Grace notes: the Flam

Flams drum rudiments - The drum sheet of this lesson dedicated to snare drum Rudiments & fundamentals, contains the various Flams, Flam accent, Flam paradiddles, Flam paradiddle diddle, Flamacue e Flam tap.

Video drum lesson preview   Flams drum rudiments

Introduction to the drum lesson: Flams drum rudiments

The Flam, in musical theory and writing, doesn't have a definite value; it can be described as a double stroke made by a first hand weak stroke closely followed by an accented, stronger second hand stroke. It's a grace note, represented in drum charts by a smaller note with a tie put just before the principal note. For a correct execution of a Flam, the stick that plays the weaker stroke starts from about one inch from the drumhead, and the stick that plays the principal stroke starts from a superior height.

In the exercises of the drum sheet you should play regular figures alternating the right and the left hand, and once you have mastered them, try to insert flams in your free improvisations.

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This drum lesson dedicated to Flams drum rudiments is a part of the published basic drum lessons.
The basic drum lessons, the first part of this method for drums, deal with the right posture, which is the basic condition to develop speed, endurance and precision with your playing. The style and the role of drumming have evolved with time, but the basic drums technique hasn't changed much, and all the great drummers still build their own style from the same basis of musical theory.

Topics in the basic drum lessons and in the online drum lessons published drum sheet music are: Rudiments & Fundamentals, Coordinated independence, Basic drum beats, Snare drum studies, Drums grooves, and Songs drum parts, with transcriptions of songs and grooves by John Bonham, Phil Collins, Stewart Copeland, Steve Gadd, Ian Paice, Jeff Porcaro.