Can we talk about my track jacket for just a second?
I know it looks like I'm wearing the same thing every day, but I'd ask you to keep two factors in mind:
First, I record lessons every week, and it often just-so-happens that the taping days reoccur at around the same rate I exhaust the options in my wardrobe. (Laundry day is no longer an issue, since I'm washing gis every day.)
Ok ok - you're not here for that. You're here for the hi hat slickness. So let's rap:
The more time I spend on this planet, and in the shed, the more I start to hear things that are uniquely "me". (I suspect part of that is youthful ego giving way to Old Man Idleness.)
Around a year-and-a-half ago, I realized I was playing the hi hat in a way I hadn't heard others do exactly. If I had to reverse engineer it, I'd say it's decades of jazz vocabulary switched over to the hats, and played dry.
Now, Guiliana does tons of stuff like this. But so do Dana and Justin Brown. All of whom studied jazz, so there might be something to that. (Ooh, Bill Stewart too.)
Happy now? Can we talk about my track jacket again?
Ok - the Second thing happening is that unique New York weather weirdness.
I'd put it this way: we've got MONTHS of cold-as-hell, and MONTHS of "it's so hot I need to go commit homicide right now."
And between them, on either side, a few weeks of "aaaaaah, it's between 60 and 70 and I can wear all the clothes I look good in."
Maybe...6 weeks total. Out of 52.
Oh - before I lose you: here's the transcription...
Cool?
So 6 total weeks out of 52 when it's mild enough to wear something as fashionable as, say, a Fly Ass Collarless Nike Track Jacket. Or, just for instance, a Hot Navy Blue Uniqlo Bobby Axelrod Hoodie.
And how much time are you going to spend shopping for new options you're only going to use six weeks out of the year. Hence...limited options.
Anyway, I realized this lick could work equally well on the left side of the kit, with the right hand leading on the hats...
...as on the right side, with the right hand originating on the floor tom.
Dig this lesson? Do a fella a favor, and share it far and wide!