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kennethreitz ce93f429a2 Add Knowledge: the vault's reference shelf, crosslinked across the site
Publish the Obsidian vault's Knowledge folder as /knowledge (881 notes,
67 folders), with a Knowledge item in the nav and footer.

- scripts/import_knowledge.py regenerates data/knowledge from the vault:
  slugged paths, folder notes as index pages, wikilinks resolved to site
  links (or plain text), callouts, highlights, and Dataview tables
  rendered statically. Personal notes are withheld via an exclusion
  list plus a privacy guard.
- tuftecms/core/knowledge.py builds a concept index from note titles and
  aliases. First mentions on ordinary pages link to their Knowledge note
  (capped, never in headings, code, links, or sidenotes); Knowledge pages
  list related notes and where they're mentioned across the site; other
  pages get a Related Knowledge block.
- Knowledge URLs join sitemap.xml (so the sweep test covers them), never
  displace existing legacy slugs, list alphabetically, and mermaid
  diagrams render client-side only on pages that have them.
2026-10-18 20:08:46 -04:00

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---
description: Two sticks, one sound — the fattest note on the drum.
source: obsidian-knowledge
---
# Flam
> *Two sticks, one sound — the fattest note on the drum.*
---
## The Rudiment
The flam is the parent of an entire family. It is two strokes played so close together that the ear registers a single, thickened note: a quiet grace note landing an instant before the louder primary stroke. Done right, you don’t hear “ta-ta.” You hear one broad, weighted attack with a little extra body underneath it — the sound of a note that has been widened rather than doubled.
The whole trick lives in the spacing. Too far apart and it flams into a distinct pair of notes; too close and it collapses into a single flat stroke with no depth. The flam is the width itself.
## Sticking
The standard PAS sticking alternates: **lR** then **rL**. The lowercase stick is the grace note, played low; the uppercase stick is the accented primary, played high. So a right-hand flam is a soft left grace into a strong right primary, and the left-hand flam mirrors it. Counted straight, one flam per beat, the hands trade lead each time.
## How to Play
Set the grace-note stick low — an inch or two off the head — and the primary stick high, and drop them so the low one speaks a hair before the high one. The height difference is what guarantees the timing and the dynamic split; if both sticks start at the same height you get a chaotic double instead of a flam. Keep the grace note genuinely soft. The primary carries the accent and the pitch; the grace just adds shoulder to it.
## In Practice
Flams are everywhere a drummer wants a note to sound bigger without playing louder — the fat backbeat, the emphatic downbeat of a fill, the weighted accents of a marching line. Orchestral snare writing leans on them constantly, and they are the seed from which the flam accent, the flam tap, and the Swiss army triplet all grow.
## Related
- [Flam Tap](/knowledge/music/drum-rudiments/flam-tap)
- [Flam Accent](/knowledge/music/drum-rudiments/flam-accent)
- [Swiss Army Triplet](/knowledge/music/drum-rudiments/swiss-army-triplet)
- [Drum Rudiments](/knowledge/music/drum-rudiments)