Yamaha DTXpress/DTXplorer/DTXtreme

--- In DTXpress@yahoogroups.com, "Jon Sakamoto" <sakamotj@y...> 
wrote:
> 1) open hi-hat.
> 2) do the whiplash(which results in 3 hits - feels almost like a 
> forced bounce on the hi-hat)
> 3)close hi-hat(kinda sims the extended tsssst between triplets)
> 4) repeat

Jon,

Stewart brought you amazingly far on the technical side. If you're 
anything like me (and let's hope not), after a point exercises start 
seeming abstract and divorced from actual music. But one more drill 
might be helpful: You could try alternating your kick with a strike 
of your hi hat cymbal, as if you were playing in 2/4 or 4/4. On 
every stroke with your hand, you could open up the hi hat a little 
before closing while you strike the kick. Eventually, you'll feel in 
control of getting that tsst sound. In the next part of the drill, 
you could concentrate on hitting the hi hat twice, instead of once, 
opening it up on the second stroke and then closing it with the kick 
as before. In the third step, your hi hat figure would be the full 
triplet followed by foot close and kick.

This next suggestion is the hard one. Lock all the doors, shut the 
shades, leave a message on your phone that you've been called away 
to a summit meeting, and connect a cd player to your module so that 
you can listen to it via headphones (for your own protection). If 
you have any secret disco recordings from the 1970s, spin'em and 
play along; if not, bribe a ten-year-old to find one for you. Almost 
every one of them will feature that simple pattern of alternating 
the opened and closed hi hat sound, in either of the simple 
variations that I described above. If disco is too embarrassing, 
even in the comfort and solitude of your own home, find a CD by New 
Order, a punk/new wave band from the 1980s, some of whose beats bear 
the influence of the by then safely superseded disco movement. Maybe 
you can think of other viable substitutes. But, whatever you choose, 
forcing yourself to listen and keep up with the music, may help you 
to get you the technique.

Ed