On Tuesday June 12, 2007 over 500 people traveled to Ittervoort in the South of Holland, to enjoy the clinic of drum hero Virgil Donati. In the first moments on stage he declared that Drumworld, the immense drum store of manufacturer Adams, probably has the best facilities in the world for drum clinics.
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And indeed, the hall is ideal in space and stage facilities as you can see on the pictures included with this article.
Room enough for over 2000 people. This venue, which is also in use as the wearhouse, gives an ideal view on the stage that Virgil performed on. Virgil is considered to be one of the best soloists of the world, but the drummer who had never suffered any injury of any kind before, had a strain injury in his left arm. The doctor ordered rest for a couple of weeks, but Virgil wouldn\'t be the professional he is, by cancelling the clinic or any dates following.
The story behind his injury tells us Virgil would have helped a woman who fell down, and with helping her straining a muscle. He could only partially use his left arm while playing, and you could see him suffer from pain, and taking rest, while playing. Also, Virgil didn\'t play his air toms at all with his left arm. What a discipline when you are used to that! Despite the injury, everyone was just as impressed by his playing as they would have been when he had been a 100% fit.
Of course, Donati\'s brains still performed on full metric modulating and polyritmic speed, and the multi-dimensional grooves were just as impressive as ever. Virgil played new arrangements of classic tunes like Dog Boots and Alien Hiphop. During Dog Boots you could see him having difficulties adjusting to his new physical setting, but the double bass drum rolls kept on going and were powerful substitudes for his left air tom playing.
After the first solos, Virgil explained his playing and modulating groups of five on the drums and in rhythms. Well, if you didn\'t know what this drummer is about, after his ten minute lesson everyone surely knew he reaches the outer boundaries of drumming on a level that only a few can fully comprehend. Download the sheets Virgil passed out to the audience and try to figure out what his work is about. Or just buy his complete methods and study them for yourself!
After the clinic there was enough time for a signing session and business was going well with Pearl\'s new Virgil Donati signature snaredrum. The audience went home satisfied and surprised about Donati\'s prestation, despite of his injury.