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Until the late 1960s, standard hi-hats were 14 inches (36 cm), with 13 inches (33 cm) available as a less-common alternative in professional cymbal ranges, and smaller sizes down to 12 inches (30 cm) restricted to children's kits. Not to take away from Papa Jones accomplishments in drumming style and technique, a 2013 Modern Drummer article credits Papa Jones with being the first to use brushes on drums and shifting time keeping from the bass drum to the hi-hat (providing a "swing-pulse focus"). The idea seemed so right hadn't heard anyone do that before." The editor of the 2008 Jazz Profiles article made specific mention to others who are thought to invent the hi-hat, including Jo Jones, but also Kaiser Marshall.

He suggested I close the hat on '2' and '4' when playing 4/4 time. O'Neil was the one who invented the hi-hat. He came to club in Philadelphia where I was working in 1943, I think it was, and talked to me about the hi-hat. Legendary Jazz drummer, "Philly Joe Jones" (born as Joseph Rudolph Jones, b.1923-d.1985), was quoted describing his understanding about the hi-hat history. Another claim, published in Jazz Profiles Blogspot on August 8, 2008, to the invention of the hi-hat is attributed to drummer William "O'Neil" Spencer (b.1909-d.1944). The first recognized master of the new instrument was "Papa" Jo Jones, whose playing of timekeeping "ride" rhythms while striking the hi-hat as it opened and closed inspired the innovation of the ride cymbal. Hi-hats that were raised and could be played by hand as well as foot may have been developed around 1926 by Barney Walberg of the drum accessory company Walberg and Auge. A standard size was 10 inches (25 cm), some with heavy bells up to 5 inches (13 cm) wide. Next was the low-sock, low-boy or low-hat, pedal-activated cymbals employing an ankle-high apparatus similar to a modern hi-hat stand. Then came shoes, which were two hinged boards with cymbals on the ends that were clashed together. Initial versions of the hi-hat were called clangers, which were small cymbals mounted onto a bass drum rim and struck with an arm on the bass drum pedal. While the term hi-hat normally refers to the entire setup (two cymbals, stand, pedal, rod mechanism), in some cases, drummers use it to refer exclusively to the two cymbals themselves. striking fully open hats hard with sticks, a technique used in loud heavy metal music songs). Depending on how hard a hi-hat is struck and whether it is "open" (i.e., pedal not pressed, so the two cymbals are not closed together), a hi-hat can produce a range of dynamics, from very quiet "chck" (or "chick") sounds, done with merely gently pressing the pedal this is suitable for soft accompaniment during a ballad or the start of a guitar solo, to very loud (e.g. The cymbals may be played by closing them together with the pedal, which creates a "chck" sound or striking them with a stick, which may be done with them open, closed, open and then closed after striking to dampen the ring, or closed and then opened to create a shimmering effect at the end of the note. When extended upward roughly 3' (76 cm) they were originally known as "high sock" cymbals, which evolved over time to the familiar "high-hat" term. Over time these became mounted on short stands-also known as "low-boys"-and activated by pedals similar to those used in modern hi-hats. Drummers invented the first sock cymbals to enable one drummer to play multiple percussion instruments at the same time. The hi-hat evolved from a "sock cymbal", a pair of similar cymbals mounted at ground level on a hinged, spring-loaded foot apparatus. The bottom cymbal is fixed and the top is mounted on a rod which moves the top cymbal toward the bottom one when the pedal is depressed (a hi-hat that is in this position is said to be "closed" or "closed hi-hats").

Hi-hats consist of a matching pair of small to medium-sized cymbals mounted on a stand, with the two cymbals facing each other. It is a part of the standard drum kit used by drummers in many styles of music including rock, pop, jazz, and blues. A hi-hat ( hihat, high-hat, etc.) is a combination of two cymbals and a pedal, all mounted on a metal stand.
