Wishing you a wonderful Independence Day – this 4th of July let us celebrate with rudiment number four from the National Association of Rudimental Drummer “Essential 13” list: The Flam!! Remember, the Percussive Arts Society fourth rudiment is not the same as number four from the NARD list. You can find the NARD Thirteen Essential Rudiments here. Here is a condensed open-closed-open breakdown of the flam by Dr. John Wooton, and to see the flam reach dramatic speeds be sure to watch Rick Behckam’s Flam Breakdown.
How about a challenge?
After warming up with hand-to-hand flams in the typical open-closed-open fashion, find your maximum tempo. Playing four bars of quarter note flams, start at a relaxed tempo with your metronome and increase a few it by a few beats each time. Can you still hear that flam sound? What was your maximum tempo?
Now let’s put those powerful flams to good use with a few of them in Old Dan Tucker. You can grab the music from the USARD Rudimental Library and play along with NARD Finland (drums only, no fife)!!