First things first - download your free transcription.
A couple of weeks ago, checking out the instagram videos of the excellent Daniel Pinhiero, I noticed him doing something many modern drummers do, but which not everybody knows about. When you’re as content-brained as I am, you immediately think “video idea”.
I thought back to the moment, in the early 2010s, learning a Darion Javon transcription, when I realized this move was a thing.
I call it the “cross under”. Once you see it, you’ll realize how absurdly simple it is. But it may be one of the few things that actually qualify as “secret moves that can immediately improve your playing”. (Very few things can, of course.)
But if you think about how playing on the hi hats evolved, we started “crossing over” our body - already not super optimal for a lot of reasons. Then, sometimes we’d want to play with both hands on the hats. This left us with a conundrum. A seemingly-awkward “arm swivel” at the elbow that took a lot of space, and risked compromising the sound because the elbow would be in a weird position for…time.
That “uncanny valley” ruled out a lot of "dabbling” in hand-to-hand stuff. You’d either have to commit to lead-hand lead, or two hands on the hats.
Until the crossunder.
Hope you enjoy.