A Percussionist's Notebook

Like so many of the 'Drum Beats' for the military in the 1700's, The Three Camps was usually passed on from older drummers to their students by rote. There were a number of publications printed to standardize performance but so many people were illiterate (especially in musical notation) that too many times these pieces would morph into something unrecognizable to the original. In the mid-1700's The Ashcroft Rudimental School was published and eventually adopted as the official version. My brother used the version found in the Haskell Harr Bk. 1 Snare Drum Method (which closely follows the Ashcroft's version). Like so many drummers in the past I learned it by rote first and used the printed version as reference for later. I continue to teach The Three Camps by rote and writing out just the # of the rolls. Samples of the written versions: I'm sure there are many other ways of writing this solo, but none are the exact way of performing it. The traditio...

The Three Camps is a snare drum solo with quite a history behind it. This was one of three solos that my brother had me memorize when I was his student. In the mid 80's I attended a percussion history lecture/demonstration given by William F. Ludwig II whose father was the co-founder of the famous Ludwig Drum Company in 1909. This is the story of The Three Camps as I remember from his lecture. The Three Camps goes back to at least the French and Indian War. When the troops were traveling from point A to point B they would have to bivouac every night (no Holiday Inns at the time). To guard against surprise attacks during the night they would break into 3 groups. The first group would stop and make camp while the rest would continue on. Far enough away but still within ear shot the second group would make their camp followed by the third group doing the same. At daybreak the drummer from the first group would play the 'First Camp'. The last roll of the 'First Camp...