Flam Paradiddle-diddle
Learn How To Play The Flam Paradiddle-diddle Drum Rudiment!
By now you should be able to guess what the flam paradiddle-diddle is all about. Keeping with the tradition of the previous lessons on flam drum rudiments, the flam paradiddle-diddle (also known as flamadiddle-diddle) mixes the flam with another drum rudiment - the single paradiddle-diddle. Even before thinking of learning how to play the flam paradiddle-diddle, you have to make sure you have solid flams and single paradiddle-diddles, otherwise, mastering this lesson will be that much of a challenge.
Taking a look at the sheet music bellow, you can see that much like the single paradiddle-diddle, the flam paradiddle-diddle is played in triplets. This rudiment is a great option for working on drum beats, drum fills, and drum solos for triplet based music. When you get to practice the flam paradiddle-diddle, you can count it as 8th note triplets – 1 trip let 2 tip let…etc. – or use the name of the rudiment instead – rL (flam or par) R (a) L (did) L (dle) R (did) R (dle).
The greatest challenge you’ll find within the flam paradiddle-diddle is playing its three consecutive taps. At a first glance you may not be able to see it on the sheet music below. But if you take a closer look at the end of count 2, right after the two right hand taps, there is an extra right hand tap played as part of the flam on count 3 - that’s your third tap. Keeping those taps steady and consistent is a great challenge. Don’t forget to practice the flam paradiddle-diddle leading with both hands.
Can you play the flam paradiddle-diddle along to a metronome, with control, consistency, good articulation, and with flam quality? If so, then you can move to the next section of this lesson. There you’ll learn how to play drum beats and drum fills that incorporate the flam paradiddle-diddle.
The first exercise in this free drum lesson has the flam paradiddle-diddle being played between the snare drum and the hi-hat. The left hand handles snare drum duties. This hand plays all ghost and grace notes, while the right hand plays the hi-hat. It’s also the hand that plays the primary stroke for the flam on the hi-hat on count 1 and on the snare drum on count 3.
It’s challenging to execute the flam between the hi-hat and the snare drum with quality. This is so, because it can be hard to understand if you’re indeed playing it. Add the bass drum on count 1. Play it in unison with the primary stroke of the flam on the hi-hat.
The second pattern in this lesson is a half-time drum beat featuring two flam paradiddle-diddles scattered between the hi-hat, the snare drum, and the bow of the ride cymbal. To play this exercise like notated, you have to start it with a right hand flam on the hi-hat. The ride cymbal gets the first diddle from both flam paradiddle-diddles. The hi-hat gets the second diddle, the taps and the first flam. The snare drum is played on count 3 with a left hand flam. Once the hand pattern is mastered add the bass drum on count 1.
The next pattern in this 40 drum rudiments drum lesson is a drum fill played in 12/8 time signature, which incorporates two flam paradiddle-diddles. To execute this pattern in the most comfortable way possible, start by playing the fill with a right hand flam. This will let you transition from the snare drum, to the floor tom, and from the floor tom to the hi-tom with greater ease.
This next drum fill is also played in 12/8 time signature, incorporating two flam paradiddle-diddles. Once again, Lionel chose to start playing the fill with a right hand flam. This enabled him to play the pattern with a lot more comfort while transitioning from tom to tom. Since the whole fill is played on the toms you have to work on your diddle consistency as you start speeding up the pattern.
If you bounce the diddles the notes will get muddy. Work on playing your double stroke roll on surfaces with no rebound, like floor toms and pillows. Practice full wrist strokes for developing your forearm muscles. This will get you playing diddles consistently at high speeds using only wrists. You could also use a quick snap of the back fingers on the drumstick to give the second stroke a lot more velocity. This would hail very consistent diddles as well.
Before moving on, go back to the free drum lesson on the single paradiddle-diddle and add a flam to the first stroke on each single paradiddle-diddle performed on any drum beat and drum fill on that lesson. You’ll have four more flam paradiddle-diddle patterns to practice. When you feel ready to move on, check out the free drum lessons on the Swiss Army triplet and the pataflafla drum rudiments.
Flam Based Rudiments |
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| Flam | Flam Paradiddle | Inverted Flam Tap |
| Flam Tap | Single Flammed Mill | Flam Drag |
| Flam Accent | Flam Paradiddle-diddle | Pataflafla |
| Flamacue | Swiss Army Triplet | |