Learn the Music: Blue Stars "Blue Flams"

Blue Stars Drum & Bugle Corps Warmups
Exercise 4B: "Blue Flams"

Not sure what we can say about this exercise other than you'll need a pretty solid approach to ALL of your flam rudiments to be able to play it! Sure, it starts out easy enough - control over accent/taps, moving into Flam Accents & Flam Taps at Letter A. But then it jumps into a 'few' more difficult rudiments: Flam Drags, Patta-FlaFlas, Cheeses, Flam Fives, and, well, you get the idea.

This one might take a minute, so be patient. We recommend downloading the score, isolating each measure (or beat) with a metronome at a VERY slow tempo and maintaining a relaxed approach as you work it up.  Come back when you think you've got it to play along with the Blue Stars, then record yourself to see if you have what it takes.

Oh, and they play this exercise at the end of Stick Control during their warmup sequence, so we had to start with a jump cut from the metronome count off.  We figured it was better to isolate this exercise than to combine them, so we hope you don't mind the little video stutter.

Have fun playing along with the 2021 Blue Stars drumline on this exercise! Remember to use the handy "chapter markers" in the playbar to quickly jump between snare/bass sections and tenor sections!

VIEW THE FULL LIBRARY OF MARCHING PERCUSSION "LEARN THE MUSIC" FEATURES HERE!