Want to spice up your grooves without changing the kick or snare pattern?
An easy way to give some more life to your grooves is to vary the hi-hat pattern.
Below are four simple grooves, each with four extra hi-hat variations notated below them. Get comfortable with the main grooves and then try the hi-hat variations.
(Download link for the PDF file at the bottom of this post)
TIPS & TRICKS:
Start slow with each groove and make sure you are playing the hi-hats in the correct spots.
All of the grooves written below are to be played with your right hand on the hi-hat and left hand on the snare (or the opposite for left-handed players).
Try playing the simple groove 3 times in a row and add a hihat variation for the 4th bar. This is a subtle way of adding points of interest to your playing without changing the groove too much.
Hope that helps!