How to Practise Flams (with Permarhythms)

Do you feel like you know how to play flams, but still end up using the same few placements over and over? You can play hand-to-hand flams and flam accents comfortably, but when you try to explore new ways of inserting flams into a pattern, it suddenly starts to feel random.

This post isn’t here to change your current practice routine. Instead, it adds a more structured, visual layer on top of what you already do. Using my Permarhythms system, you’ll learn how to turn any flam-based idea into clearly mapped-out pages. You’ll also see how a single dot grid can generate three completely different flam exercises, simply by changing how you interpret the dots. Think of this as a compact, organised way to systematically explore every possible flam placement in 3-, 4-, 5-, 6- and 7-note groupings without getting lost in dense notation.

The printable PDF version of this post expands the concept into a practical flam workbook. It includes extensive explanations, along with an appendix containing all permutations for 3, 4, 5, and 6, ready to print and integrate into your existing practice routine.

1. What is a flam?

A flam is built from two single strokes played in very quick succession. You have:

A soft grace note (played with a low stick height and a lighter touch).
A louder primary note (played with a higher stick).

Visually, this looks like a cluster of two notes very close together, but in practice it should feel like a single, thick note with a tiny lead‑in, not like two clearly separated strokes.

There are two main directions:

Right‑hand flam: lR → left grace, right primary.
Left‑hand flam: rL → right grace, left primary.

Drum notation diagram showing the flam rudiment: a small grace note immediately preceding a full main stroke, written as two closely timed notes with one hand.

If both hands land at exactly the same time, you get a “flat flam” or double‑stop. This is not what we want, because the idea is to keep the grace note clearly in front of the main stroke, not buried underneath it.

Quick Flam Practise Tips:

Use a metronome and start slower than you think.
Focus on grace‑note height (very low for the tap, higher for the primary).
Minimise tension in the hand; releasing grip tension makes flams smoother.
Film or mirror yourself once to check hand‑motion and avoid “double‑stops.”

2. Making your flam practice more systematic:

Flams are one of the core rudiments drummers use every day. They sit at the heart of many patterns you already know (or will encounter soon) like flam accents, flam taps, flamacues, flam paradiddles, and flam drags.

Clean, consistent flams quietly improve several things at once. They sharpen your control over stick heights and the balance between grace notes and primary notes. They also make lead-in notes feel more natural, helping accent-based patterns sit more comfortably under your hands. On top of that, they expand your vocabulary, giving you more ways to “thicken” notes in grooves, fills, and solo phrases.

Most flam practice is already simple and effective. Typically, drummers start with hand-to-hand flams, move on to flam accents and flam taps, and later explore hybrid rudiments from method books or PDFs. That approach works well and there’s no need to replace it.

What’s often missing, though, is a compact, visual way to track all possible flam placements within 3-, 4-, 5-, 6- and 7-note groupings. That’s where Permarhythms comes in. It doesn’t replace traditional practice but simply adds a clean structural layer on top: a single system that shows you exactly where every possible flam can land, without sending you through pages of scattered notation. Permarhythms lets you track every possible flam‑placement in 3–7‑dot groupings on a few clean pages, so you know you’re not just repeating the same few positions over and over.

3. Permarhythms in a nutshell:

If you’ve already read about my Rhythmic Permutations eBook, you know the basic idea: white dots represent positions in the rhythmic grid, and black dots show where the rhythm actually falls.

In a 3‑dot system, for example, you get:

Three single‑dot combinations (only 1, only 2, only 3).
Three double‑dot combinations (1‑2, 1‑3, 2‑3).
One all‑dots‑filled combination (1‑2‑3).

Example of the 3-beat permutations from my eBook, Rhythmic Permutations

The book methodically walks through all of these combinations in groupings strechting from 3-dot permutations up to 12-dot permutations, so you know you’ve covered every option within that grouping.

For flams, you reinterpret the mapping in the simplest possible way:

Black dot = play a flam on that position.
White dot = play a normal single note (same hand as the underlying sticking).

You don’t need to invent new flam‑moves; you just organise the ones you already understand inside this compact grid system.

4. The three flam‑mapping options:

With the same dot grid, you can define three different ways to interpret the black dots. This is where the system becomes really practical.

1. Context‑dependent flams:

In this mapping, the flam direction follows the underlying sticking.

For example, if the underlying pattern is R L R L and a black dot falls on position 4, the fourth note becomes a flam on the left hand: rL.

This is closest to how most flam‑rudiments are taught: you take a pattern you already know and add flams on certain notes while keeping the rest as single strokes.

In practice, that means:

For each dot line, you decide which hand falls on each position according to your sticking.
Then, every black dot becomes a flam with that hand as the primary note.

2. Always right‑hand flams:

In this mapping, every black dot becomes a right‑hand flam (lR), no matter which hand “should” play there.

So even if the underlying pattern wants an L there, you still play lR on every black dot.

This is useful if you want to:

Strengthen right‑hand flams in a very consistent way.
Keep one dominant hand “charged” with the flam‑role across the page.

Because the same dot line can be re‑read as right‑fixed flams, you automatically generate a second, harmonically consistent flam‑practice page from the same visual grid.

3. Always left‑hand flams:

In this mapping, every black dot becomes a left‑hand flam (rL), regardless of the underlying sticking.

So no matter where the black dot falls, you play rL on it.

This is great for:

Balancing your weaker‑hand control.
Making left‑hand flams feel as natural as right‑hand flams.

Again, the underlying dot grid stays the same; you only change how you interpret the black dots.

5. A few short examples:

To make this concrete, let’s look at two quick examples.

Example 1 – 3‑dot grouping:

Take a 3‑dot line where position 1 and 2 are blacked:

Image of a three-dot rhythmic permutation where the first two dots are filled in black and the third dot remains open.

Underlying sticking: R L R or L R L on repeat.

In context‑dependent mode, this becomes:

lR (flam on R) – rL (flam on L) – R (single) or rL (flam on L) – lR (flam on R) – L (single).

In right‑fixed mode, every black dot becomes lR, so:

lR – lR – R or lR – lR – L.

And In left‑fixed mode, every black dot becomes rL, so:

rL – rL – R or rL – rL – L.

Play this line slowly at 60–70 BPM, focusing on clean grace‑note placement and consistent stick heights.

Example 2 – 4‑dot grouping:

Take a 4‑dot line where position 3 is blacked:

Four-dot rhythmic permutation grid showing the third single-note option, with only the third dot filled black while the first, second and fourth dots remain open.

Underlying sticking: R L R L or L R L R.

In context‑dependent mode:

R – L – lR – L or L – R – rL – R.

In right‑fixed mode:

R – L – lR – L or L – R – lR – R.

And in left‑fixed mode:

R – L – rL – L or L – R – rL – R.

Again, slow, steady tempo, minimal speed and maximum clarity. The flam‑direction change is really the only thing shifting on the page.

If you like this, the printable PDF version of this post includes the same kind of examples for 3‑, 4‑, 5‑ and 6‑dot groupings, plus an appendix with all permutations in each grouping so you can print them out and practise systematically.

6. How groupings relate to time signatures:

You can apply the same Permarhythms logic across different groupings, and then interpret them in different meters. That’s one of the main reasons I love using dot systems for flam practice: one visual grid can fit into multiple rhythmic worlds without changing the underlying rules.

Here’s how I tend to think about each grouping in real‑playing contexts.

3‑dot system:

The 3‑dot system is very flexible:

You can read the three positions as three 8th‑note triplets on one beat of 4/4, which is the classic home for flam‑accent‑style practice.
You can also read them as three 8th‑notes in 3/4, giving you a clear 3‑beat grid for simple 3/4 flam‑patterns.
If you treat each 3‑dot line as a bar of 3/8, and loop it, you naturally move into a 6/8‑style practice over two bars.

In practice, that means the same 3‑dot page can be used for triplet‑based flams, 3/4 backbeat‑style exercises, and 6/8 groove‑and‑fill work, just by changing how you interpret the tempo and meter.

Download: 3-dotted Permutations

4‑dot system:

The 4‑dot system is the closest to what most flam‑pdfs and rudiment books already do:

Four positions → four 16th‑notes in 2/4 or 4/4, depending on how you loop the line.
This is the natural home for classic flam‑accent‑style practice, where you place flams on the first of the group, or on beats 2 and 4, or in other clearly defined 16th‑note positions.

Because most flam rudiments live in this kind of 4‑note framework, the 4‑dot grid is a great place to start if you want to plug Permarhythms into your existing flam‑practice pages.

Download: 4-dotted Permutations

5‑dot system:

The 5‑dot system is where things start to feel more “modern”:

Five positions → 5/8 or 5/4 phrases, depending on tempo and phrasing.
This is useful if you want to explore flam‑placements in odd‑meter contexts, where most standard flam‑pdfs don’t go.

You can use this grid for 5/8 fills, 5/4 groove‑accents, or even 5/4 linear‑style ideas, all with the same Permarhythms logic. The dots stay the same; only the subdivision and feel change.

Download: 5-dotted Permutations

6‑dot system:

The 6‑dot system is perfect for longer‑flowing feels:

Six positions can be read as six 8th‑notes in 6/8, or as six 16ths in 12/8, depending on tempo.
You can also interpret them as six‑note groupings stretched over 4/4, which is useful for extended flam‑patterns or six‑note groupings you might already use in fills.

This is great for slow 6/8 grooves, 12/8 shuffles, or 4/4‑based six‑note cells where you want to rotate flams through different positions instead of always landing on beat 1.

In all of these cases, the key idea is simple: you don’t need to change the Permarhythms system to use these in different time signatures. You just change how you interpret the subdivision. The same dot grid can live in 3/4, 4/4, 5/4, 6/8, or 12/8, and your flam‑mapping rules stay consistent.

Download: 6-dotted Permutations

7‑dot system:

The 7‑dot system is where things start to feel a bit more adventurous:

Seven positions → 7/8 or 7/4 phrases, depending on tempo and feel.
You can also read them as septuplets (7‑note groupings) in 4/4, which is a handy way to rotate flams across a longer, more polyrhythmic‑sounding cell.

Unlike 3–6, 7‑dot doesn’t line up as neatly with a “standard” 4‑bar groove universe, but that’s exactly what makes it interesting: you can use it for 7/8 fills, 7/4 flavour in solos, or 7‑note groupings over 4/4, all with the same Permarhythms rules. The dots stay the same; only the underlying 7‑beat framework shifts.

Download: 7-dotted Permutations

7. The printable PDF:

This blog post explains the core idea of how Permarhythms structures flam practice. The printable PDF version expands it into a compact booklet. It includes:

The explanations of the three flam‑mappings.
Examples for 3‑, 4‑, 5‑ and 6‑dot groupings.
An appendix with all permutations in those groupings, clearly mapped so you can follow the same Permarhythms logic.

8. Closing thoughts:

If there’s one thing Permarhythms teaches me over and over, it’s that structure doesn’t replace creativity — it supports it. You don’t need to throw away your favourite flam‑exercise pages or method‑book PDFs to use this system. You can keep everything you already trust and simply add a compact dot grid that shows you where else flams can go.

If you’ve enjoyed this approach, feel free to leave a comment, share this post with another drummer who also collects flam‑PDFs, or explore the Permarhythms section on the site for more dot‑based systems. You can also follow the blog for future posts on how to use Permarhythms with other rudiments, coordination ideas, and rhythm‑permutation experiments.

Happy practising, and may your flams become a little more flam‑proof with each page you turn.

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