Hihat technique - help required

[groober]

Hi,
can any one tell me about the right way to achieve a fast chick with the hihat foot, accompanying some jazz ride and broken up left hand/right foot combinations a la Tony williams, Keith Carlock etc quarter notes and eighth notes.
There seems to be a sort of dancing foot motion, kind of keeping the ball in a pivot position while the lower part swings from side to side ... is that it ? How do you start off practicing this kind of thing ?

Thanks
Groober

[Phil T.]

I use the ball of the foot with the heel slightly off the pedal. No side to side - and the heel only comes into play for splashes. There must be YouTube video of Tony doing this, he's the master.

[groober]

Nice one Phil.
Any one else got any examples or tips ?

[Kurtis]

Do you have steven wilson get all you deserve live DVD with Marco on it? Lots of fast hi hat foot work. It's just good old fast foot pivoting from the ankle.

[Lucas Ives]

I find with stuff like this that your body will figure it out if you just start SLOOOOOW and ratchet up over time (weeks).

[Cheggs]

I believe Jojo will be covering this type of thing on his next DVD on foot technique.

[circh bustom]

I believe Steve Smith gets into that on his History of the US Beat double DVD from 10 years ago.

[DeeP_FRieD]

Crank up the tension and make sure that hats are at least an inch apart. Then definitely heels up and fast. Also no sliding double cheats as that will splash the first.

Lucas has it right with SLOOOOOOW. It must be two independent movements, with the first being finished before you start the second.

[groober]

Great ! I'll check out Jojo and Steve Smith's videos and Marco with Steve Wilson. I am trying everything slow and I always found that you could do any thing if you started off slow enough. I guess the thing is that fast eighth notes got left out of my practice routine and although you can find lots of videos and material about your hands and right foot, there's not so much mention of hihat technique.
Hey DeeP_FRieD, that's strange you mention cranking up the tension, normally with my bass drum tensioning slacked off quite a bit, I find I can get some speed happening. I guess that's what's so great about hearing from you guys. I'll try all suggestions and see what happens.
I saw Peter Erskine talking a little bit about hihat foot technique and that was interesting. I would really like to see some in depth video exercise type thing.

Thanks for all the responses !

[Jim Richman]

If you can make the sound you are describing, then you are almost there. Just keep doing it. Use the whole leg. There is no shortcut.