The author's letter to Aaron on the history of drum rudiments:

Aaron,

The following I acquired while attending college in the early 70's. It gives an overview of how the rudiments, which include the paradiddle, developed. The paradiddle's specific creation is, to the best of my knowledge, unknown. In other words, someone may have been playing it all along, but did not call it a paradiddle until the time of the Swiss around 400 years ago. However, the information herein applies to all 40 plus rudiments. There are various avenues to take in presenting this information; I have taken the military approach as there are some interesting side notes.

Historically, since the human voice in the days before amplification could not carry far enough for widespread troops to hear, the military had one individual who would play, on a trumpet, various signals to the troops relaying what the commanders wanted done. Unfortunately, these adults were not only easy targets to be shot at by the opposing side, but, once shot, there was no-one else available to give the trumpet sounds. Also, it took years for someone to learn all the various signals used to communicate during combat. The trumpet was also a problem because if it ever got shot, which happened frequently, it was useless. Thus, trumpet players had several trumpets which they always carried with them. The generals and military leaders recognized that there had to be a better way to get things done. Unfortunately, nothing else was available.

Now we turn our attention to the Swiss. Webster defines a rudiment as "a first principle of any art or science." The Swiss nation was the first to have fife and drum corps, and their drummers saw a need for uniformity in what was played. Therefore, they standardized those rhythms played, at the rudimental level, permitting all the drummers to play in complete unison; everyone played the same rhythm, the same way, every single time. Thus, the Swiss affected the very foundation of drumming, or the drum rudiments.

In time, the manner and method of playing in the unified Swiss fashion gained recognition as a standard when playing the drum whether in concert or on the field. However, standardization of these rudiments did not prevent a particular country -- on its own -- to alter or ignore some of them to suit its individual taste. For example, the French rudiments are slightly different from the English -- and neither uses the Swiss Army rudiments. Yet all three do flam sticking the exact same way. Also, music notation as we know it today was not known back then. Drummers played by rote, memory, and/or sound. (This is important to remember and will be referred to at the conclusion of this writing.)

Now we revert back to the military scene. During the 1600s and 1700s, the drum, now called the field drum, was used to tell troops what the leaders wanted done as drums' volume on the field had excellent projection. Unlike the trumpet, the drum itself could be shot and still played (ever tried playing a trumpet with a hole in its side?!). The field drum also resolved the time factor; drummers didn't need long years to learn necessary signals. To use the field drum for communication, the player combined different drum rhythms to mean different actions. If the general wanted the troops to attack, he told the drummer to play "attack." The drummer then played the attack rhythms and the troops knew what was sounded. These rhythms, or cadences, were constructed by combining, back to back, several rudiments that the Swiss had standardized years earlier. Obviously, each country employed different combinations of rhythms so no one would get confused and not know what their leaders wanted done. Naturally, if a particular army knew the retreat cadence of the opposing army and heard it given, it gave them the will to continue fighting, and, well, you get the idea.

Yet, even with this achievement of using the drum instead of the trumpet for military signaling, the problem of target size still existed. The generals and military leaders ascertained correctly that the smaller the target, the more difficult time the shooter(s) would have. Thus, they reasoned, a small young boy, unlike an adult, could be easily hidden and therefore make an ideal difficult target. However, finding young boys who would be willing to leave family and friends for war (and possibly never come back), was no easy task. Thus, in order to have an ample number of "drummer boys" to play, the military leaders instructed their scouts that if they saw a small young boy -- 8 or 9 years old, and the smaller the better, playing unsupervised in the fields as the troops moved through the area, the scouts were to snatch the boy -- thereby providing another "drummer boy."

Next, each of these boys had to be convinced how well he now had it, compared to his life before with his family. So, in order to break the boy, he would be chained, one leg in irons, to a tree and left in the open weather close by the other boys. The youngster would then see how well the other boys were being treated and within several days he would be ready to do as he was told. However, the generals took no chances. They kept each boy tied and well fed as they were taught, by the other boys, the various drum rhythms needed to learn. Some boys still ran away, but most stayed because after several weeks the army had move quite far from their homes.

Now when battle began, the general would tell the boy to call out (or drum) "attack," and he would drum the appropriate cadence. And because this boy was such a small target, the general and his leaders were assured that their commands would always be communicated to the troops, so long as the boy never got shot. Unfortunately, as the boy got bigger, so did the target. Yet since the general had an ample supply of young boys, once the drummer had grown too big and had been shot, another boy was always available to then take the place of the one killed. Needless to say, being a "drummer boy" had a high turn around rate. Well, at least the benefits were good: a meal every night and a warm bed to sleep in -- especially if you could learn not miss your family.

One interesting note: At the end of each day the army would settle in for the night in 3 divisions. After chow and clean-up, the men would then go to bed. Just before lights out, the main general in the 1st camp would tell his "drummer boy" to call out "The Three Camps" cadence rhythm. The boy would then drum out Three Camps, which is a rudimental piece consisting of various length rolls separated by intermittent accents and is played as a continuous long roll interspersed by accents. After its termination, the 2nd "drummer boy" in the Second Camp would then reply, repeating the Three Camps but with a slight variance in accent placement. Upon this termination, the 3rd "drummer boy" in the Third Camp would then answer the second and first drummers using the Three Camps again with another slight variance in accent placement. After this was finished, the entire camp including the general and all his other leaders knew it was OK to fall asleep, as all Three Camps in the army were safe and fine.

Years later the National Association of Rudimental Drummers (NARD) standardized the Three Camps into a rudimental exercise that displayed a drummer's ability to play a continuous long roll with accents throughout. Today every drummer plays it the exact same way -- no variations.

One can ask, what does all this have to do with the rudiments? Now, remember how these drummers learned the rudiments. If the youngster survived, he retained the knowledge of the rudiments -- and the manner in which he learned them -- and in time could pass them to his sons. Recognize also that he had been playing these rudiments since childhood and therefore was quite proficient. He could also use them and play in a band for enjoyment. Clearly he was able to supply the rhythm needed to keep time for the other instruments. All this was accomplished by personal memory.

In the 16th or 17th century, the rudiments came to America with English regiments when our Eastern states were British Colonies. During the American Revolution we followed the English style of playing. Thus, we are more ingrained with the English rudiments than with the French or Swiss. What music or notation was used in our early rudiments in the American corps is not known; no records have survived.

Finally, in 1812, Charles Stewart Ashworth published a book of rudiments which was subsequently listed in the Library of Congress. The book listed 28 drum rudiments and are very similar to the ones we use today. Currently one can get both the 26 essential rudiments and the 40 complete rudiments off the web. One site in particular carries 80 rudiments, some of which are very interesting.