Using Left Foot Hi-Hat, Does It Help Improve Time?

Souljacker

Silver Member
For drummers who incorporate the left foot into say rock/pop/funk music do you find it helps solidify a better groove in your playing?

Obviously it takes a bit more limb coordination to work but would be interested in hearing opinions on this and whether it makes you more aware of subdivisions when playing a gig.
 
What is the best way to walk smoothly and with rhythm ?

Using two legs, or using one leg?

Playing the drums is a full body exercise.


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I use my left heel to help keep time, whether the hat is open or closed. I don't make a sound with my foot on the hat, I just bring my heel up & down in time. It then becomes my metronome, and I play to it. I know that may seem odd that one foot would keep time, so why can't my right hand and other limbs simply do the same?

For me, it's because limbs are independent. Trying to have them simply play requires concentrating on each, and agonizing whether they're in time, while also listening to the music. So by setting one limb - my left leg - to the task of time-keeping, my other limbs work with it, which is a form of interdependence, and much easier to manage. Well, for me anyway. I would hesitate to call it a shortcut or a trick, it's just how I get through a gig, and I'm told my meter is unbelievable. At least I think that's a compliment!

Bermuda
 
I also like to use my hi hat heel to keep time. Also keep in mind that different “beats” with your hi hat foot will give you different feeling grooves. If you tap up beats your groove will sound and feel different, than if you tap 8th notes...
 
I use my left heel to help keep time, whether the hat is open or closed. I don't make a sound with my foot on the hat, I just bring my heel up & down in time. It then becomes my metronome, and I play to it. I know that may seem odd that one foot would keep time, so why can't my right hand and other limbs simply do the same?

For me, it's because limbs are independent. Trying to have them simply play requires concentrating on each, and agonizing whether they're in time, while also listening to the music. So by setting one limb - my left leg - to the task of time-keeping, my other limbs work with it, which is a form of interdependence, and much easier to manage. Well, for me anyway. I would hesitate to call it a shortcut or a trick, it's just how I get through a gig, and I'm told my meter is unbelievable. At least I think that's a compliment!

Bermuda

+1 for Bermuda. I also rock my left heel to 8th notes when I'm playing guitar or just rocking out to tunes. It eventually becomes a habit - rocking out to eighths.
 
Another vote for the wisdom of Bermuda!

I've been asked many times, by non-drummers, as to why my left knee bounces so much (actually caused by my heel ) when I'm not opening, or even playing the hats. When I tell them I'm keeping time, responses vary from "seems like a waste of a lot of energy", to "it looks like a nervous twitch".
 
Groove or time? A pulse is not grooving so and it appears everyone here is talking about keeping time.

The short answer is no. I keep time internally. Every part of me keeps time. I really don't even think about it. When I first started taking private lessons (percussion), one of the first things my instructor got me to do was to stop tapping my foot. First, it's a visual distraction seeing an entire ensemble tapping their foot and second, it ends up sounding like an Irish step dance if everyone is doing it. He said if I needed the crutch, to flex the toe/foot muscles inside my shoe.

Anyway, outside of a big band situation, my left foot is another aspect to the groove I'm playing. It compliments what my hands and right foot is doing. It might keep time but that's not the reason my hi hat is going up and down. If anything, my right hand is keeping time because it's subdividing the beat.

In a big band/swing situation, my left foot keeps time for the rest of the band, not for me.
 
Me too.

When I first started to play, my teacher told me to use my left heel to keep time, but I couldn't. And then one day, I noticed it doing it all by itself. Can't stop the damn thing now!
 
I do not use it for keeping time. I use it to compliment the groove when it is needed. My head keeps the time.
 
I can't say I use it to keep time. I use it to fatten the beat and to add a welcome added dimension to my playing.
 
+ (whatever number we're up to on Bermuda).
"and I'm told my meter is unbelievable. At least I think that's a compliment!" HA!

I'm not sure that I consciously lock into my left foot as a metronome, but I use it to keep the time steady, or the groove flowing, or however you want to look at it. I also click my teeth (ala Billy Ward's "Big Time"). More clicks (subdivisions) per measure for a slow tempo, and fewer clicks per measure for an up-tempo song.
 
I must agree with some of the guys here. For me it's not really a time keeper as it is more for sound.

Keeping the hihat going during a break or fill just sounds better and keeps the groove full and more fluid.

Most professional drummers do use their hihat while playing grooves and fills. If you pay attention to them, you'll notice how much better it sounds then if they were to stop.
 
Understood about internalizing the time, that's part of the interdependence I use by having the rest of my limbs play to my left heel. It makes no sound, and I'm not concerned with how it might look to someone else. If anything, it makes it seem like I'm doing more!

But as I said, that works for me, especially when other players - or especially the singer - tend to push or pull. I've always got a physical, intimate metronome going that won't be swayed by what I hear.

Bermuda
 
It's funny how internalized musical devices sometimes creep out. I once knew a bass player who made the funniest faces. He was also a tuba player, and the facial expressions were the result of his tuba-breath-control.

I'm not yet a full year into this instrument, but FWIW, I was somehow convinced to start early with heal-toe under the guise of: "You can suffer it now or you can suffer it later". I'll let you know in a year or two if it was the correct choice.
 
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