Part 2 · Rolls and flams

The flam vocabulary at scale, and rolls in compound time

pp.14–29 · 120 lessons · 360 exercises · ≈17 weeks at a lesson a day

The longest stretch in the book, and the one that separates players who own the material from players who have read it. Flam Beats alone runs 192 exercises across eight pages — not hard to read, but relentless about whether your grace note sounds the same every single time. Then the ground shifts: rolls in 6/8, counted in two dotted-quarter pulses instead of four quarters.

What this part builds

A flam that speaks at the same weight on both hands, at any stick height
Rolls that release exactly on time inside a phrase, not just on their own
Reading and counting in compound time, where one pulse holds three notes
Endurance — this part is longer than the other two put together in exercises

How to work it

Drop your stick heights. The standard teaching for flams is grace note low, main stroke high, and the target is consistency rather than speed. Take the tempos below where Part 1 ended; the suggested starts here already do that.

Where it ends

It ends on pp.28–29, Stone's Review of Short Rolls in 6/8 — his second printed review, and the reason this is where Part 2 stops.

Sections in this part

Short Rolls and Triplets pp.14–15
Flam Beats pp.16–23
Short Rolls in 6/8 pp.24–27
Review of Short Rolls in 6/8 pp.28–29