Learning Drums Lesson - The Flam Video Lecture - Learn how to Play Drums

this lesson is all about playing flam's
a flam is an exercise that is known as a
part of a group of technique building
exercises called rudiments you've
actually already studied a few basic
rudiments the single stroke roll the
double stroke roll and the single
paradiddle the rudiments we use today
come originally from military drumming
which was at first used to intimidate
the enemy and later developed in the
snare drum pieces used as signals to the
troops which could be heard above the
noise of peril signals for example to
advance retreat make camp etcetera these
days most people come across the
rudiments as a set of exercises to help
develop both hands or feet evenly or to
expand their vocabulary on the
instrument okay let's look at the flam
written down as notation first you'll
notice that there are two notes very
close together the first note the small
note is called a grace note and is to be
played slightly before the main note the
big note the pulse that we normally feel
as quarter notes should remain as it
always does meaning we must aim to keep
the main note exactly on the beat but
that the grace note should fall prior to
that point
here's that exercise played with alright
handfull arms first in order for a flam
to make the right sound you'll notice
that I tried to keep one stick higher
than the other and then by moving them
in a parallel motion whilst the sticks
travel at the same speed a sound like
flam or plum
will occur exercise 1 1 2 3 4 practice
this exercise many times and then repeat
leading with the other hand exercise 2 1
2 3 4 don't worry if one way feels more
awkward than the other most people feel
at first like they have one good way
around and one less so keep practicing
your flowers both ways until you've
mastered each evenly the next thing to
do is to try and alternate the flam's
and the best way to achieve this is to
use some stroke technique you will see
when I alternate the flam's
that the stick that starts low will
finish high and the stick that starts
high will finish lo this is a form of
stroke technique whereby one hand plays
an upstroke start slow finishes high and
one hand plays a Down stroke starts high
finishes low we're going to cover stroke
technique in greater depth in another
study so for now in order to get started
just try to feel the side-to-side motion
of the alternating flam's and then
incorporate the ups and downs where
possible exercise 3 1
two three four once you've got the hang
of playing some flam's on the snare
let's try to play some exercises based
on a bar of rock roof followed by some
fills around the kit using flam's
remember to try and play some flam's
both ways not just your favorite way
around exercise four one two three four
now let's add a bass drum between the
flam's exercise five one two three four
exercise six one two three four
exercise seven one two three four
exercise eight one two three four now
try playing some flam's between two
drums the grace note will be on one draw
and the main note on another exercise
nine one two three four exercise ten one
two three four there is no doubt that
lots of flam's played on the snare drum
will sound very much like but as you can
see there are plenty of other ways to
practice playing flops pay very close
attention to the distance between the
grace note and main notes too close
together a new flam will sound thin and
almost like hands played in unison too
far apart and your flam will not have
enough attack
good luck and bye for now