How is the hihat played in the intro to the Donna Summer song "Could It Be Magic"?
I'm new to playing drums, and have noticed that there's a technique to play hihat patterns, used for example in the intro to Donna Summers' "Could It Be Magic".
Listen to the the intro, at 00:00--00:08. The 16th notes on the hihat sounds like they're played in some kind of way that every second note is done with the handle of the stick hitting the rim of the hat, and every other with the tip closer to the bell? Sounds almost like a tambourine.
Or is it just a double stroke roll?
... or is it a delay effect? :)
How can I play it? How is it done?
EDIT: I was confused. I think they're just played with emphasis on every 4th of them just like MajBordom wrote. I think it would look like this written down (note that this should of course just be two bars, not four):
So the question could be refrased:
How do I play 16ths at the hihat in a relaxed way at 120 BPM?
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Until 0:07, they're merely using different velocities (hitting it harder) to emphasize every fifth 16th note.
After that, they're playing eighth notes (or maybe sixteenth notes that are hard to distiguish) and alternating having the hihat open and closed on the eighth beats.
The "disco" sound you may be have been referring to before your edit comes from alternating raising and lowering both the kick and hihat feet together on the eighth notes while playing 16th notes on the hihat. They also throw in a snare instead of the hihat on every other quarter note.
In other words, if you tap both feet naturally to the beat and play 16th notes on the hihat, you'll probably get the disco sound.
Is any of this hitting on what you're describing?
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