The analysis of The Mother and the Three Camps
by Fred Johnson

Introduction
The analysis of historic drum beatings is not easy. One is constantly reminded of many facets of the era of communicative drumming, including its military objectives, teaching by rote, different centers of excellence and their assumptions and applied conventions, earlier printing press errors and even equipment. There is also the issue of historical error compounding. Teachers, drummers and authors have made slightly altered assumptions that were passed on and again slightly altered by subsequent generations. The result is that today’s scores, to the historian do not necessarily mirror the original. This presents major difficulties. In some cases, despite this body of research, it may never be known why this has occurred. The modern drummer must understand and respect this. Known history is what it is and cannot be changed.