PERCUSSIVE NOTES 10 APRIL 2005

Apercussion performance with-out rudiments is like a lecturewithout syllables: the language is

primitive. No one will know what youare trying to say. Rudimental sticking ini-tiated all percussive presentation: fieldcompetition, drumset coordination,and orchestral performance. Becauseof physical, coordination, and mentaldemands, rudimental drummerslearned to use mind and muscle likeprofessional athletes to execute com-plex individual solos or attain competi-tive drumline uniformity.

Accuracy was paramount, besttaught by a knowledgeable mentor,similar to martial-arts training. Use of ru-diments in competitive military-styledstandstill and marching units allowedfor objective comparisons of skill, creat-ing the catalyst for developing tech-nique. With technical maturity,rudimental drummers became timepainters, creating tension and releasewith nuances of proportion, volume,accent pattern and their counterpoint,duration, endurance, and texture.

The snare drum is not a “pretty” in-strument; it is an instrument of war.Battlefield commanders desired thequicker tactical maneuvering of smallerunits, but were hampered by unreliablesmall arms and immobile cannon thatneeded up to 13 commands to fire.Short, simple drum codes better orga-nized this effort. As more codes wereneeded, space between quarter-notebeats of the early 16th century werefilled with grace notes, flams, and taps,creating a need for qualified battledrummers, whose coordination in-creased with time.

By the early 19th century, drummerswere holding back or “sweetening” theattacks of the prominent, left-handlead, Seven-Stroke Roll, “for in doingthis, the rests between the strokes and

The PerfectionistsThe History of Rudimental Snare Drumming

From Military Code to Field Competition

BY KEN MAZUR

rolls will consequently be longer, whichwill make it appear much more elegantand intelligible.”1 Hardened Civil Warveterans were entranced by their regi-ments’ drumming skills. Phrasing wasnot militarily useful, as openly spacednotes were best understood in battle.This was music. “And when a dozen ormore of the lads, with their caps setsaucily on the sides of their heads, led aregiment in a review with their get-out-of-the-way-Old-Dan-Tuckerish style ofmusic, it made the men in the ranksstep off as though they were bound fora Donnybrook fair or some other plea-sure excursion.”2

Drummers were soloing before 1900,but no one told the enemy. LieutenantHamilton Hodgson’s diary entry on Au-gust 26, 1898 discusses a tired Englisharmy: “I don’t think I ever appreciateddrums more. They got a very long step,and soon the whole brigade was goingto the step. After each time they wereapplauded and cheered vociferously.Drummer Hill, our show drummer whoprides himself on having a black markthe size of a penny on the center of thevellum, got his chance occasionallywith a side drum solo. Poor chap, hisdrumming days are over as he iswounded in his wrists—bullet camethrough drum first.”3

Advancing armies could not bestopped until the battle of Franklin, Ten-nessee on November 30, 1864, whenConfederates charged into a fewpockets of seven-shot repeaters, caus-ing troops to impulsively pull their hats infront of their faces. The Civil War wasthe last to depend on drums to addresssuch tactics, although three of theseven British drummers awarded theVictoria Cross for gallantry did so be-tween 1914 and 1916 when thousandsof drums went overseas for World War I.

Lt. Henry Shrapnel’s 1784 exploding

shell with a primitive timing fuse, RobertP. Parrott’s rifled 10-pounder, and TylerHenry’s 1860 repeating rifle with a self-contained copper cartridge shreddedinfantry. Samuel Colt added his pistol, afive-pound hand cannon, doublingproduction for the war. Dr. RichardGatling’s hand-cranked machine gunended matters. With railroads andsteamships available, the drum wouldbecome the center of musical battle.

Field days existed as early as 1874and 1875 in Connecticut, readying forthe centennial celebration in 1876.Prizes for individual drummers existed,but not the full line. A “best drumcorps” silk banner was awarded in1876, made by “ladies in Rockville.”Newspapers announced best-drummerawards such as Rockville’s 1877 pair ofgold-tipped sticks, though the duelingpistols and rocking chair were handytoo.4 Contestants wanted fair evalua-tion, and prizes taken seriously. Ruleswere discussed. Judges were blind-folded, faced the opposite way, or putin a barn listening to competitors out-side. Contest quality control had al-ready begun for 20 minutes or more ofindividual performance.

An 1894 newspaper tells judges tostop being subjective! “Individual drum-ming: 1st Long Roll, 2nd 5 Stroke Roll,3rd Double Drag, 4th TrebleRatamacue, 5th Flam Paradiddle, 6thThree Camps, and One beat in 2/4 or6/8 time. Judges will confine them-selves strictly to time and executionand not the sweetness of tone of instru-ments.”5 There was mention of stickinguniformity such as “four right – one left.”

Photos of Civil War vets show left-handers might not switch. It became ajudging issue. The Connecticut Statetitle was disputed in 1893, but judges“claimed that their decision was basedon points: Gerrish 26 points, Basney 25,

PERCUSSIVE NOTES 11 APRIL 2005

Moore 22. There was a kicking over thejudges’ decisions, but that was to beexpected among so many contestants.Burns Moore of the Morris Drum Corps,whom was given 3rd prize for individualsnare drumming, was particularly in-censed, and said he would never beata drum again.”6

J. Burns Moore took out a newspaperad challenging Basney and Gerrish to adrum-off. Sidney Basney, lead drummerfor the Bolton Drum Corps in the late1890s and 1900s, was a black drummerwho beat everybody of his time, re-ceived seven second places, yet curi-ously never won. Meriden Ct. August28, 1895 – Individual Drumming: J. B.Moore 69, Sidney Basney 61, F. B.Bunnell 58. Moore wins a pair of sleevebuttons.7

Drummers were trying to get in shapeto win. John Philip Sousa (1886): “Agood plan is to hold the sticks togetherabout three inches from the buttonsand turn them, at first slowly, andgradually increasing the movement un-til great rapidity is attained.” An 1897book wants this exercise increased “un-

til out of breath with exertion.”8 Drum-mers still do this same exercise out ofnervous habit to skittishly calm them-selves—possibly a Civil War warm-upexercise.

Reverence to military code was dis-appearing. Patrick Murray (Moodus Fifeand Drum Corps): “In the late 1880sand into the 1900s, fife and drum corpsdrummers were mixing with those in theschools. The kids wanted speed. Theytaught in a way that excited them. Togo faster gave a livelier beat. It caughton.”

Ed Lemley took lessons from “the wiz-ard of the drum” in the early 1900s:Frank Fancher won more snare titlesthan anyone in history—over 120 in-cluding eight Connecticut champion-ships between 1906 and 1924. WalterSprance says that the apprenticeshipbegan with Ed arriving early to lightkerosene lamps. After some days, Edasked, “When am I going to start drum-ming?” The reply: “When you can put adrum together properly and work on adrum right!” He first had to learn to tuckdrumheads, getting angry carrying andreplacing them. Fancher told him, “Youlearn how to do it the right way oryou’re part of the problem.”

If you didn’t take care of a ropedrum, your sound and playing wouldsuffer. Time spent preening instrumentscost the drummers of yesteryear muchtime and frustration. Bobby Redican:“Fancher was a big powerful guy. Hedidn’t play stuff as hard as we did. Wedid our own rudimental applicationslater—nice rhythmical things.”

To some, rudimental drumming wasdoomed, surviving the Depression andVaudeville “contraptions” via William F.Ludwig (1879–1973) and Sanford A.“Gus” Moeller (1886–1960). While fifeand drum sternly held ground, Bill andGus fought rudimental “shortcuts.”Ludwig had a drum company to influ-ence events. Gus was just plain in-censed, interviewing many old Civil Wardrummers at their retirement homeswhile on tour with a band in 1925.

The 1927 “talkie” The Jazz Singer withAl Jolson put “trap” drummers out ofbusiness, but the Depression soon fol-lowed. Bobby Redican: “You must un-derstand that not too many werededicated at that time. There weren’tmany good instructors. Moeller playedin the Footguard Band in New York. YouJ. Burns Moore

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PERCUSSIVE NOTES 12 APRIL 2005

had to know what you were doing toplay there.”

Bill Boerner: “Gus was a drum makerlater on. He would make you one for$25. But going up to get it was anotherstory. He would have you play it, and ifhe thought you weren’t very good hewould ask you to take it off and ‘getout of here.’”

Gus had more than attitude. TheSpanish American War corporal per-ceived prejudice against rudi-mental drummers because ofmilitary camp duty: “The falsenotion was conceivedthrough rudimental drummersalways doing this work, butthey were the only ones whocould do it. The difficult quick-steps and the army duty arethe highest class of drum-ming.”9

Gus was very thorough andshockingly aware of “lead-hand switch” coordination,using “mind” and “thought”terminology: “This causes themind to shift so often fromone hand to the other thatthe correct hold and stroke issure to be neglected as it hasnot yet become natural andstill needs thought.”10

Later in life, Moeller wanteddrumming included in theOlympics. Drummers wereadopting scientific methods.The trick then was to play oncarbon paper, looking for in-tensity faults and placementsymmetry.

World War I veterans return-ing from “The Great War” in1918 joined service-organiza-tion bugle corps, learning thecraft as adults. Rules stipu-lated a 45-degree drumangle, observed in 1920s and’30s Legion parade photos.Everyone played “around thetree”: arms out away from the bodyand sticks at 55- to 60-degree angles tocenter.

Your ticket into finals competition wasa good parade score judged only onappearance. Simple roll-offs were im-portant: “A prominent judge of bandsand corps once told us, ‘I can tell justhow good a drum corps is by their roll-off. If they play that clean, up to

tempo, and they all come in together, Iknow the rest of their playing must begood too.’”11

The Charles T. Kirk drumline (fife,drum, and bugle) was the best in theworld in the middle and late 1930s,playing many rudiments using dynam-ics. The Kirks did not have uniform tech-nique, yet executed a modern 120beats-per-minute sound via theRipperger brothers, who went to Con-

necticut and brought back the high-handed style. You earned your spot be-fore drum sergeant Harold Rippergeron the family kitchen table. His six-inch“army style” questioned, J. Frank Martinwrote a stinging letter of resignation.Martin worried about historically au-thentic “code,” considering DoubleDrags and Paradiddle-Diddles at 128 in6/8 time not physically possible.

Jay Tuomey (Sons of Liberty): “Beforethe war, Brooklyn is where rudimentaldrumming took off. It had been comingfor a long time and went through adown period. Gus Moeller started itback up. George and Harold Rippergerplayed like no one else in the worldplayed. Kirks had a professional lookand sound—a class act. We [YonkersCity] only used 10 different rudimentsand played marches, which was not all

that difficult. Charles T. KirkCorps used 25 rudiments justfor one piece! Their instruc-tor, George Ripperger, wasthe best around and wonNew York State individualsmany times. Earl Sturtze wasalso involved there with theindividuals in Kirk’s snareline, a former championfrom the 1920s.”

Al Linquity (Charles T. Kirk):“I played with GingerPloeger, Eric Peririlloux,Harold and GeorgeRipperger at Kirk. The tuneswere arranged by PopRippenger—many progres-sion-type pieces andthemes such as the northand south, Scottish, and Irishmusic. I was 15 when Ijoined. It was a seniorcorps—18 was the limit—butif you were good they letyou march.”

Eric Perrilloux (Charles T.Kirk): “Frank [Martin] was in-volved with Kirk before theRippengers were there, butit was a low style. Beforethat, the Rippingers playedmuch lower to the drum—sixto eight inches. By 1932, thecorps was doing real rudi-mental drumming. In 1937, Iwas 16 at the time andyoungest in the line. I re-member going to watch

the American Legion M&M finals in NewYork in ’37. The corps lines were pitiful!They were really poor drummers. Rudi-ments were not common in 1937. Kirkhad 12 fifers—that was big for a fifeline—and 12 horns. At most Kirk had sixor eight snares and two or three rudi-mental bass [drums]. Contests at thattime were judged on T, T, and E (time,intonation, and execution). There was

Sanford A. “Gus” Moeller on his march from Mount Vernon, NY toBoston for the American Legion Convention 1930.

PERCUSSIVE NOTES 13 APRIL 2005

no separate drum sheet. You didn’t geta drum mark. The Kirk corps introducedseparate sheets for individual sectionsin 1938. It was voted on by all the unitsand it passed.”

Ed Olsen: “The New York drummerswere more or less self taught. Connecti-cut had the famous names: Sturtze, J.Burns Moore, and others. New York hadMoeller and J. Frank Martin, who wastaught by two students of GardnerStrube. Martin didn’t like the Connecti-cut Ancient style. New York drummersplayed with their arms close to theirsides. They drummed close to the head.Charles T. Kirk corps picked up the higharm-swing motion because it lookedfancier coming down the street from adistance. The New York drummers werebecoming enthusiastic about the Con-necticut style. It affected them. I knowcause I saw it. They would come fromall over the city by subway, go to Owl’sHead Park, and play till the policecame. New York drummers practicedlike hell to play the Connecticut style.Eddy Fitzgerald and Jimmy Woods trav-eled from New York to Connecticut andwalked ten miles to Sturtze’s house totake lessons.”

Gus Moeller watched Kirk’s rehearsalsin 1931. His students were taught theloose right-hand-pinky fulcrum de-scribed by Charles Ashworth (1812) as afencing technique—left hand with agap between the thumb and index fin-ger. Moeller’s over-dramatic arm mo-tion—the arm moving before the beadof the stick—worked with the slowerCivil War cadence. However, his bestCharles Dickerson FD&B students wererunning headlong into economical tap-and-grace-note control of Earl Sturtze’syoung St. Francis students who weredeveloping “super-speed” breakdownroll peaks at 132 to 140 beats-per-minute. Moeller’s heart was in the rightplace but it was already the wrongtime.

Eric Perrilloux: “Moeller had a uniquestyle—a peculiar left-hand motion.Imagine your left hand on a door knoband then twisting it. Very odd. No oneever played that way before. It didn’tlook like the other players in a line.[You] can’t have that.”

Al Linquity: “Gus wasn’t the EarlSturtze-type drummer. He had a loosestyle. You’d never win a rudimentalcontest with it…but he judged a lot.

They put him on timing. He didn’t judgedrums all that much.”

With Moeller’s wrath finding targets,William F. Ludwig assembled drummerson June 20, 1933 in Chicago at theAmerican Legion National Conventionto form the N.A.R.D., the National Asso-ciation of Rudimental Drummers. Al-though popular, the gathering drewyawns from the fife and drum crowd,who were already king of the hill, neverto concede their perky anticipatedphrasings for World War I vets whoseweak left hands couldn’t executeSeven-Stroke Rolls at faster tempos.Judges marked a mistake for every ru-diment, so drum and bugle corpsopted for the less physical (and in time)Five-Stroke Roll. They did agree how dif-ferent Civil War methods would comeforward, resulting in the Standard 26American Rudiments and a breakdownprocedure for contest drumming withan acceleration to peak, evenly retard-ing to end. To gain membership, onehad to pass an examination in front ofa member.

Sid Skolnick: “I studied with J. BurnsMoore, and still have my certificate ofmembership (#1168), a beautiful docu-ment printed on American Bank Notepaper—like money.”

Gerd Summer: “I was taking privatelessons from Moore in 1934. It was 25cents for a 30-minute lesson. Thosewere the first cuss words I ever heard!We did breakdowns a lot. He alwayssaid, ‘Get your hands up!’ I was told topractice an hour and a half everyday.”

Donald A. Fredrickson: “Moore was astickler for ‘sticks up!’ One time he im-mediately knew I hadn’t practiced. Hethrew me out of his studio! Well, Icouldn’t go home, of course! That wasone wake-up call!”

Drum and bugle needed the An-cients experience. Joe Hathaway, the1933 American Legion Champion,joined a fife and drum corps. “I hadbeen ‘throwing’ the sticks at the drum,without any regard to technique. It wasnecessary to learn all over; I had toteach my left hand to do its part as wellas the right. I spent many hours beforea looking glass, practicing and watch-ing my movements to get away fromragged and careless execution.”12

Joe Mirsky (Post 95 FD&B): “We wereencouraged to practice in front of mir-

PERCUSSIVE NOTES 14 APRIL 2005

rors. We had very slanted drums—hadto wear cloth on the knee. Some tiedtheir drum to their knee. Judges were inMarine uniforms—an eagle eye out foreverything. I can play very nicely on apillow—did it a lot in 1936.”

Competition was mostly breakdowns,possibly 85 of 100 points. The soloshowed which rudiments you couldbreak down! Recaps show three to sixwere required. All solos were judged fortempo consistency of the “Ancient 110”and “Modern 120,” a machine de-signed by Moeller. The judging of 1890was more general commenting, andtiming could decide your fate, but soonjudges were counting the number of ru-diments you played. Those who playedless than ten had scores reduced by 20to 30 percent.

Joseph A. Gillotti: “Eddie Keane andthe Hatter’s Drum Corps were openseason for the likes of Sturtze. My fathertold me the story where Earl made acomment on a contest sheet that theHatters were not playing rudiments andwas subsequently disparaged by J.Burns Moore: ‘If they’re not rudiments,then what in the hell are they, Earl?’”

Individual contests might be decidedby ancillary items. Joe Hathaway wasdefeated soundly in his first contest(1932) because of his “inspection”mark. He studied Training RegulationsNo. 75-5 “Specialists” Field Music—TheBugler, from the Government PrintingOffice for 10 cents. In his second con-test after practicing hours every day—uniform pressed and “putts” shined—in1933, he won. Hathaway describes1930s’ “flash” as “highly desirable,”holding his sticks in a horizontal plane,parallel to the ground, the beads al-

most touching to begin and end abreakdown. Period books show drum-mers—even J. Burns Moore—writingstick clicks into street beats and raisingthe opposite hand for a visual whileplaying one-handed forte quarternotes.

Ed Lemley was involved with theNARD in 1933 and ’34. His most famous“ahead of the times” drum beat is de-scribed by Walter Sprance, who is mar-ried to Ed’s granddaughter: “‘CrazyArmy’ was written at Christmas time. Itwas 1933 or ’34. Ken Lemley’s fatherhad built a crystal radio. He was listen-ing to a station from Ireland at two orthree in the morning and in his mind hegot some parts going to the music. Edused to be a blacksmith and a toolmerchant. He built Ken a curvedfootboard on his bed that flipped overto practice on. You could adjust it tothe proper height. He used to teachten-year-old Kenny on it. Ed didn’t trusthis memory so he had Kenny learn thepart before he went to bed. It was nottoo well received. They would neveraccept something that syncopatedback then.”

The father of scientific rudimentaltechnique was Earl Sturtze (1901–1984),a ten-year-old student of Carl Frolich (ofJ. Burns Moore tutelage) who playedwith the Zigfield Follies. His greatestachievements were to adapt a styletemplate to individual physiology anduse the weight of the forearm for betterpower, dynamics, and control—moreefficient use of the arms.

Olympic coaches agreed years later:“The coach has to properly correlatethe structure of a technical skill witheach individual’s psychological and

biological particularities.”13 “Talent iden-tification is better before puberty(Dragan, 1979) and includes (Kunst andFlorescu, 1970): motor capacity, psy-chological capacity and biometricqualities, including physical build andbone formations.”14

Sturtze took over the St. Francis paro-chial school students of Dan English, aLancraft Connecticut champion whodied young in 1931. [Lancraft Fife andDrum represented by Connecticutchampions George Gallagher (1911,1912, 1913, 1914, 1915), Harold Kling(1920, 2nd 1924), Earl Sturtze (1916, 2nd1917, 2nd 1918, 1919, 1922, 1923, 1928with Yalesville), Dan English (1925, 1926,1927, 2nd 1928, 1929), and NathanMarks (1933, 2nd 1934)]15 Sturtze dislikedwasted arm motion and lower New Yorkmethods where rolls didn’t sound open.J. Burns Moore used high grace notes,the remnants of military code. TheSturtze kids could play pp to fff. Therewas definitely a right and wrong way tonow spend practice time.

Gary Pagnozzi (P.A.L. Cadets):“Sturtze didn’t think much of Ludwig’s orBurns Moore’s breakdowns. They didn’tdo them properly. Moore had a highernote height and pounded his accents.Sturtze was lower.”

Bobby Redican: “Sturtze pupils hadthe upper hand all over. Most of his stu-dents became fine rudimentalists—quite a hardy reputation. Sturtze’s stylewas more practical. He had more suc-cessful methods of teaching—a lot ofmotion with good execution. Rippergershad tried to pick that up.”

Eric Perrilloux: “All the top drummerswere Sturtze drummers. They had speedand power in their rolls and could go anotch higher and faster than anyoneelse. I could never get as closed or fastas Quigley or Redican at their best. Iplayed harder stuff but Redican hadpower and speed. PERFECT! I wish Iknew how they did it!”

They did it because there were morepotential players than instruments dur-ing the Depression. Children improvedor were sent home. Sturtze was techni-cally ahead of his peers, constantlyjudging, running his own contests withribbons and awards, writing scoresheets and giving clinics.

Jack McGuire (St. Francis): “So manykids were playing in St. Francis at thattime, if you goofed off you were out.

PERCUSSIVE NOTES 15 APRIL 2005

Ray Ludee and I were both cut the firstnight! There were 30 or 40 of us tryingout. A couple months later I came topractice and told Sturtze I hadn’t beenthere before.”

Matt Lyons (St. Francis): “The 3rd-grade level was in competition. The girlsplayed bugle and the guys playeddrums. There were many contests, 20 to30 a year. Sturtze would teach three orfour corps in one day. Sturtze was abetter technician than others—a Ger-man type perfectionist; very methodi-cal. He kept a 3 x 5 card on me andeven rated me after I was playing in theStratford Legion corps with Arsenault!He would take me in his car with him—5th, 6th, and 7th graders—to othercorps rehearsals. We would go to apractice and then he would take me tohave supper. He did this with a lot ofkids. You learn by watching others play.Sturtze took a giant step.”

Jean Lyons (St. Francis): “At St. Francisthere was an iron fence at the propertyline. They would march us right off theproperty to that fence. You step to thebeat of the drum between classes. Andyou stayed in line. If you got low gradesthe principal would threaten to takeyou out of the corps.”

Drummers were closing their handsaround the stick more—“pinching”—touse more physical pressure, avoidingMoeller’s “pinky finger” pressure advo-cated by early 19th-century authors.Flams have always measured a rudi-mental drummer’s coordination. Sturtze:“The instant the stick strikes the pad,squeeze it with the fingers sufficiently toprevent it from bounding up, since theright stick must now stay down.”16

Rebound was now technically de-fined: a more physical solution to bet-ter-position interior notes betweenaccents; a small note placed witheconomy of motion, not “lifted” by theforearm. Military code needed volume.This was musical efficiency.

Jay Tuomey: “You simply turn thewrist. Nothing more need be done for aflam grace note.” Such consistency de-veloped professional-quality executionand dynamics. “Pinching the stick in thismanner and keeping the last two fin-gers closed around it will result in thecomplete control which is necessary toplay firm, steady beats.”17

Bobby Redican: “I used a tightsqueeze for certain rudiments.”

Jack Tencza (Landcraft): “I used topinch for faster rudiments. Flam gracenotes were not even an inch off thedrum—a quarter, maybe an eighth ofan inch. Very low! Redican more thanSturtze would pinch the stick—gripharder at the accents.”

Larry McCormick (Cavaliers): “Yousqueeze the stick. It helps control the re-bound. That’s what Frank [Arsenault]said to do.”

Hand placement changed. The im-portant item was not “from the end”but “how close to” the center of grav-ity. Playing near the end of a stick tiresthe muscle system; you’re moving moreweight, causing more accent rebound.Hold too far up and you lose wrist hingemotion. History shows a movement over150 years toward the center of gravity.Potter (1815): Two and one half inchesfrom the end (probably 19-inch sticks3/4 to 1-inch diameter). Sousa (1886):Three inches from the end. Sturtze(1930s): about four inches from the buttend of the sticks. Toumey (1968): Holdan eighth of an inch behind center ofgravity. Micah Brusse (2004), Blue Devilsnare tech: “We cut the stick into thirdsand grip at the last third.” As tempos in-creased, stick diameters reduced to a“3S” (.750-inch diameter) and beadsbecame much smaller.

Champion drummers from 1875 to1983 built coordination and speed usinga difficult 300-year-old method ofgauging progress—the breakdown—where one gradually accelerates and

decelerates. Breakdown length differs:Stone (1931): from three to six minutes.Sturtze (1954): one-and-a-half minuteacceleration and a one-and-a-halfminute ritard. McCormick (1965): twominutes. This was carried forward to thebeginning of DCI Individuals in 1973,and eliminated in 1984. PAS has re-cently used one minute but is changingto a more representative test at 90 sec-onds. The discipline is similar to the ba-sic instruction of skaters’ “figures” wherejudges go on ice to observe “edges”(etchings). Similarly, drummers lookedfor volume consistency, note spacing,and a gradual change in tempo.

Breakdowns—like exercises—are amusical simulation: “It has been onlysince the 1970s that [there has been] astrong desire to link an athlete’s trainingprocess through modeling. A model isan imitation, a simulation of realitymade out of specific elements of thesport…[and] should incorporate onlythose means of training which are iden-tical to the nature of competition.”18

The transition from military techniqueand march music to show tunes andother genres in bugle corps was due totechnically proficient breakdown drum-mers from fife and drum executing the“26” in new combinations having longerphrases. The pride-of-the-Ancients 7-and 15-stroke rolls were whittled to 5’sand 9’s because drummers enjoyedmarching to faster tempos of popularmusic. The threads that would sewcode drumming to different music

PERCUSSIVE NOTES 16 APRIL 2005

genres were pleasing accent patternsfound in Flam coordination, Ruff-Rat-Drag combinations, and mastery ofcontinuous accented rolls, items oftechnical superiority. How could thishappen breaking down only 26 varia-tions?

• A drummer’s greatest responsibilityis to control time. Breakdowns requireeach note to be mentally, then physi-cally, placed in time—no “guessing.”They teach how to bend time and mas-ter note separation—the ability tomake minute adjustments. This helpsthe student master the art of concen-tration, the most important aspect ofprofessionalism.

• Breakdowns establish a strong co-ordination template with hand-to-handplaying. Left-hand-lead practice im-proves the normal right-hand-lead by20 to 30 percent.

• Two wrist turns for a diddle pro-duced more physical control of thesecond note. Breakdowns force aplayer to learn the difficult point atwhich the brain must switch from twothoughts to one per diddle, an impor-tant maturation of mental concentra-tion and coordination.

• Endurance. There is no “rest period”or “timeout.” Mental lapses place thediscipline of many simultaneous factorsin jeopardy: volume, position, accentpower, timing, coordination, fatigue,and how to adjust to fatigue after peakspeed during a ritard. Changing yourgrip due to fatigue is a risk. They playedstrong through the head and were inexcellent physical condition.

• They learned perfect form at slowtempos, therefore able to drive whenspeeding.

• They learned to play with large mo-tions, allowing their instructors a betterview of physical errors. Large motionsdevelop better coordination.

Breakdown drummers used theweight of their hands and forearmssymmetrically, producing power andbalanced dynamic volume. They wereunbeatable except against each other.

Jay Tuomey: “All the great drummerscordially hated each other. It was war!Individuals were a dogfight! They wereall great players. The Sons of Libertyhad all the great rivals: Les Parks vs.George Ripperger and Perrilloux, BobbyThompson vs. Hugh Quigley, HowardKeanally and Bill Pace…just a war.

There were great rivals. Some nevertalked to each other. Redican andPerrilloux would pal around together,but compete fiercely. Hugh Quigleywas very gregarious and was liked byall. Les Parks could be aloof and arro-gant at times but was a great player.Redican had a very wide-open style—high and open. He was a perfectionist.Frank Arsenault had big arm motion butwas very fast—a very open style withhigh attacks. He was a human ma-chine. Hugh and Frank both were per-fectionists—drumming fanatics. Hughwas very smooth with speed—great ex-ecution. I would say it was Frank num-ber one and Hugh number two as thebest I ever saw. Connecticut, New YorkState, and Hudson Valley Field Daybrought out the snare drummersagainst each other.” (Hugh Quigleywon 60 snare titles, six ConnecticutState Championships, two AmericanLegion National Titles and 12 NortheastTitles.)

Al Linquity: “Redican was one of thegreatest students Sturtze ever had. Hewas kind of aloof then. I mean every-one got along but it was WIN THATMEDAL! Pretty fierce. Very fierce!”

John Flowers (Reading Buccaneers):“Redican was more powerful, butArsenault was just a machine.”

Bobby Redican: “I always liked beat-

ing Frankie. He would go fast—fast butnot steam clean. The judges that knewhim let him get away with it. He wassomeone to target. I watched himquite a bit. I learned that way.”

Better drummers wrote their own so-los, but New York had to pick selectionsfrom military camp duty, allowing Con-necticut more difficult fillers. Redicanused Flam Paradiddle Diddles anddouble accented Single and DoubleParadiddles to win 46 of 70 contests. So-los were usually 1:30 to 1:45. The longroll was requisite with two more pickedout of a hat by the first competitor orjudge. One 2/4 and 6/8 piece was re-quired. Breakdown errors were be-tween one-fourth and two full pointsdepending on severity.

Charley Poole: “You could beawarded up to one more point for “su-per speed” on your fastest breakdownspeed. Many times, I would score overthe maximum 25 points because of it. Ifthe draw was the Triple Ratamacue orFlam Paradiddle-Diddle, it was a killer.Most couldn’t do it well—kind of likeSwiss Triplets hand to hand; a sign ofmanhood. My father would drive me toa contest in New York somewhere. Reg-istration was at 8:00 p.m. It would go till4:00 a.m. We would go out and getbreakfast.”

North Branford Fife and Drum Corps

Sons of Liberty (l to r): Jay Tuomey, Bobby Thompson and Les Parks

PERCUSSIVE NOTES 17 APRIL 2005

won best drumline at the New YorkWorld’s Fair competitions of 1939 and1940. Five J. Burns Moore students wereusing dynamics like the Kirks. Ralph Col-ter: “We were the first line to do shad-ing. The initial strokes of a seven werecrescendoed into the accent. Eighth-note flams after this were very soft. Well,it caught on. There was no credit onthe sheets for it, though, but for exhibi-tions, it was very effective.”

Bill Reamer: “We played solos like‘Downfall of Paris,’ ‘The General,’ and‘Connecticut Halftime.’ Some made uptheir own. There must have been over ahundred drummers there that day. Itwas dominated by Connecticut. I took13th place. It started early in the morn-ing and went all day.”

The 1940 American Legion NationalJunior Snare Drum Championship wasan invitational contest of east versuswest sponsored by Ludwig. GeorgeLawrence Stone was the drum judgeschairman, flanked by William F. Ludwigand J. Burns Moore. Connecticut domi-nated the order of finish: BobbyRedican, James Ryan, MickeyStefonowitz, Sigmond Trybus, and FrankArsenault. Vincent Mott was the highestplacing western drummer, defeatingWilliam F. Ludwig Jr. Redican was 17,winning a $75 red, white, and bluemother-of-pearl 12 x 16 drum, a lot ofmoney at that time.

Recordings of the 1953 Charles T. Kirksand early 1950s Blessed Sacrament andReilly Raiders make it very apparentthat timing was skewed to add thatlittle bit of superior Ancient flavor. As

novice players filled bugle corps ranks,the metered roll became standard. An-cients called it “cut drumming.” Stopcheating! The Ancients 7- and 15-strokeroll attacks were delayed after the“and” of the beat without mathemati-cal subdivision. They also held releasesback to play 24th-note singlesquicker—and out of meter—at phraseendings. Bugle corps tried this to noavail.

John Pratt: “I saw the GenevaAppleknockers in the 1948 and ’49 sea-sons. They were doing 7’s and 15’s. Ev-eryone else was doing 5’s and 13’s.They got killed for it.”

As M&M corps learned the same ru-diments and competitive pieces; theydrifted away from centuries-old militarybeatings. Perrilloux went to the Skylinersin 1953, liking the freedom of swingrhythms. During the 1930s and 1940s,most field drum lines marched eight ornine snares with four or five bass drumsbecause regulation TR75-5 stipulatedtwo bugles or three fifes for every snaredrum.

Gabarina Post—the Skyliners—werelast of the large champion lines beforea 3-3-2 snare-tenor-bass ensemble be-came most efficient with harder rudi-ments and faster tempos under the ticksystem. A method had not yet beendeveloped to train eight snares to ex-ecute difficult rudiment combinationscleanly.

Ed Olsen: “It was the fife and drumdrummers that taught the M&M corps.They didn’t get the fife and drum in-struction until after the war. ThenGarbarina came.”

Bill Boerner (Gabarina/Skyliners): “Itwas the tempos that pushed 7-StrokeRolls into 5’s. We played many 7-StrokeRolls, but at 128, those two extra noteswould be crushed in. We had to drop itto 5’s. We had eight snares in 1946, ’47,and ’48, Philly in ’49, California in ’50,and Missouri…actually till ’54. We werewinning: seven state and two nationaltitles. We played all the 26 rudiments.Drum instructors were now in demand. I

1958 Reilly Raiders

CO

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ENTS O

F CAR

OL H

OO

TEN

PERCUSSIVE NOTES 18 APRIL 2005

ended up teaching 15 to 20 corps my-self.”

Don Friesing (Skyliners): “At Sky wewould get our drums level using stringstretched across the line. There was anAmerican Legion rule that stated thedrums should be on a 45-degree angle.It’s not physically possible to play withthat severe an angle! We marched intwo rows of four with the better drum-mers to the outside. Colo-nel Pierce, the instructor ofSkyliners, would add syn-copation to the parts be-tween snares and tenors.”

In 1947, Bill Reamer (VFWindividual champion 1938,1941, and 1946), did as theRipperger brothers andpacked his McCall Blue-bird students and 8mmmovie camera into hisVolkswagen van to see thegreatest players in theworld at Connecticut mus-ters, where Sturtze’s win-ning students were ondisplay. Earl had kept theirphone numbers andcalled them after the war.Reamer brought the high

Connecticut style back to Pennsylva-nia, resulting in a national American Le-gion junior championship for theMcCall Bluebirds in 1947—the first juniorbugle corps to play Ratamacues—andthe Osmond Hurricanes in 1948 and ’49for his students’ line, John Dowlan. Fifeand drum corps played Ratamacuesbefore 1812.

Ed Olsen: “The fife and drum corps’

musters would attract all the greatdrummers from the past. At Westbrook,there would be a jam session after thecorps performances with the youngerkids trying to play faster and outdoeach other. The old cats simply ‘got thenod’ and retired to Bobby Thompson’scar. Hugh Quigley, Ken Lemley, BillPace, Bobby Thompson, Tuomey,Redican, Perrilloux—the boys—started

their own music. It wasn’tlong before there were 20 or30 kids gathered around star-ing at their drumming idols.”

Bill Reamer: “J. Burns Mooreand Sturtze students werepicking the hands up. Theyalso were the ones who usu-ally won. In 1947, we did rudi-mental drum solos. I had BillMaling and Don Mihok atOsmond. Many of the linesback then were doing 10 or12 snares. It was not clean.They had to cut it down. Theydidn’t play well. I cut the lineto four and four with twobass. We did breakdowns inthe Burns Moore style andused Stone book examples.”

Bill Bernert (McCall Blue-Bill Reamer

PERCUSSIVE NOTES 19 APRIL 2005

birds): “In 1947, Pop Martin [J FrankMartin] saw that Reamer was doing‘Connecticut Halftime’ and ‘Downfallof Paris’ as drum solos on the field. Noone had done that before. Martin wentberserk! He couldn’t believe what hewas seeing! A lot of the lines were stillplaying rump-da-dum stuff. We wereplaying Ratamacues! We won drums.Reamer was way ahead of his time. Heput rudiments in drum corps.”

Don Mihok (Osmond Cadets,1949VFW Jr. Snare Champion): “Reamertaught us ‘Troublemakers.’ It was a tapsix-stroke roll. No one had seen or donethem then.”

The “Rodney Dangerfield” of rudi-ments was the Six-Stroke Roll becauseAncients thought it sounded like aRatamacue. Why play a “6” when youcan switch hands? It does not appearin historical military instruction books,and if it does, only as “practice mate-rial,” which is odd considering its gener-ous charging downbeat and easyexecution. As tempos increased afterthe war, everybody learned the rudi-ment with no respect.

Before 1950, a judge could not pickup a dropped stick. Enter Bob Cotter,director of the Jersey Joes, Legionchampions in 1948, second in ’49. NatGarratano (Jersey Joes): “At one con-test at New Jersey State, one tenordrummer was not that good. Bob tookan extra horn player and put him ontenor. He was to drop his stick and goon through the show and not play.Now, this bugler was a character. He

threw that stick about 20 yards. Thatsame season, Bob took another guywho was not a tenor and had a doctorput his arm in a sling. It was done upperfectly! They got that rule changedbecause of him.”

National titles won by Reilly Raiders’1947 line (John Dowlan, Harry Ginther,and Charlie Cornilius), and Reamer’sMcCall Bluebirds (Bill Maling, DonMihok, Jack Corey, and Jack Kasm)ended the World War I influence. Toearn a snare spot in these senior andjunior champions, you now needed ru-dimental style training, preferably whenyoung. Reilly would tear through the1950s, winning six national titles behindthe strength of a serious and dedicateddrumline that went to show sites a dayearly in their Irish green hearse. Drummajor Wild Bill Hooten threw second-place trophies over the fence.

Bobby Redican: “Reilly Raiders in theearly and late 1950s was a hell of agood line. Their tenor drummers wereequally as competent. They could allduplicate parts so it sounded like theoriginal recordings. Corps were playingthe Boston Pops pieces then. Their drumsolo was in the middle of the competi-tion. You better believe they wereclean!”

Charlie Cornelius (Reilly Raiders): “Thefirst thing we would do at practice wasgo through all the rudiments. We didthe open roll and broke it down. Doingbreakdowns helped us interpret the ru-diments to the music, and let me tellyou, it was clean as a bell! The angle of

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PERCUSSIVE NOTES 20 APRIL 2005

the drum was now so you could beatinto it instead of off it, especially theleft hand.”

Bob Adair (Reilly Raiders): “Many ofus were raising families, so we had topractice at home. For a big show wehad extra practices. It was a weekendthing. You had a job and raised yourfamily.”

The extended endurance of HarryGinther’s “Grey Ghost” (1958) ReillyRaider drum solo, influencing FredJohnson’s “Magoo” (1959), the Cabal-leros “The Bomb” (1960), and othersbroke tradition. A 13 1/2 minute showhad time for two short drum solos andone long one. The famous “GreyGhost” solo had extended rolls andDrags supported by tenor and bassnotes.

Paul Mosley: “The ‘Grey Ghost’ wasthe national anthem of rudimentaldrumming. That kicked it off. You didnot have drum solos with rolls anddrags in those days.” Palettes now wid-ened so no two percussion arrangerswould sound the same. Reilly didn’t liketradition anyway, presenting a drumsolo at the front of the field and sneak-ing rudiments in not from the “26.”

Jay Tuomey: “The best M&M corpsup till 1950 was the Reilly Raiders. Therewas nothing west of Philly at that time.They introduced new rudiments—verysharp. They had some guy they calledGhost as a drum sergeant.” HarryGinther named “The Grey Ghost” soloafter Jimmy Giles.

Jimmy Giles: “We had two differentdrum instructors. Ginther was there, butPerrilloux was coming in from New Jer-sey. Eric Perrilloux was the tops! Thethree snares didn’t like each other allthe time. Sometimes we would com-plain and moan. We had differentstyles. After three or four years of play-ing together you get to know eachother. We would argue about whomade a mistake! No one ever madethem! There were marks on the scoresheet but no one made them! It wasn’tme!”

Unlike Kirk and Reilly, the Sons of Lib-erty Fife and Drum Corps (1947–1968)demanded everyone play one style inthe early 1950s. Juilliard alumnus LesParks ran the corps and taught thedrum line, assisted by Bobby Thomp-son. They used Sturtze’s arm motionwith a rigid middle finger and curled

pinky on the left hand. Les brought dy-namics to the Sons in 1950. Competi-tors thought this a bad idea, buteveryone was using dynamics nextseason. Tuomey says that Sturtze usedto “scalp” them because they werenot dynamically “by the book.” Parks—the innovator—was turning pagesfaster than Sturtze wanted to read.

Jay Tuomey (Sons of Liberty): “Parkswas very inventive using Swiss, Lesson25 and Pada-fla-fla rudiments in theearly 1950s. My dealings with Sturtzewere informal. He played with a [left]half thumb. This was not as precise asLes Parks, who used all index finger andno thumb. The [curled] pinky acts like apendulum, turning the left hand down.It changes the center of gravity of theentire hand and keeps the left handfrom going flat. Les would stand ontable-tops and look down at all thestyles. He used a big mirror as well andspent hours on the perfection of theleft-hand turn. So did Sturtze. Onecommon element was to move thesticks in the same plane; VERY IMPOR-TANT!”

Marty Hurley (Blessed Sacrament):“When the pinky finger is back it formsa better bridge for the stick to rest on.The ring finger is less likely to move. Lesand Bobby spent hours perfecting thetechnique. They wanted a methodthat had the left hand under morecontrol.”

Jack Cassidy (Reilly Raiders): “TheReilly Raiders played similar to BobbyThompson’s style but without the leftgrip. We didn’t do the pinky thing. Wedidn’t see a benefit to it until we satdown with Bobby and he showed usthe benefit of the style. We tried it andit works!”

Parks reduced stick angles from 55degrees to 45 degrees or slightly less,taking better advantage of the humanmuscle and bone system, much closerto the center of gravity of the body, re-sulting in more power and control. El-bows are now at the back of the back,not extended “around the tree.” An-other Sons of Liberty contribution is thehand angle on the wrist hinge. The “S”or “power train” is formed when a flatright wrist moves to the right, from thetip of the thumb to the wrist hinge andthe wrist hinge up the forearm, thenstraight to the shoulder. Go left andyou play more like they did in 1920 on

a much lower drum. It was the lastpiece of the physics puzzle. With it,Bobby Thompson’s Blessed Sacramentjunior line immediately started to domi-nate in 1954 with their first national title.

Bill Reamer believed Audubon’s 1954all-girl corps had raw talent. TheAudubon Bon Bons won the drumquartet competition in 1956 and tookhigh drums at the ’57 Atlantic City na-tionals. A female line of 18-year oldhigh school seniors gained peer re-spect by beating everybody. Everyonesays you could set your watch by thebreakdowns of 1957 National SnareChampion Rita Macy.

Rita (Macy) Bernert: “We were al-ways together and liked to be on top.We really hated band. In corps you al-ways try to do better than your lastshow. You needed dedicated prac-tice. I always practiced one or twohours a day. The people next doorweren’t too happy! My brothers wereready to shoot me! I liked it. It’s in you. Iwanted to be perfect. Bill Reamerwrote my snare solo, ‘The Rita MacySpecial.’ It had fancy 6/8 stuff in it. DanMihok in the seniors used the samesolo. Reamer wrote some rudimentsthat didn’t even have names! I beatJohn Flowers and all those from thewest—the guys from Cavies. Men arealways cocky! I lost by two tenths in’56. St. Vinnie guys said that their guywon on his hand salute—that minedidn’t look as good. Were they kiddingor was it true? Who knows? You haveto pay some dues, you know?”

John Flowers: “I saw Rita in ’57. Shewiped my socks! Man, she had excel-lent rolls!”

Charles Ellison (St. Vincent Cadets,1956 National Snare Champion):“Bobby Thompson got Les [Parks] tocome over to our corps. He was with usfrom 1954 to ’58. Les kept the arm in. Itwas all forearm. We practiced all 26 ru-diments. The middle finger was straighton the left hand. The right hand had agrip between the thumb and forefin-ger. We all learned drumming beforeLes came, so our styles were a bit dif-ferent. Les had a dry sense of humor.He was very scholarly about drumming.He approached it as music. There wasno backsticking then—no twirls—butyou could improvise in your solo.”

The plastic heads used by the 1957Cavaliers to win a very humid Miami fi-

PERCUSSIVE NOTES 21 APRIL 2005

nals would save many hours of tuningand practice time, yet have a similarsound and technique. Calfskin couldlose its tension in eight measures, “turn-ing into pizza.” Plastic kept its tension.Sort of…

Ron Marcquenski (Cavaliers): “Wewere a test corps. When Frank[Arsenault] got there he would bringnew stuff over—plastic heads. Weripped them and cracked them—toohard, too soft. We were denting them,splitting them.”

The metal hoop for plastic was muchlower than the wood of a rope-tensiondrum. Now John Dowlan’s “stretchingexercise” could be used, somethingcalled “backsticking.” A girl might getto play snare if she could find anothergirl to “balance” the line on each side.Devon Grammar School had such anoccurrence.

Veronica (Bentze) Sturtze (Winner,Feminine Class—1940 New York World’sFair, Connecticut Senior and Northeast-ern States Champion): “In the contests,we did breakdowns and you didn’tknow which rudiments would bepicked. So I took my drum to school.The principal would send up notes tell-ing me to stop. Teachers would say,‘She doesn’t know when to stop! Shedoesn’t know how to stop!’ When I was17 years old, the Lyrics Theatre had tal-ent shows. There were 35 more peoplein it! I played the long roll and solo. Myfather cried; ‘That’s my daughter!’ Thiswas during the Depression. I won fivedollars and gave it to my mother. Iwent into [individual] competitions. Afew times I beat the guys. I had manysecond prizes. I can still drum. It gets inyour blood, you know.”

It certainly does.

ENDNOTES1. Robinson, Alvan. Massachusetts Collec-

tion of Martial Music (Hallowell: E.

Goodale,1818), p.8

2. Miller, Delavan S., Drum Taps In Dixie

(Watertown, N.Y.: Hungerford-Holbrook),

1905

3. Barty-King, Hugh. The Drum (London, En-

gland, The Royal Tournament Horse

Guards, 1988), p.106

4. Compliments of The Company of Fifers

and Drummers, Ivoryton, Ct.

5. Ibid.

6. Ibid.

7. Ibid.

8. Jean White’s Edition of Flockton’s New

Method for the Side Drum, Xylophone

and Timpani, 1897

9. Moeller, Sanford A. The Art of Drumming

(Chicago: Ludwig Drum Company), 1925,

p.10

10. Moeller, p.7

11. The Ludwig Drum and Bugle Manual

(Cleveland: Ludwig Music Pub. Co. n.d.),

p.22

12. The Slingerland Drum and Bugle Corps

Digest, Spring 1933, p.11 (Compliments of

Lancraft Fife and Drum corps, Inc.)

13. Bompa Tudor O. The Theory and Meth-

odology of Training, (Dubuque, Iowa:

Kendall/Hunt, 1988), p.71

14. Bompa, p. 336, 337

15. Compliments of Lancraft Fife and Drum

Corps, Inc.

16. Sturtze, Earl. The Sturtze Drum Instructor

(Ivoryton, Ct.: reissued by The Company

of Fifers and Drummers, orig. 1956), p.25Veronica (Bentze) Sturtze

CO

MPLIM

ENTS O

F LAN

CR

AFT FIFE &

DR

UM C

OR

PS, INC.

17. Sturtze, Section 1

18. Bompa, p. 40

Ken Mazur was mentored by JayTuomey of the Sons of Liberty Fife andDrum Corps and John Wallace ofDetroit’s Johnny Wallace Big Band andOrchestra. He received further instruc-tion from Bobby Thompson, Mark Petty,and Marty Hurley. Ken won manyMichigan drumset and snare titles, thencaptured the 1976 DCI World SnareDrum Championship representing thePhantom Regiment. After instructing inRockford and authoring books, heserved as percussion caption headand president of the Michigan judgescircuit. His book, The Perfectionists: TheHistory of Rudimental Snare Drumming,will soon be complete. PN

PERCUSSIVE NOTES 22 APRIL 2005

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