A flam up front, two diddles to carry it home.
The Rudiment
The flam paradiddle-diddle is the single paradiddle-diddle with a flam added to its leading stroke. The six-note cell — accent, tap, then two doubles — keeps its shape, but the flam widens and weights the opening note, and because the pattern ends on a double it can repeat on the same hand as easily as it can alternate. That gives it a rolling, almost circular momentum, one fat flam launching a little cascade of diddles each time around.
Sticking
The standard PAS sticking is lRLRRLL then rLRLLRR, or repeated on one hand. The lowercase stick is the flam’s grace note; the accented primary opens the figure, followed by a single and then two doubles (R-R and L-L). Counted as sextuplets, the flam lands on the beat and the two diddles fill out the second half of the group.
How to Play
Play the flam with a soft low grace and a strong accented primary, then let the two doubles ride out on rebound at a lower dynamic — the accent belongs to the flam. The main challenge is keeping both diddles clean and even at speed while the opposite hand preps its grace note. Because the cell can loop on one hand, it’s a fine study in sustaining a flam-led pattern without alternating.
In Practice
On the drum set the flam paradiddle-diddle is a favorite for orchestrated sextuplet fills — flam on the snare, diddles rippling across the toms — and its self-perpetuating structure makes it a smooth, continuous groove figure. It also appears throughout rudimental solos as a dense, driving passage.