Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🃏 A trick 🃏 To trick 🥁 A drum hit
flam

flam

9.5
A quick light drum hit just before the main beat to make sound fuller
  • noun
  • Specialized
translation icon : flam
  • The drummer showcased his skill by executing a series of flams during the performance.
  • flam paradiddle-diddle
  • play a flam
  • first flam

Examples

  • Students using this technique won't be playing rolls and flams, but they can play slower-moving rhythms.

    Academic text (2006)

  • I never had one of those until I heard Steve Gadd doing the signature flam and then coming up with the groove like kind of on on Spain.

  • It starts in C Dorian, the melody to E flam Lydian pepsus.

  • To enhance the rhythm, I practiced my flam technique, adding a quick grace note before each beat.

  • Using a flam in her solo made the piece sound fuller and more dynamic.

Surface Forms

flam singular
flams plural

Etymology

Flam in drumming is a very small extra note played just before the main beat. A helpful way to remember it is to imagine a quick 'flash' that 'touches' the main sound to make it fuller.