# Ghost notes and accents

Two drummers can play identical marks and only one grooves. The difference is
which strokes are loud and which are soft.

The samples here are separate performances, not one hit turned down: the snare
spans about 17 dB from ghost to accent, the hat about 22 dB from foot tap to hard
accent. A soft stroke on a real drum has less ring and less crack, which no volume
knob reproduces.

## Accents (capital = accent)

On the grid the accent has a bar under it.

    on the beat   X x x x X x x x X x x x X x x x
    on the &      x x X x x x X x x x X x x x X x

Identical notes; only the loudness pattern changed.

## Ghost notes (g)

On the grid a ghost is the small pale mark.

    hat    x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x -
    snare  - - g - O - - - g - g - O - - -
    kick   o - - - - - - - o - - - - - - -

If you can hear a ghost as clearly as the backbeat, it is too loud.

## The hat's other voices

An open hat is a circle instead of an x. The pedal, left foot alone, is a plus.

    open on the & of 4   x - x - x - x - x - x - x - o -
    left foot on the &s  x - + - x - + - x - + - x - + -