Some new questions

[Ulven]

Hey all.

I asked a few timing questions back in January when i was messing around with a practice pad. (to improve my guitar playing) Anyways I ended up buying a second hand roland td1kv kit at the end of April as I quite enjoyed doing the stick work.

I've been working through the Rod Morgenstein drumset musician book. (which I think is pretty good, at least works for how I like to learn things)

I've gone through the 8th and quarter note sections a couple of times and have just started on the 16th note section. (I practice about 30 minutes a day so I'm not expecting to get through the book any time soon haha)

The other day I decided to try playing along with some backing tracks for a bit of fun as I'd achieved my practice goal for the week and found that 75bpm (what id been going through the book at for 8ths and quarters)) with 8th notes is actually very slow even though to me it seemed quite reasonably paced. However a lot of the backing tracks on the drum set seem to be well over 120bpm. That seems quite frantic to me playing 8th notes even though the backing tracks don't seem that frantic so to speak. In honesty I cant play the snare and bass parts accurately that fast anyway if its not very simple.

So after that wall of waffle my questions are.

On fast songs should I actually be playing quarter note high hat rhythms rather than 8th note high hat. (unless its supposed to sound like a fast high hat piece)

Is there a general rule of thumb (in most cases) of when you are most likely to be playing 1/4 1/8ths or 16th note high hat rhythm. In bpm terms.

I obviously need to go back to the beginning of the book and work on building up the speed on the 8th and quarter note rhythms. What should I be aiming for setting my metronome. (as mentioned i went through last time set at 75bpm) I've only been playing on a drum kit since the end of April so I don't expect to be thinking in terms of playing like a drum god (in fact I have no plans to ever be one, I'm aiming for steady and not embarrassing myself if i ever play in front of someone other than myself.) Just a reasonable and sensible achievable goal please.

Finally should I leave the 16th note section of the book alone until I'm quicker at the 8th note stuff.

Thank you for reading.