this groove, the kick plays on every beat and the snare plays the backbeat on beats two and four. The hi-hat plays quavers on top of the other two parts. How many times is the hi-hat played open in this simple groove? Look out for it in this video. (upbeat music) The hi-hats can be harder to hear than the kick and snare drums. Listen to these two examples to hear the faster rhythms, the higher pitch, and the crisp sound of the hi-hat. Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding. Which of these images depicts a hi-hat? Is it A, B, or C? Pause the video here and give yourself a moment to think and press play when you're ready to continue. What did you think? If you said it was C, you're right. Well done. Now let's check. In what three ways can we recognize the sound of a hi-hat in a drum groove? It sounds crisper and shorter than the kick and snare. It usually plays faster rhythms than the kick and snare. It is louder than the kick and snare. It has a higher pitch than the kick and snare. Pause the video here and give yourself a moment to think about the answer to this question and press play when you're ready to continue. What did you think? If you said it sounds crisper and shorter, it usually plays faster rhythms and it has a higher pitch than the kick and snare, then you are absolutely right. Well done. This brings us to our first learning task. I'd like you to listen to the following musical examples and think about these questions. Which parts of the drum kit can you hear in each clip? Which clip has a back beat being played on the snare and which clip has an open hi-hat? So pause the video here and give yourself enough time to have a go at this learning task and press play when you're ready to continue. How did you get on? Well, let's have a look. So in the first example, hopefully you were able to hear the kick and the hi-hat, which was open, but there was no snare or claps. In the second one, there is a kick, there is some snare and claps, but there is no hi-hat. In the third example, there is no kick, there is some snare and claps, and there is a hi-hat. And in the fourth and final, there is a kick, there is a snare and clap, and there's also a back beat, and yes, there is a hi-hat. So well done for listening to those musical examples and being able to identify these different parts. This brings us to the second parts of our lesson where we're going to be learning to perform a hi-hat pattern in a digital audio workstation. In your rock drum groove project, the kick and snare groove should look and sound like this. (upbeat rock music) (upbeat rock music continues) (upbeat rock music continues) When recording, you should have the metronome turned on to help you keep in time. Can you find the metronome on the digital audio workstation you are using? You can see it here on this one. That symbol indicating the metronome. Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding. In which picture is the metronome on? Is it A, B, or C? Pause the video here and give yourself a moment to think and press play when you're ready to continue. What did you think? If you said it was C, then you're right. Well done. The hi-hat pattern you'll play today has the following features. It plays quavers playing twice for every click of the metronome and the hi-hat is closed. Watch this video to learn where to find the closed hi-hat and the sound of hi-hat quavers. Let's look at how we can add in the hi-hat part to this drum groove. Now the first thing I need to do is I need to solo my drum kit and I'm gonna make sure the metronome is on before I even think about recording. Let's make sure the playhead is right back at the start before I do any recording. So that is now set up to record. Now I need to find the closed hi-hat sound on my instrument. Now I've already found the kick and the snare and the hi-hat is user just above that somewhere, so do a bit of experimenting until you find that closed hi-hat. If you're using GarageBand, it's gonna be that black key there, which is F sharp, and you can hear it's that really short sharp note with the sort of clicky tambra. So that's what you're going for. Now the hi-hat pattern in this rock drum groove is repeated hi-hat quavers. Remember, quavers last for half a beat each, so that means there are two quavers in every beat. So instead of one, two, three, four, we're gonna be playing one and two and three and four and. So eight notes per bar. 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 and. That's the pattern we're doing. And we're gonna make sure we're playing it in time with the metronome and with the kick and snare that we already have. So when I'm ready to record, I'm gonna make sure the play head is right back at the start and hit record. I'm gonna record four bars of that quaver pattern. (audio beeping) (upbeat music) So we can see there now, at the top of this region here, we can see those quavers that are recorded in. And if we listen back, we should hear now the kick, the snare and the hi-hat quavers together. (upbeat music) Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding. How many quavers are there in a bar with four beats? A, eight, B, 0. 5, or C, two? Pause the video here and give yourself a moment to think and press play when you're ready to continue. What did you think? If you said there are eight quavers in a bar with four beats, then you're right. Well done. This brings us to our second learning task. I'd like you to play the hi-hat part into the drum track in your digital audio workstation project. For the success criteria, I'd like you to play consistent quavers, two per beat, use a closed hi-hat sound and record four bars and make sure it is looped to last for 32 bars as shown here with the hi-hat. So pause the video here and give yourself enough time to have a go at this learning task and press play when you're ready to continue. How did you get on? Well, let's take a look. Listen to the following recording of the backing track with the hi-hat part recorded in. What is wrong with the hi-hat quavers? (upbeat rock music) (upbeat rock music continues) (upbeat rock music continues) While the quavers in this example are mostly played close to the beat, but they are not perfectly in time. So well done for having a go at that learning task. This brings us to the final part of our lesson. We're begin to be learning to quantize in a digital audio workstation. Most digital audio workstations were created in the USA and so use American English to describe note durations. A semibreve is called a whole note because it usually takes up the whole bar. Therefore minims are half notes, crotchets are quarter notes, and quavers are eighth notes. When you record into a digital audio workstation, it is likely that there are some imperfections in your rhythm. Quantizing pushes the notes you've played so that they are exactly in time with the beats. To quantize quavers, you need to know that you are quantizing to eighth notes. To quantize crotchets, you should pick quarter notes. You can see and hear this more clearly in the following video. Now let's have a look at quantizing my drum groove. Quantizing is where we push all of the notes so that they're perfectly in time with the beat. Naturally when we record, we're not gonna be absolutely perfectly in time with the beat and sometimes, particularly with drum grooves, it can be useful to use this quantization to help make it absolutely spot on. So the way I'm gonna do this is I'm gonna double click on the section that I've recorded this region and it will bring up all the notes that I've recorded. So you see along the top, we've got those quavers on the hi-hat, we've got a kick along the bottom, and then a snare in the middle. So we've got those three different parts of the drum kit that have all been used there. Now when we're quantizing, you'll see we've got a quantized options at the side here. And if you are using a different door, it's usually a very similar setup where you double click on the region and the options will come up on the left. Now firstly to quantize my kick and my snare, these are playing crotchets. So I want to make sure when I'm quantizing that'll quantize these two a quarter note. What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna select all these notes by dragging a box over them. (upbeat music) So just my kick and my snare. I'm gonna make sure that it says quarter note there. That's the American term for crotchet. And then, you'll see there, they've slightly adjusted to make sure that they're perfectly in time. Sometimes if you click that queue button, it'll make sure that that's done. So now my kick and my snare are perfectly in time with the crotchet beats. If we to zoom in, you would see that every one of those notes is exactly on the line where it should be. But I still need to quantize my quavers in my hi-hat part. So I'm gonna do the same thing. I'm gonna drag a box over just the quavers in the hi-hat. (audio clicking) And now because we're using quavers, I need to select eighth note. That's the American term for quavers. So if I click that, you'll notice that the quavers gently move so that they're perfectly in time. Now if you listen that drum track, we should hear that it's absolutely perfectly in time with the metronome. (upbeat music) So that quantizing has made that absolutely perfectly in time, and I've made sure that my kick and my snare are quantized to a quarter note. That's a crotchet. And that my hi-hat is quantized to an eighth note. That's a quaver. Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding. Match the American words with their British meanings. So we have whole note, half note, eighth note, and quarter note, minim, quaver, semibreve, and crotchet. So pause the video here to have a go at matching those American words with British meanings and press play when you are ready to continue. How did you get on? Let's take a look. So a whole note is a semibreve, a half note is a minim, an eighth note is a quaver, and a quarter note is a crotchet. So well done. This brings us to our final learning task. I'd like you to quantize both the kick snare part and the hi-hat part in your digital audio workstation project. To quantize, double click on the region that you have recorded. Look for the quantize or queue button at the left-hand side. Then select all of the kick and snare notes and quantize them to quarter note. Then select all of the hi-hat notes and quantize them to eighth note. Then listen back to your drum groove with the metronome playing to check that the notes sound perfectly in time with the beat. So pause the video here and give yourself enough time to have a go at this learning task and press play when you're ready to continue. How did you get on? Well, listen to this example of the rock drum groove on its own. How well is the track quantized? (upbeat music) The quantization has been applied so that all the notes are precisely in time. However, there is a crucial mix up. The hi-hat has been quantized to quarter notes just like the kick and snare, and this has made all the notes fall on crotchet beats, so you can't hear the quaver hi-hat rhythm. So well done for having a go at this learning task. Before we finish this lesson, let's summarize what we've learned about the role of the hi-hat in the drum groove. The hi-hat is the third main part of a drum kit. It's higher and quieter than the kick and snare drum. The hi-hat can make an open or closed sound depending on whether the two symbols are touching or not. A metronome helps keep time when recording in a digital audio workstation. After recording, the music can be pushed perfectly in time by using the quantized function. Thank you for joining me in this lesson today. I hope to see you in the next one. See you next time.