You might have gathered I’m a huge admirer of Virgil, his dedication to the craft is unsurpassed; I would urge all young drummers to seek him out and listen to his advice... the guy can, and has, done it all, and yet he still has the hunger to keep pushing the boundaries of what’s possible!You can't help but respect the work that's gone into his craft, and how he's kept himself in great shape into his 60s.
It never ceases to amaze me how often he's overlooked in prog drummer lists. The Planet X library is one continuous Prog schooling. I know some guys look at the compositions as showpieces for musical oddity and technique for technique's sake, and even if that's somewhat true someone had do it. And that's likely why no one else has. Because they can't. Not like he did.
That’s where my picture was taken, Nottingham 2016!!I was lucky enough to work with Virgil at a clinic he did in Nottingham near me, here in the UK. I teched for him that day, had a few hours of lessons with him, showed him around the city, went out for a curry and a pint with him.
He was nothing but humble, generous with his time and advice, and a monster behind the kit. It was easy to forget that he is one of the greatest drummers of our time. Aside from being a beast of a man (he was still wearing a torn muscle t-shirt), he is softly spoken, unassuming, and friendly. I gave him one of my own CDs and he was genuinely happy to receive it.
I am not a particular fan of all of the music he has been involved with, but I am a huge fan of the man and his drumming. This was most certainly a case of being glad I met an idol.
That’s where my picture was taken, Nottingham 2016!!
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Yup! That’s the one...No way! I was there then. Did we meet?! In the school house behind the Nottingham Albert Hall, right? I had no idea you were local.
You can't help but respect the work that's gone into his craft, and how he's kept himself in great shape into his 60s.
It never ceases to amaze me how often he's overlooked in prog drummer lists. The Planet X library is one continuous Prog schooling. I know some guys look at the compositions as showpieces for musical oddity and technique for technique's sake, and even if that's somewhat true someone had do it. And that's likely why no one else has. Because they can't. Not like he did.
Awesomeness! Have you checked out the “Ruination” album? Mind blowing!I always come back to this to remind myself how Virgil lives on a completely different plane of existence than the rest of us.
I don’t know who did it first but if my memory serves me correctly Gregg Bissonette demonstrated this at a clinic I attended around 20 years ago and said it was something Vinnie showed him at the Buddy Rich memorial?Is Virgil the inventor of the '4-way single stroke roll'? I mean RKLKRKLKRK... singles between left hand, left foot, right hand right foot
The first time I heard those fast and clean was on his Modern Drummer 1997 performance. It's quite a distinct sound, different from the more common RLKKRLKK
More recently it's been used by Vinnie at the end of a cray fill, see below, but was Donati the first to do them?
I love Buddy Rich too!I'm a Virgil fan...he has a great mind for handeling complicated music and I'm thoroughly impressed but can I say one thing about how I feel concerning Buddy Rich?. Do I need to go through the alphabet?..Vinnie..Steve...Dave..etc etc. To this day no one makes me feel the way I do when watching/listening to Buddy. Players have better technique today...(some) but no one lights a fire under my -.-.-. like buddy does. He's just magical..his looseness....his feel...everything about him is untouched to this day. Lots of techno wizards out there that can blow your mind but they don't do it like Buddy did for my money. I'm just as impressed with Buddy TODAY!..i really am.
I told ya...see what you can do when you put the time in?. The new gunslinger...get me a whiskey barkeep. Watch this stranger sherrif.He does the alternating quad in this section. By alternating I mean that a single hand stroke is followed by a single BD stroke, not 2 over 2. You can hear the difference. I've set it to start a little before the section.
Watch from about 14:30 and set it to half speed and focus on his legs. The notes fall foot-hand-foot-hand alternating between both hands and feet. It's totally different than 2 hands followed by 2 feet.