Flam Accent

What the flam accent is

Read it, hear it, and slow it down until it is even.

A flam on the first note of each triplet, then two plain taps — three notes per group, alternating leading hand. Written in eighth-note (quaver) triplets, it is the standard way to put weight on the front of a triplet, which makes it the rudiment behind countless 6/8 and jazz fills. Keep the two taps really quiet: the contrast between the flam and the taps is the whole point.

How to practice it

• Count triplets out loud. Three notes per group is the whole shape, and losing the triplet turns it into a flam tap.
• The two taps after the flam must be really quiet. The contrast between flam and taps is the rudiment.
• Play the plain triplet first (no flam) with the accent on the front, then add the grace note.
• It sits perfectly over a 6/8 groove or a shuffle — try it with the right hand moving to the floor tom on the accent.

Where it leads

The flam accent belongs to the flam rudiments family, and it feeds directly into the flamacue, the Swiss army triplet and triplet-based fills. Get it even at a slow tempo before you move on — every rudiment built on top of it inherits whatever unevenness you leave here.

Reading the notation above

Both hands play the snare drum, so every notehead sits in the third space of the staff and the sticking cells underneath tell you which hand plays which note, with the count under every stroke. Capital letters are full strokes; small raised letters are grace notes. The small noteheads with a slash through the stem are the grace notes of the ornament — they are played almost simultaneously with the note that follows, not as separate beats. The > marks above the staff are accents: hit those notes harder. Full details in the drum notation guide.

Tempo ladder

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