Add a drag to the front, keep the accent at the back.
The Rudiment
The double ratamacue is the single ratamacue with an extra drag added at the front. Where the single opens with one drag before its run of taps, the double stacks two drags into the lead-in, then finishes with the same three-stroke run and tail accent. The result is a longer, more ornamented phrase — two ruffs setting up the forward drive to the “cue” — and a stiffer test of clean, consecutive drags.
Sticking
The double ratamacue is conventionally written as two drags leading into the ratamacue figure, with the accent on the last note: rrL llR L R L as one common form, mirrored on the reverse. Each pair of lowercase strokes is a drag; after the two ruffs, the singles run forward to a closing accented stroke that hands off to the next repetition. Counted in sixteenths with the extra drag as a pickup, the accent still lands on the final note. Notation varies, so hold the structure — two drags in front, accent at the tail.
How to Play
The added drag is the whole challenge: both ruffs must stay low, crisp, and evenly matched, and the move from the first drag to the second can’t rush. Keep all the grace notes quiet, run the middle strokes even and unaccented, and save the weight for the closing accent. As with the single ratamacue, resist accenting the drags — let the phrase build toward the “cue.” Slow practice locks in the back-to-back ruffs.
In Practice
The double ratamacue features prominently in rudimental snare solos, its stacked drags adding density and momentum to the tail-accented phrase. On the kit the two drags buzz into a dragged fill that resolves on an accented drum. It sits squarely between the single and triple ratamacues as the family scales up one drag at a time.