Hi-Hat Techniques: Open, Closed and Foot Splash
The hi-hat is the most-used cymbal on the kit and the one most drummers control least deliberately. Most players have two hi-hat sounds — closed and open — and a competent player has six, all produced by the left foot.
The short answer
The hi-hat's sound is determined almost entirely by how far apart the two cymbals are, and that distance is controlled by the left foot pedal.
Closed (pedal fully down, cymbals touching): a tight, short "chick" with the stick. The default sound in most pop and rock.
Open (pedal released, cymbals apart): a long, sizzling ring. Used for accents and for opening up a chorus.
Half-open (pedal partly down): between the two. A short ring with some sizzle.
Adding the foot alone playing the pedal — pressing without using the stick — gives three more: a foot chick, a foot splash, and a foot bark. Together that is six usable sounds from one cymbal.
The six sounds in detail
1. Closed, stick. Pedal down, stick strikes the top cymbal. Short and tight. The standard eighth-note groove sound.
2. Open, stick. Pedal lifted so the cymbals are apart, stick strikes. Long ring. Used at the end of phrases and to signal a section change.
3. Half-open, stick. Pedal partly released. A medium-length sound with more wash than the closed version and less ring than the open one. Very useful for verses that need a little air.
4. Foot chick. Pedal pressed down with the foot only, no stick. A dry percussive sound with almost no pitch. This is the sound that appears on beats two and four in jazz, and it is the pulse under a brushed pattern.
5. Foot splash. Pedal released sharply and the cymbals allowed to open and close. A short hissing burst. Used as a rhythmic accent, especially before a downbeat.
6. Foot bark. Pedal pressed hard with the foot while the stick plays closed. Produces a slightly choked accent. Less common and useful in specific contexts.
Most drummers never deliberately practise sounds 4, 5, and 6, which is why their grooves feel one-dimensional.
The foot pedal, specifically
Three things about the pedal change the sound.
Where the foot sits. Playing with the ball of the foot on the pedal gives more control and a faster response; playing flat-footed gives less control and more power. Most drummers use both, switching depending on the passage.
How hard the pedal is pressed. The closed sound is not binary — a hard press produces a tighter, more choked sound than a light press. For the classic tight hi-hat sound, press firmly.
The hi-hat clutch and tension. The spring tension on the hi-hat stand determines how fast the cymbals close and how much control the foot has. Most stands allow adjustment, and a stiff spring makes foot splashes much harder. Adjusting it is a two-minute job.
The patterns that use each
Closed eighths. The foundation. Hi-hat on every eighth note, snare on two and four, kick on one and three. Everything else in rock and pop is a variation.
Closed with open accents. The same pattern, opening the hi-hat on the "and" of four at the end of every second bar. This gives a groove a lift without adding notes. It is one of the most useful single additions a drummer can make.
Foot chicks on two and four. The jazz pulse. Also common in pop and soul for a groove that needs a defined pulse without hi-hat stick work.
Foot splash accents. A foot splash on the "and" of four as a pickup into the next bar. Common in funk and soul.
Ride instead of hi-hat. Not a hi-hat technique, but the decision that precedes everything: for choruses and louder sections, the ride often replaces the hi-hat entirely. Covered in drum grooves to learn.
How to build foot independence
The foot is the weakest limb for most drummers, and it is trainable.
Step one: foot alone. Press the pedal on every beat at 60 BPM, with no stick playing. Just the foot chick. Do it for one minute. Most drummers find this surprisingly difficult, which is the point.
Step two: foot on two and four. The jazz pulse, with the stick playing a simple pattern. This is the classic independence exercise.
Step three: foot on the off-beats. Press on the "and" of each beat while the stick plays eighths. This is much harder and it is the gateway to grooves that use the foot as a rhythmic voice rather than a pulse.
Step four: foot splash on demand. Splash on beat four of every second bar while maintaining a groove. This is the version that appears in real playing.
Step five: at tempo. Move to 100 BPM, then 120, keeping the foot accurate.
The relevant technique for the stick side of all this is finger control — a hi-hat pattern that never stops is a finger technique, not a wrist one.
The most common problems
The left foot is not playing anything. Extremely common. A drummer with a hi-hat foot that never moves is leaving a whole voice unused.
The open hi-hat goes halfway. The worst of both worlds — long enough to blur the groove, short enough not to be an effect. If you open it, open it fully and close it on the next beat.
The hi-hat is too loud relative to the snare. The hi-hat is right next to the snare and easy to over-play. In most grooves the snare should be the loudest thing.
The foot splash is late. Foot splashes need to be ahead of the beat to act as a pickup. Practise them deliberately early.
Tension set too stiff. A pedal that snaps closed too fast makes controlled foot work much harder. Adjust it before assuming the problem is your foot.
Pedal technique versus stick technique
The two are separate skills and they fail differently.
Stick technique on the hi-hat is about closed and open, controlled by the foot's position. The common failure is an inconsistent open — the pedal position drifts and the ring length varies from bar to bar.
Foot technique is about timing and independence, controlled entirely by the ankle. The common failure is playing the foot too late, because the foot is behind the other limbs in the drummer's mind.
A useful diagnostic: play a simple groove and listen only to the hi-hat foot for two minutes. If you can hear it clearly, it is probably fine. If you cannot find it in the sound at all, that is the gap.
::: callout
The counterintuitive part: the hi-hat is usually thought of as a timekeeping instrument — the thing that keeps the eighths — when its most valuable role is arrangement. Opening the hi-hat on the last eighth of a bar does nothing to the time and changes the feel of the whole phrase; switching from hi-hat to ride at a chorus does more to make a section lift than any fill. The hi-hat is the cheapest arrangement tool on the kit, capable of marking sections without adding a single note. Drummers who think of it as a metronome never use it that way.
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Gear that matters
Two pieces of hardware affect hi-hat technique more than the cymbals themselves.
The hi-hat stand. Spring tension, footboard height, and the clutch all matter. A stand with adjustable tension and a comfortable footboard is the single best upgrade for foot technique.
The top cymbal weight. Thin top cymbals respond faster to the pedal and produce better splashes; heavy ones give a more defined stick sound. Most players use a medium-thin top cymbal for exactly this reason.
The cymbal itself is covered in best cymbals for beginners, which also covers the sizes that work for different styles.
Practising efficiently
Ten minutes a day on the hi-hat foot, in this rotation, is enough.
Days 1–3: foot chick on every beat at 60 BPM, stick playing quarter notes. Nothing else.
Days 4–6: foot chick on two and four, stick playing eighths.
Days 7–9: foot chick on the "and" of each beat, stick playing eighths.
Days 10–12: foot splash pickups. One per bar at the end.
Days 13–14: all of the above at 100 BPM.
The point is not to become a foot specialist. It is to stop one limb from being dead weight in everything you play.
::: verdict
Play a simple eighth-note groove at 60 BPM for two minutes with your foot only on beats two and four. No stick work on the hi-hat at all — just the foot pulse under the snare. Most drummers find this falls apart within a bar or two, which tells you exactly how much of your own limb independence is still missing.
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Frequently asked questions
The questions readers send us most about hi hat techniques.
Six sounds: closed with the stick, open with the stick, half-open with the stick, the foot chick (pedal only), the foot splash (pedal released sharply), and the foot bark. The first three are the standard vocabulary; the three foot sounds are what most players never practise.
Release the pedal so the two cymbals separate, then strike the top cymbal. The ring length depends on how far apart they are. In practice, open the hi-hat fully and close it on the next beat, rather than leaving it half open where it blurs the groove without producing a clear effect.
A short hissing burst produced by releasing the pedal sharply so the cymbals open and then snap closed. It is used as a rhythmic accent, most often as a pickup into the next bar, and it should be played slightly ahead of the beat to function as a lead-in.
Because it is the limb most drummers practise least, and it has no independent role in most beginner grooves. It improves quickly with dedicated work — even five minutes a day of playing foot chicks alone at 60 BPM produces noticeable progress within a couple of weeks.
Usually closed or half-open, with the hi-hat opening toward the end of a phrase as a pickup. Fully open hi-hat under a verse tends to add wash that competes with the vocal, whereas a half-open position gives air without blurring the time.