When you play a flam, both sticks strike the drum at nearly the same time. One stick will always be the high stick and the other the low stick, or grace note. When naming a flam “right” or “left”, which stroke do you use?
Interestingly, the answer across time is mixed, but a general survey shows an early-American tendency towards naming flams by the grace note.
While this may seem like a trivial distinction, being aware of the naming convention will avoid confusing misinterpretation of drum beatings, like the beating “Front to Halt”.
Read on to learn more about how naming conventions for Flams changed over time and how this knowledge can help you make informed interpretations.
Early American Sources
Many of the earliest American sources do not provide instruction on how to play a flam. Therefore, they do not reveal how they are naming their flams.
Ashworth and Rumrille & Holton are silent on the matter. However, some other 1812-era sources describe how to perform a flam. On the whole, early American style indicates that flams are named by the grace note, or low hand.
Hazeltine (1817) explains:
“A right hand single flam, is beat by striking a light stroke with the right hand, and a hard stroke with the left, immediately after. The hand that gives the light stroke is called the flam hand.” (4)
Robinson (1818) gives a nearly identical description and also notes:
“N.B. the hand that gives the light stroke it termed the flam hand.” (6)
Early British Sources
The earliest of British sources, The Young Drummer’s Assistant and “Drum Beatings” MS, do not include instructional information. Therefore, they also don’t tell us how 18th century drummers named their flams.
The next British source, Potter’s The Art of Beating the Drum (1815), indicates that British drummers named their flams by the high hand.
Potter comments that:
“The Stick that strikes the Drum last determines whether right or left hand Flam.” (9).
Mid-19th Century Drum Manuals
Overall, mid-19th century drum manuals suggest the common naming convention for flams is based on the grace note.
In Howe’s (1862) preface notes, he includes all the drum beatings and explanations from Robinson. Thus, he also refers to flams by the low note. Later, in Howe’s descriptions of each rudiment, he does not elaborate how he names them.
Keach, Burditt & Cassidy (1861) are also not specific. However, they comment to “beat[] the second or large note louder than Flam or small note” (14). By naming the grace note, or low hand, the “Flam”, they appear to indicate that the flam is named by the low hand.
Bruce & Emmett (1862) clearly name the flam by the grace note. Bruce states:
“The left hand stick must be raised to a level with the chin, the right (or flam hand) two inches from the drum” (6).
Even the British seem to shift from Potter’s naming conventions to these American conventions. In Tamplini’s Drum-Major (c. 1850), he refers to a “Right-Hand Close Flam” which is notated with a right-hand grace note. This suggests a shift in terminology from Potter’s 1815 manual to the mid-century (15).
A Shift To The High Hand
Some mid-century manuals, however, do imply a shift towards naming Flams based on the high hand.
Hart (1861) is not absolutely clear on his naming scheme. However, based on his notation of an open flam and his comment that “Those representing the left hand flams, are on the upper line,” etc., that he names the flam by the hard hand (7).
Strube (1869) very clearly uses the high hand to name his flams:
“The Flam is a grace stroke in drumming, and is performed as follows: Hold the left hand stick two or three inches from the drumhead, the right hand stick twelve or fifteen inches from the drumhead. In this position the Pupil will strike the drumhead so as to make both drum-sticks reach it almost at the same time […] In this instance it is termed the Right Hand Flam. The Pupil will then reverse the position of the sticks and strike as before explained. In this instance it is terms the Left Hand Flam.” (9)
Strube’s manual does take some influence from the older British manuals, like Potter. We can see this mostly in Strube’s decision to return to the 11s in Line A of Three Camps.
One wonders how much Strube was influenced by the British or how much this reflects a general shift and/or alternative practice among American drummers.
Hart used this naming practice, but he is often considered something of an outlier because of his unusual notation habits and divergent beatings.
Naming Conventions in French Styles
Since at least the mid-18th century, the French have named their flams based on the high hand.
In Instruction des Tambours (1754), a right-hand stroke is called a “pa”. A flam with a hard-right stroke and a left-hand grace note is called a “pla” – a corruption of “pa” and “fla” (flam). The same is true for the left hand, where a left stroke is called a “ta” and a left flam a “tla” (2-3).
French Influence on American Style
We know that French drumming influenced American drummers to at least a minor extent during the American Revolution.
At minimum, a beating often known as “The French King” or “The French Grenadier” is adopted rather universally throughout American drumming, as seen in 18th century American drum manuscripts and 1812-era drum manuals. This beating, usually called a salute, is a minor corruption of the French “Aux Champs”, which acted as a drum salute and order to march.
One wonders whether the French naming convention began to influence the Americans, leading eventually to Hart’s and Strube’s switch from the grace note naming the flam to the hard stroke naming it.
More evidence from earlier British manuals are really necessary to know how the British were naming their flams previous to any possible French influence.
Why should we care how drummers historically named their flams?
The question of how drummers named their flams may seem a bit trivial. The fact that both naming conventions have historic precedent, we might say both styles are perfectly acceptable.
However, paying attention to these details is important when interpreting some beatings.
Interpreting “Aural” or “Paragraph” Style Drum Beatings
Some manuals, like Hazeltine and Robinson, utilize a “paragraph” style of drum notation. This means that rather than using musical notation, they simply write a paragraph of rudiments. The drummer can simply read the couple of sentences and learn “aurally”, as if Hazeltine or Robinson were speaking the beating to them.
In this case, we don’t have the visual evidence from the drum notation to decide if the flam is a right-hand grace note or left-hand grace note and must, instead, go by the information the authors provide us.
If you read their beatings without studying their terminology, you may accidently have understood a “right-hand flam” as a right-hand high stroke and misinterpreted their intentions.
In Robinson’s “Pioneer’s March”, for example, misunderstanding this naming convention would create a confusing interpretation that deviates from the other standard approaches from the 1812-era.
Instead, a correct understanding of Robinson’s naming convention for flams creates an interpretation that lines up with both The Young Drummer’s Assistant and Ashworth.
A misunderstanding (assuming he is naming is flams based on the hard stroke) leads to the use of flam taps, which don’t match other variations.
Interpreting “Front to Halt”
In many American military manuals, there is a list of drum signals. These first appear in von Steuben and continue well into the 19th century.
Many of these beatings simply refer the drummer to an established tune. For example, von Steuben notes that “For the drummers — the drummers call” or “To go for provisions— roast beef” (92).
But many include a brief verbal description of the beating. Something like “First Serjeant’s call— one roll and three flams” can be fairly easy to interpret, especially with a resource like Ashworth.
One that appears far trickier is the beating “Front to halt” which has a much longer description:
“Two flams from right to left, and a full drag with the right, a left hand flam and a right hand full drag.” (92)
Depending on how you understand the late-18th century naming convention for flams, changes how you would interpret this beating.
Incorrect Interpretation of Front to Halt
If I understood a “right” flam as having a hard right stroke, I would interpret Front to Halt as follows:
Because flams with a hard-right strokes tend to open measures, I would be forced to assume the beating starts with a flam on the downbeat.
The first example keeps some consistency, but uses an awkward left-hand high flam in the middle of the phrase. The second example ends in the middle of a beat and is probably incorrect. The third example shifts the full drags around so they are used in two different ways; this inconsistency is unusual and likely wrong.
Correct Interpretation of Front to Halt
However, based on this survey of 19th century American sources, we seem to find a general agreement that Flams are named based on the grace note.
This understanding changes how I understand “Front to Halt” and would lead to this interpretation:
A left-hand high flam would usually come as a pick up note to a right-hand high flam, something we see throughout 18th century drum manuscripts and 19th century American drumming. This also means the “left hand flam” (right-hand high flam) in the middle of the phrase makes more sense and I can keep the phrasing consistent.
Conclusion: Naming Historic Flams
On the whole, it appears that Americans named flams based on the grace note. There appears to be a shift in the second-half of the 19th century, though more research is required to see how that naming convention continued to shift.
The British naming conventions are still unclear, since we have only two 19th century sources and both are contradictory.
More research might show us a better picture of how the naming conventions worked across Europe and where the Americans adopted their habits from.
In general, this close scrutiny is required for careful interpretation of some early drum beatings, predominately those writing in an “aural” style.
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