Off-beat open hat
The off-beat open hat is a hi-hat pattern that plays an open hat halfway between the beats, on steps 3, 7, 11 and 15 of 16. Against a kick on every beat it makes the “tss” in house’s “boom-tss, boom-tss”.
Also called off-beat hi-hat, offbeat hats, open hat on the and.
Play it
Faded lanes are a guide: they are there so the pattern has something to sit against. Tap any box to change it.
Try this
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Add an open hat on step 1, on top of the kick. The lift goes flat, because the hat now lands with the kick instead of between kicks.
Hear it without the grid
A short recording of the loop above at 124 BPM, made with Swung’s own sounds.
How it works
An open hat rings longer than a closed one, so on the off-beat it fills the gap after each kick and stops just before the next. The kick lands, the hat answers, and the loop starts to lift.
Put the same hat on the beat instead and it simply doubles the kick. The lift comes from where it sits, not what it is.
The pattern in words
- Open hat: steps 3, 7, 11 and 15 of 16.
| Part | Steps, 1 to 16 | Plays on |
|---|---|---|
| Open hat | ··x···x···x···x· | steps 3, 7, 11 and 15 of 16 |
x a hit, o a quiet hit, 2 or 3 a quick roll inside one step, – a note held on, · nothing.
Variations
With quiet closed hats
Soft ticks on the sixteenths in between.
With a clap on 2 and 4
The full house drum loop in three lanes.
Closed instead of open
The same places with a short, closed hat.
Where it’s used
Also common in Disco, Techno and UK garage.
Learn this pattern step by step
It’s in Unit 1 of the course, which is free. Sign up with Google and go straight to the lesson; it plays in your browser, like this page.
Pick up where you left off
Carry on with Unit 1.