Over the years I have noticed something when I sit in with a band on another drummer’s kit. Drum and cymbal placement is such a personal thing, but what I noticed most is that many right-handed drummers place their hi-hats far off to the left(see figure A). To me, this is a little limiting in that you need to cross your arms a fair bit to play the hats and snare together, unless you play lefty on a right-handed kit.

What I find that works for me is placing the hi-hats more in front of you, to the right, closer to the hi-tom(see figure B). The benefit of this is you free up your left hand to do more work on the hi-hat. Using this hi-hat placement allows me to throw in extra grace notes and syncopated hi-hat accents, which works well in the right spots. It makes spicing up a groove a lot easier. Give it a try sometime.