DRUMMER CAFE

The rule for stems up or down is the following:

If the note head appears above the middle line, of the standard 5-bar-line staff, the stems go down. If the note head appears below the middle line, the stems go up.

This is just a "rule of thumb" ... and when there's only one note head, such as a Snare drum part, the stem can go up or down regardless of the "rule". T

The "rule" is in place to make it easier to read and keep the clutter to a minimum. If you were reading a drumset part where there's note heads for the Snare, Kick, HiHat, etc., the stems can go either way, up or down. Obviously if the notes are beamed together, all the stems would need to go the same direction. Some people notate the parts of the drumkit played by the hands with the stems going up; played by the feet, stems going down.

For many years there hasn't been a "standard" notation, but at this time one has been adopted for drums and percussion. Still, there is room to break the rules when necessary or at the discretion of the composer.

The grace-notes notated behind the main stroke of the Flam is completely incorrect ... IF ... in fact the notation is meant to be a Flam. If it's a rudimental composition, it's probably a Flam and needs to be notated appropriately. In modern music, 20th Century and beyond, a composer may want a "grace-note" after a main stroke ... for an effect. Although not very common and probably unlikely in your case, it can happen.

There's not much to say about the stem issue however. You are going to see stems going up or down on a Snare drum part; that's just the way it is. Many composers nowadays do follow the rule I cited earlier, but there is no notation police to make them do anything. If anything it's the publishers fault for not forcing the issue. But if you are dealing with an older work, especially one that is manuscript, it is what it is.

I will say that typically single line notation for percussion instruments (e.g. Snare drum) are notated with the stems going up.

Bart has pretty much summed up the way things should be!  In 1966 I was a senior in High School and asked almost the same question.  My band director at the time gave me almost the same answer as Bart and then the next day he gave me two snare pieces to play, one had the stems going up and one had the stems going down.  Otherwise the two were the same.  His question to me was what difference is there in the sound when playing the piece?  The stem rule is there to make the piece easier to read and I should be concentrating on playing and not worrying about why an engraver or a publisher did things one way or another.