The blushda has become one of Gregg Bissonette’s signature licks. If you aren’t familiar with the rudiment, it’s a left flam followed by a right-right-left (rLRRL).
In 1982, Gregg had just moved to LA and heard one of his drum heroes, Vinnie Colaiuta playing this lick at an Encino club called The Flying Jib. “I thought…what is that sticking?” He didn’t know for years. But eventually hearing Gary Novak play it at the NAMM Show, he had to know. And Gary showed it to him. Later on, he was talking to Steve Smith about the blushda, who said that when he and Vinnie were at Berklee School of Music in the ’70s, they pulled it from Tony Williams!
To give your blushda a real ‘oomph’ like Gregg does, make your flams really wide (“stretch them”). Put a bass drum hit – or even two or three – in the middle. Make sure you accent the left. It’s the accents that help give it that organic, “greasy” feel. So much for a straight corps rudiment, huh?
