Intro to Embellishing

The word embellish means to make something more attractive by adding features and elements. There are a lot of things we can do as drummers, such as adding strokes, changing the volume, using different stroke types, opening the hi-hat, etc. In this lesson, we’re going to focus on two embellishments: opening the hi-hat and ghost strokes.

Open Hi-Hat Technique

So far, we’ve used a closed hi-hat. It’s time to open it! When a “o” is placed above a hi-hat stroke, it means to open it for that stroke. Check out how it’s used in the famous MTV song Money for Nothing—Dire Straits (1985).

Ghost-Stroke Technique

Another common embellishment technique is adding a ghost stroke, a very lightly hit stroke. Parentheses around a note indicate that the note should be played ghosted. The term dynamics refers to how loudly or softly you play. By changing the dynamics, such as using ghost strokes, you can really bring your grooves to life.

Check out how the ghosting technique is used in Fly—Sugar Ray (1997).