Fat on both ends, light in the middle.
The Rudiment
The pataflafla is a four-note figure with a flam on the first note and a flam on the last, and two plain strokes in between. Say the name and you can hear it — “pa-ta-fla-fla” — the two closing syllables landing as flams. The effect is a phrase bracketed by weight: it begins thick, thins out through the middle pair, and thickens again at the end, so a string of pataflaflas pulses with a fat-light-light-fat contour that repeats across the barline.
Sticking
The standard PAS sticking places flams on the outer strokes of a four-note group: lR L R lR flowing into rL R L rL on the reverse, with the closing flam of one group serving as the opening flam of thinking about the next. In practice it is easiest to hold onto the description — flam, tap, tap, flam — since the two inner strokes are unaccented singles and both outer strokes are flammed and accented. The figure is usually counted in sixteenths with flams on the first and fourth partials.
How to Play
Both flams need the usual low-grace, high-primary treatment, and the trouble is that you must set up two of them per group with only two plain strokes to reset your hands. Keep the inner taps quiet and even so the flams stand out, and think ahead — the grace-note hand for the closing flam has to be preparing while the opposite hand plays the taps. Consistency between the opening and closing flams is the mark of a clean pataflafla.
In Practice
The pataflafla is a beloved rudimental challenge, a fixture of marching snare literature where its double-flammed shape adds density and drive. On the kit it becomes a punchy, flam-bracketed sixteenth fill, and it pairs naturally with the flamacue as a study in flam placement.