Flam Drag

Learn How To Play The Flam Drag

The flam drag is a unique drum rudiment that alternates flams and drags within the structure of an alternating double stroke roll. With all these unique elements combined, this rudiment becomes a powerful exercise for developing flam strokes, drags, and overall hand coordination. That control is sure to benefit you in a wide variety of ways. Here is the basic pattern written out in drum notation:

If you look closely above, you'll notice that when you ignore the extra flam and drag strokes - the pattern is just a simple alternating double stroke roll. The first stroke of each double is replaced with a flam, and the second is replaced by a drag. That's really all there is to it. Work through it slowly at first, and it will come together.

Flam Drag - Drum Set Applications

Exercise two incorporates the flam drag in the context of a drum beat:

The third exercise uses the flam drag in a unique drum fill around the tom-toms:

Once you are done with this lesson, you can move on to another drum rudiment lesson of your choice.