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Mobile Beat Magazine, November 2012 By Stu Chisholm, pages 44-45

“Who WAS That Drumming Man?”

Last February attendees of MBLV were treated to something unusual, even for a Mobile Beat show: a unique form of live entertainment. To the surprise of everyone present, premier entertainer, DJ Flip presented a little “something extra” - a wickedly fast-handed live percussionist in the form of John Donovan.

I’d first heard of John via some buzz on several DJ forums, and then I bumped into him on Facebook where he offered everyone present one of his demo DVDS. I gladly accepted and it arrived promptly, but I got busy and let it sit on my desk gather dust. Fortunately, John never lets any dust collect on his career and the next thing I knew, he was announced as part of the elite group of stars who entertain the entertainers at MBLV. I had the same question most of you might have: Who IS this guy? Where did he come from? What does he have to do with the DJ world? It was time to find out...

HIT ME WITH YOUR RYHTHM STICK

After watching the DVD and being throughly impressed (full disclosure: I’m a former drummer myself, although I haven’t played for pay since the 1970’s), I caught up with John after playing a bit of phone tag.

Stu Chisholm: So what’s this all about?

John Donovan: A thirty year old concept that started on Long Island: pairing up a live percussionist with a DJ. It brings a unique “live band” vibe to an event! My demo videos are a tool for DJS to use to offer that “wow factor” to their clients.

S C: So a DJ anywhere in the country can offer you to their clients as their live Party Percussionist?

J D: Yes, as long as I’m open for the date, and we agree on fees, of course. I seamlessly integrate my performance into a DJ’s show. I’ve undergone rigorous training since childhood, culminating into a DCI World Championship, so the academic level of my entertainment service is something globally unique to offer.

S C: Okay, so let’s back up a bit...How did all this start?

J D: I started my training at the age of four, focusing on traditional drum set, and in my teen years, I was exposed to drum corps, and thats when I knew I wanted to start pushing my limits, and I haven’t stopped. When I aged out of drum corps, I started teaching drumlines, and playing in various bands, both of which I love, however neither of which I could figure out how to acquire any serious financial traction. Like any REAL artist, I pushed on because I’m in it to win it. I miss playing with bands, musical theater pits, and I really loved working on the cruise ship, however with a family, I have to be working with real numbers.

S C: Yes, I know what you mean. Another fellow Mobile Beat scribe, and I have written a bit about doing the cruise ship circuit. Which one did you work for?

J D: Holland America’s Veendam, summer of 2004. I subbed for a drummer for two months. I must say that it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done academically! The production quality was stunning, and I love to read music. If the pay was anything serious, I’d gladly go back out to sea until I could acquire enough US currency to buy a house, however the net income for a full week of work was less then what I earn for one single event now.

S C: So in short, you learned a lot while going broke.

J D: (Laughs) Yes, that’s it.

S C: So how did you end up escaping?

J D: I had moved my wife and son to Long Island in the fall of 2007 to put my wife through college. For the first six months, we were barely making ends meet while I was working musical theater and teaching seven days a week. Each day was a struggle.
Believe it or not, I responded to an ad on Craig’s list. At first I was wary, because I’d always been told that “DJS are the devil,” and “Private events are hokey.” I ended up auditioning for Andy Zaino’s talent show and hooked up with the company, Entertainment Tonite. Everything I saw was so professional: sales offices, equipment warehouses, etc. I was blown away. Of course, this led to networking and and reaching out to other companies. The pay was far better then anything I was exposed to in the live music world, and it just kept getting better and better. Before I knew it, I was submerged in the mobile DJ industry.

S C: So how did Mobile Beat happen?

J D: When my wife was done with college in December of 2010, we knew that with my growing demand, especially in New Jersey, that we cold move back to PA and save for a house while I did super commuting. Right away I met Kevin Ramaley of Rockin Ramaley who introduced me to Adam Skuba of Skuba Entertainment, and director of EPMEN, who invited me to perform at the first EPMEN conference in 2011. Mike Walter from Elite Entertainment discovered me at EPMEN and invited me to be the opening act at the [ DJ Times ] Atlantic City show. At the AC show, Steve Moody of Steve Moody’s Entertainment Connection championed me to the legendary John Rozz, and that’s how I got to Mobile Beat. Before I knew it, DJ Flip and I were booked for the grand finale at the Riviera! I couldn’t believe it - the history of the place is fantastic. I’m very grateful to those key people in the industry that made this all happen. I can say my first time ever in Las Vegas was perfect!

S C: What did you think of the MB show?

J D: The DJs gave us such a warm reception! I loved the vibe - It’s very different. I totally appreciate the seminars and conferences. I got a whole new appreciation for the DJ industry as a whole.

S C: I hear you had quite an experience after Mobile Beat...

J D: Yes! About a month after Mobile Beat, I got the dream call: to perform in a drumline with the band 311 in Las Vegas. There were five of us in the drumline. We performed at the fan party at the Hard Rock “Joint” on March 9th in front of 2,900 people, and then the next night we performed with 311 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in front of 16,000 people.

S C: Oh yeah, the “All Mixed Up” guys...How did they hear about you?

J D: I was actually hired by VJ Roonie G’s drummer, Mike Baroody. Mike is also a DCI alum and a DJ. This was a dream come true. In my first year of drum corps when I was 17, I heard about 311 and Chad Sexton who is also a DCI Alum, and dreamt about this possibility. many years later, it happened. You have to be in it, to win it.

S C: Giggin’ with 311 at the MGM Grand is one heck of a notation on the ol’ resume! How about shows over the summer?

J D: On the 4th of July, I headlined our local festival in the Poconos. It’s a big deal for the local population. I brought in two DJS, Steven Hitz and Mike Marra, along with guitarist Tom Martini. Playing for an audience of just under 10,000 people in my home town was quite a rush! I think the concept really impressed the organizers and and broke down some major barriers among our local DJS and local live musicians.
Another cool event this summer was working the engagement party of Tracy Dimarco and Corey Epstein of the hit reality show Jerseylicious. A local merchant needed my help assembling entertainment A-Z and I was able to pull of quite a miracle with my local and not so local network including Andrew Bor’s team from Rock It Entertainment. I was also excited when the couple asked me to do their wedding.

S C: What lies ahead?

J D: I’d like to expand my market and work more with DJS in other parts of the country - making new connections. Peter Merry knows I exist, and that’s freakin’ awesome! I’d love to work with him one day, and DJS of his caliber and diversify into higher yielding markets. Although I’d like to be more active locally, I understand that super-commuting and air travel is where my future is. Even overseas. Having more “family events” under my belt, I see that the old mantra I was brainwashed with was wrong; to be part of someones special day is my priority.
I love over-the-top events. I’m also very open to the idea of touring with major acts. My publicist Erik Kroll of EA Kroll Productions, whom I’m very proud to be working with, is opening my eyes to all sorts of possibilities. One thing for sure; at some point, I will have to incorporate and bring in investors. The capital needed to go to the next level is staggering. Of course if Jeffery Craig from Total Entertainment offered me a lucrative exclusive deal, I’d probably sign in a heart beat. From all my research so far, Jeffery seems to be in a league of his own in this country. I’d love to be able to devote more of my time to artistic growth and less on marketing and sales. At times, I feel artistically suffocated as a freelance artist.

S C: How about the near future. Where can readers see you?

J D: Besides the Jerseylicious TV episode... I’d love to be part of Mobile beat again in Las Vegas. Also perhaps one of your readers has an over-the-top event in the future that they would like to hire me for.

DJ Times Magazine, March 2012 By Vern Delahunt, page 28

John Donovan is looking to buy a house with his wife in The Pocono Mountains for a simple reason: “I can get to New Jersey and Long Island. Going south, I can get to Philly, and locally I’ve been able to build up the concept in Lehigh Valley, which has been really nice, too.”

The “concept,” is one that has been going on for 30 years, started in 1982 by Richie Hart at Long Island’s Hart to Hart: live percussion at a DJ gig.

John Donovan is the Party Percussionist.

“It’s a term I started using loosely in the spring of 2008,” says, “and some people were making fun of me, telling me that the term was corny and people would never catch on to it. Now I’m hearing that term used everywhere.”

Indeed, Donovan, born on Long Island and raised in The Poconos, has been a drummer since he was four, and by the time he was a teenager he had joined the drum-and-bugle corps, intrigued by the physical prowess needed to accomplish that style of drumming.

After moving back to Long Island to put his wife through school, he began to see guys were successful playing with DJs as Latin-style percussionists.

“That’s when I decided to tap into my drum-corps roots,” he recalls. “I first started working with a DJ company on Long Island, and the owner told me to start soliciting myself to all the DJ companies in the area.”

So Donovan started dialing and e-mailing, built a website with some demo videos online, and started his service at $225 and, as more companies started seeking him out, the market guided him to where he needed to be, price-wise. And he hasn’t stopped.

“I have my Facebook posts with my existing audience,” he says. “I’ve been developing relationships with DJ companies, private communication with company owners to get to know them as people, and I’m able to augment that audience by attending DJ-related networking events. Funny, everyone thinks that people who work on the weekends don’t have anything to do during the week, but I’m constantly on the computer, on the phone, in order to work on the weekends, which, from March to New Years Eve I’m booked pretty regularly, although it’s slow in the winter.”

Of course, like any DJ, Donovan fields the typical questions from callers. “If someone calls me up and the first thing they ask is, ‘How much do you charge?’ that’s a turnoff,” he says. “And I’ve learned from the DJ Expo seminars that you have to have that mindset, and it’s been working. When they ask that, I ask them where they heard about me, and then I ask if they’ve seen what I do. I try to show them my videos, and try to show them what I’m doing in the DJ industry, and only then I’ll let them know what my rates are.”

A DJ might think a live percussionist is an extravagance, and it’s an obstacle that Donovan has grown accustomed to dealing with. “The benefit to the DJ owner is a live entertainment aspect with DJ entertainment, to synergize a relationship between the audience and myself,” he says. “They get four hours and I perform my act with the DJ during dance sets - it’s something that’s really unique.”

And how does he do this?

“The first thing I think about is I make sure I’m always with the DJ in the mix; in the combo; the DJ is now the drum set player, responsible for keeping the beat, making sure everything’s properly beat matched, and I have to make sure I keep my volumes below the MC; I have to make sure that I’m not becoming too flashy all the time.

“But there’s that moment when the dancefloor is cooking and I’m able to support the melody and do visual tricks that people respond to, percussive trade secrets that I learned in drum corps, that I’m able to do with my multi-tenor instrument. When I’m doing a drum fill, I’m able to do these visual Jedi tricks, something very unique, and it brings people forward. I approach things like somebody that would be composing for advanced drum ensemble for university or drum and bugle corps level.”

Donovan says he learned perfection from drum and bugle corps, and in the multi-op and single-system companies he subs out from “I’m an equal opportunity depositor,” he says - he loves working with DJS who approach it the same way.

“As time has gone on, I’m able to slowly start to really find the right connections that I need, like [New Jersey based mobile] Marcello Pedalino - he’s amazing. “I’ve never seen an individual who has that much control over everything that’s going on, and I find that level of commitment inspiring.”

Donovan is a full time party percussionist, and for that he feels blessed. “Music to me has always been full time,” he says. “Before I was doing party percussion, I did the best I could playing in bands, most of which ended up in epic failures, to be honest, but the fact that I’m able to do this full time is amazing. Between that and raising my son, there’s not much time for anything else.”

And where does he see this going?

“I keep working on my local relationships,” he says. “I have an academic skill set for composition, and who knows? Maybe I can compliment Tiesto on tour. Can you imagine what that would do for my marketing? When I was raised in the Poconos, I learned two things: DJS are the Devil and private events are hokey. But that couldn’t be further then the truth, I love this market - I really do.

John Donovan Became the Worlds First Aerial Quad Drummer on July 2nd, 2011.

On July 2nd and 3rd of 2011, John Donovan became the WORLDS FIRST AERIAL QUAD DRUMMER alongside three other AERIAL percussionists performing with THE ELECTRIC CIRQUIT. This event was in the Hamptons at the WVVH Television Station and was a production of Cirque Hamptons. The final event was LIVE on Hamptons TV Cablevision CH. 78, NYC FIOS 14 and streamed live on WVVH.TV  Enjoy the video below from this historical moment. AERIAL PERCUSSION - DON'T FEAR THE HEIGHT - FEAR THE ADDICTION.

Percussion News, November 2008, pg. 8-9 (A publication of the Percussive Arts Society)

The Drumset and Percussion camp, part of the Goucher Summer Arts Institute, was held at Goucher College in Baltimore July 6-18 for serious percussionists ages 13-18. Faculty members consisted of Wes Crawford (Camp Director, Goucher College), Laura Cerruli (disappear fear), John Donovan (DCI champion), Jerome Herskovitz (Goucher College), Jeremy Hummel (ex-Breaking Benjamin), Dr. Michelle Humphreys (MD/DE Chapter President), Keith Larsen (Maryland Drum Company), John Locke (Goucher College), Marshall Maley (VA/DC PAS Chapter President), Joe McCarthy (AfroBop Alliance), Bill Meligari (TigerBill.Com), Mike Miller (Old Mill HS Steel Band Director), John Parsons (U.S. Navy Commodores), K.S. Resmi (guest Indian vocalist), Brett Ripley (Colonial Heights H.S.), N. Scott Robinson (Goucher College) and Scott Tiemann (Avec). Offerings included jazz combos, percussion ensemble, Afro-Cuban ensemble, world percussion ensemble, drumline, steel pan ensemble, virtual pop styles band, and dance accompaniment, as well as numerous clinics, workshops and concerts. Sponsors included Acquarian, Brother Entertainment, Washington Music Center, Cooperman Drums, Dream Cymbals, Gaylord National Resort, Innovative Percussion, Larsen Sound Group, LP, Mapex, Mountain Rhythm, MusicAndGamesForU.com, MyDrumLesson.Com, Pearl, Phatfoot, ProLogix Percussion, Pro-Mark, Sabian, Trueline, Vic Firth, Wright Hand Drums and Ziljian. Visit www.DrumsetAndPercussionCamp.org for video excerpts of the final camp concert.

What Drum Corps Did For Me; Part 2 by JohnDonovan.biz

MarchingLive.com, A Publication of The Woodwind and Brasswind - July 24th, 2008

Survival is another big element that drum corps taught me. How to survive among your peers, and how to stay alive and in the game when the action gets molten hot. You have to be in it, to win it. If you don’t fight to survive, you get passed up. Before you read any further, please note I do have respect for everyone that has done drum corps, whether you are a fan, music educator, corps volunteer or professional performer, however I am looking to motivate the few performance professionals that will come from the marching field in the next few years to join to professional musician workforce. Three new lessons I have to share are: turning the other cheek to naysayers, being innovative as a professional and to never quit.

Turning the other cheek to the naysayers is an important lesson in professionalism. When you are outside of the box, trying to make a world a better place, people will talk behind your back, slander you online behind fake screen names, and try to knock you down with every step you take. I learned a big lesson almost ten years ago when I tried to import The Majestic XTD Marching drums from Holland. With no experience, I tried to move a mountain with little money, but with all the drive drum corps taught me. Long story short, anytime I was flamed online, I fought back. Wrong move. Turn the other cheek, smile, move on, and try harder next time with a better plan, and prove the naysayers wrong. Anytime a naysayer tries to knock me down, I work harder and smarter. My failure with Majestic resulted in bankruptcy, and embarrassment. However, this also inspired me to earn my undergraduate in music business. Looking in the mirror to see your deficiencies is the first step to understanding where you need to go. Every day, ask yourself: “what can I do today that would be better then yesterday?”

Being innovative as a professional. My innovation as a performer has changed my life. I now improve with DJS at really expensive parties, on a mutated marching setup. With the number of drum corps folding and merging, change is needed. This is my challenge to DCI: Hire a few people like myself who actually care about long term popular growth and not just the traditional elitist contentment which is plunging the education that changed my life into the sewers. Yes, I just said something drastic and controversial. Imaging this scenario: The year is 2020. There is an all time number of startup corps educating a greater amount of high school and college musicians entertaining a record number of ticket buyers, on both sides of the field, due to drastic changes. In 2017, a rule is passed by DCI requiring all corps to pick top 40 music from the previous year. I heard from a famous drumline arranger at PASIC last year that you can’t write great drum corps music from pop music. That’s pooh-pooh! I improvise rudimental parts all the time over top 40 music playing with some of the hottest DJS on Long Island/NYC and I know the same can be done by the few professional brass performers that also aged out of DCI. Maybe the writing jobs should go to the guys that actually still continue to eat, breath and sleep musical performance 24/7 after they age out. Let the guys who know what it takes to get people dancing design the shows. Did we forget what the jazz era taught us about entertainment? Anyhow, imagine in 2018 a rule passed by DCI that requires all corps members to hand flyers out house to house, the morning of the show. This would have to broken down by town. If you have 1,000 kids marketing for four hours in a systematic way, how many advertising impressions could you knock out? In groups of two, you could probably, over the course of five hours, hit fifty thousand houses or more. Do the math. How many kids could you flush out of their garage band practices to come see a Godsmack show, a Tool show or even a Shakira show with over a thousand live musicians performing? Plenty. The year is 2019, ticket sales are high, and large corporations are getting involved to sponsor the shows and the corps, thus increasing the amount of scholarships drastically enough to include cross country travel and to support a recruitment organization that travels around to actually scout talent and make the best placements according to all variables. The year is 2020. There is an all time number of startup corps educating a greater amount of high school and college musicians entertaining a record number of ticket buyers, on both sides of the field, due to drastic changes. I dare someone with the money and the guts to make this happen.

Never quitting. Quitting is not an option for me. People told me when I got married to my great wife Lauren, a DCI tuba vet from LVK, and had our kid Evan who will be two this week, that I would have to quit music. Remember what I said about the naysayers? I’m now doing better than ever, and not looking back with regret at all. Even on the hottest day of corps when I marched with Pioneer, I knew that quitting was not ever an option because of my goal to be a professional drummer. If I would have quit, I would have never tasted sweet victory with the Pioneer drumline in 1996. Every year I might meet one or two more full time drummers who did corps, and the respect level among all of us is great, because we all have solid work ethics as professional performers. Drums Corps is all about not quitting, regardless of how hard it gets.

What Drum Corps Did For Me; Part 1 by JohnDonovan.biz

MarchingLive.com, A Publication of The Woodwind and Brasswind - June 13th, 2008

As the 2008 season kicks off, it makes me not only think about the great memories from when I marched, but more importantly, how it changed my life. Drum Corps for me was formal percussion training. To this day, I am convinced that drum corps training for an aspiring professional drummer is extremely valuable.  I knew from the time I was playing with Transformers that I wanted to be a professional drummer.  What drum corps taught me went far beyond just the technical side. It taught me about intense work ethic  and constantly adjusting to new situations.

On the technical side, I choose a training path that is still to this day, uncommon. While most corps style drummers choose to stick with one section for the duration of their training, I knew early on that it would benefit me to become proficient on snare, tenor and bass. Not only did this benefit my drumline arranging skills by producing parts that sound well balanced, but each of the segments has it’s own unique educational advantage. I feel that snare drum training focuses on rudimental proficiency, tenor training focuses on movement mechanics and bass training focuses on fills and crazy timing. I touch on these subjects more in my Instructional/Performance DVD entitled: Drumline Vs. Drumset, which is still in post production.

Work ethic is very important in the music business. Often, as a professional musician, you have to work three times harder then someone who has a normal 9-5 day job, just to make ends meet.  If you don’t have an intense work ethic, you will be eaten alive in this business. I really credit my work ethic to drum corps training, as well as watching directors Roman Belenski and Bob Jacobs in action. To wake up everyday and love doing what you do to financially survive is rewarding,  but it sure can be stressful. My work ethic is what keeps me involved in professional music every day, and I will never quit. I might have been forced out of DCI because of age, but my heart never left. I still strive to become better every day.

Learning  to constantly adjust  to new situations as a professional drummer is an art. Every day, week, month and year is different. You never know what is going to happen. Control is an illusion. You can have a week where you have it figured out that you are making a grand and then all hell breaks loose. A musical director dissolves his band, and sells his contracts off to the highest bidder, half your private students miss for various reasons, checks from clients bounce, your truck breaks down, all on top of catching a cold from your wife and your toddler son. Then there are times that you know the week is going to be really tight, and then opportunity after opportunity pours in. No matter what type of week I am having, I can go to sleep at night knowing one thing: I am a professional drummer that did not quit after aging out of DCI. I will admit it is depressing knowing that probably more than 96 percent of all that performance talent coming off the field at finals just vanishes into thin air. The music business would be a better place if more drummers that aged out became full time professionals.

Modern Drummer Magazine – March 2008, Kit of the Month, pg 192.

Written by Rick Van Horn

The Glowing Mutated Beast

No, the name of John Donovan’s kit doesn’t  allude to a monster from some grind house flick. However, the kit was designed to be in a movie. According to John, “This drumset is the result of what happens when the worlds of drumline and drumset go to war.”

When John decided to create his self-produced movie, Drumline Vs. Drumset, he needed a kit that would reflect his regimented drumline training. The Glowing Mutated Beast includes eleven acoustic drums, twenty five cymbals, five electronic triggers and multiple percussion instruments-all strategically positioned like an ultra-massive set of tenor toms from a drum and bugle corps drumline. “The design of the kit is based on a set of marching tenors,” says John, “because the basic flow of the instrument makes so much logical sense.

“The drums were custom-built to keep costs down and quality up,” John continues. “The cymbals are top-of-the-line Paistes supplemented with Wuhan Chinese models. I also used matching marching equipment. Pearl hardware holds up this 1,700-lb. beast. The drums and the decorative mic cable sleeves are all luminescent. Two of my percussion toys and one of my two custom Manhasset music stands are phosphorescent. All of my lug casings and hoops were powder coated flourescent. To top it all off, we dumped over 1,400 watts of black light on half the film footage.”

Johns kit was created in the fall of 2005, and it remained in the same place until the end of pre-production on Drumline Vs. Drumset in the spring of 2007. In May of that year, John, his wife, and their baby son-with trailer in tow-drove 1,200 miles to Minnesota to start filming his opus. Twenty nine days later, production was over. Says John, “I hope that my performances and comments on the movie will inspire drumset players to train with a well-managed drumline program, and will inspire drumline players to explore drumset performance as a way to earn a living.”

Information about John and his movie is availible at www.johndonovan.biz.

Dakota County Tribune, 07/05/07, One Hundered Twenty-Fourth Year, Number Nineteen

Local production team to hold advance screening of their instructional drum DVD

Inside their Apple Valley production studio, 2003 McNally Smith College of Music graduates John Donovan, Greg Miske, Brian Hallermann, and Matt Tubergon are heavily involved in the production and post-production of Donovan's new performance/instructional DVD entitled "Drumline Vs. Drumset."

John, his wife Lauren, and their almost one year old son Evan, drove out to Minnesota from Pennsylvania in May to start production of this project which took John nearly two years to complete pre-production.

On Tuesday July 17th at 7:00 p.m. in the McNally Smith Auditorium in Downtown St. Paul, Labyrinth Productions will host a formal screening of this mega production. There is no admission fee for the July 17 preview. The DVD will be available for that night for $20. The final packaged product should be available in September.

After the screening, will be a question answer and answer session, followed by a networking session. McNally Smith Collegeof Music invites all Alumni, especially the class of 2003, back home for this special occasion.

Like most drummers, John began by playing rock and roll, but everything changed when at age 16 he saw his first Drum Corp International drumline.  Through intense drumline training and regimented personal practice, he mastered rudimental snare, tenor and bass  drumming.  He then aggressively incorporated those skills into his drumset techniques.

"Drumline Vs. Drumset" is a tool any drummer can use.  Drumset players will want to explore drumline playing to hone their mechanical skills and learn new academic theories and techniques.  Drumline players will want to explore drumset playing to expand their emotional range and create new career paths and opportunities.The DVD explores various musical and performance elements, everything from extreme rudimental drumming to heavy metal to classical musicianship.

Labyrinth Productions is located in Apple Valley.

This week Apple Valley 6/30/07, Volume 28, No. 18

Local production team to hold advance screening of their instructional drum DVD

Inside their Apple Valley production studio, 2003 McNally Smith College of Music graduates John Donovan, Greg Miske, Brian Hallermann, and Matt Tubergon are heavily involved in the production and post-production of Donovan's new performance/instructional DVD entitled "Drumline Vs. Drumset."

On Tuesday July 17th at 7:00 p.m. in the McNally Smith Auditorium in Downtown St. Paul, Labyrinth Productions will host a formal screening of this mega production. There is no admission fee for the July 17 preview. The DVD will be available for that night for $20. The final packaged product should be available in September.

After the screening, will be a question answer and answer session, followed by a networking session. McNally Smith Collegeof Music invites all Alumni, especially the class of 2003, back home for this special occasion.

"Drumline Vs. Drumset" is a tool any drummer can use.  Drumset players will want to explore drumline playing to hone their mechanical skills and learn new academic theories and techniques.  Drumline players will want to explore drumset playing to expand their emotional range and create new career paths and opportunities.The DVD explores various musical and performance elements, everything from extreme rudimental drumming to heavy metal to classical musicianship.

Labyrinth Productions is located in Apple Valley.

MSCM Alumni Update 06/20/07

2003 McNally Smith College of Music graduates John Donovan, Greg Miske, Brian Hallermann, and Matt Tubergen are heavily involved in the production and post-production of John Donovan’s new Performance/Instructional DVD entitled Drumline Vs. Drumset. John, his wife Lauren, and their almost one year old son Evan, drove out to Minnesota from Pennsylvania in May to start production of this project which took John nearly two years to complete pre-production. On Tuesday, July 17th at 7:00 p.m, in the McNally Smith Auditorium, Labyrinth Productions will host a formal screening of this mega production on the evening before the Donovan’s return back to the east coast. After the screening will be a question and answer session, followed by a networking session. McNally Smith College of Music invites all alumni, especially the class of 2003, back home for this special occasion.

Book John Donovan today