All right, all right . . . We’ve had a few weeks of random lessons, but now it’s time to dig in and really focus on improving our drumming. So, for the month of February, we’re going to work on flams – that wonderful two-handed slap of buttery texture that gives your grooves and fills so much depth. And, yeah I know this is still January, but let’s lay down so ground work so we can dive in head-first in February!

So let’s start with a basic flam in case any of you are new to rudiments. A flam is pretty easy all by itself. All you do is set up your hands with the left hand low and close to the drum and your right hand high above the drum. Now just drop both hands at the same speed – the left stick will hit first and your right will hit just a split second later creating a ga-blup sound (ga-blup is my own patented technical term). You just played a right-handed flam. For a left-handed flam just do the opposite.

Now, you probably played a pretty “fat” flam. In other word there was probably a lot of space between the note your left hand played and the note your right hand played. On the other end of the spectrum, a “flat” flam is when both hand play at the same time – another name for this is a double-stop. Work on both ideas, and everything is between.

Here’s an idea to get you started:

1. Play right hand flat flams (double stops) over and over like 8th notes.  Start at an easy 60 beats per minute.
2. Now gradually start to relax your left hand and let it start to slow down.
3. Your flams will start to fatten up until you get a nice fat flam sound.
4. Keep going until your flams get so fat it starts to feel like a shuffle.
5. Now start to speed up your left hand again until you end up at your original flat flams.
6. No repeat the exercise with opposite hands.

There is a place for almost every sound your created in that exercise. Pay attention to the way your hands felt as you slipped from flat flams to fat flams and back. Work on recalling the different sounds at will so you can get just the right sound at just the right time.

Next week we’ll start adding flams to some basic rhythms to create some lovely texture in your playing.