Podcast S1 E5 – Dan Weiss

This episode is available in most places that you listen to podcasts.

Season 1 Episode 5 Dan Weiss Practicing Drummer Podcast

Recorded May 2023

Podcast interview with drummer Dan Weiss.

Dan is a drummer and tabla player living in Brooklyn with a unique musical voice that draws from jazz, Indian classical, progressive rock, hip hop, metal, and more. In addition to his varied work as a sideman, he’s also a highly regarded bandleader and composer. Be sure to check out the Dan Weiss Trio and his band Starebaby.

Links:

The song featured in this episode is Halfway to Hartford by Noah Preminger.

The drum intro is from Charles Ruggiero’s Loop Loft sample pack.

Dan Weiss Instagram Transcription

I get a lot of inspiration from Instagram posts and want to start sharing some of my transcriptions. I’ll start with Dan Weiss.

I’ve been fortunate to take a couple of lessons from Dan Weiss and am a huge fan of his Patreon page. Every week I’m working on something new that’s fun and challenging because of an idea he sparked or a direct exercise he’s given.

I can’t remember how I first became aware of Dan, but this is one of the first Instagram videos I saw from him and I was obsessed with it. It took a couple of hours to wrap my head around it and transcribe. Once I had it I emailed Dan to see if I got it right.

I asked him if he thought about it as 16th notes or triplets. He said that it could go either way. As 16th notes it works out to a 3 beat pattern. As triplets it’s a full measure of 4/4 time.

It’s a great exercise to work on and it hits multiple things, which is common for his exercises. It really helped my left arm mobility, stick accuracy, concentration, and coordination.

Transcription

Work on as triplets and 16th notes separately until it’s comfortable. After that, try playing the pattern at the same rate, but change your thinking and counting to get used to feeling it both ways.

Be patient if it’s difficult. Eventually, you’ll want to add in the right hand on the rim of the floor tom or cymbal. Try reading from Syncopation or New Breed and then improvise.

Bonus

Check out this duo performance of Solar with Dan Weiss and Ben Wendel on tenor sax that was put out last week.

Starebaby Sheet Music

Starebaby sheet music and transcriptions are now available via drummer Dan Weiss’ online store. Featured scores include the Starebaby album as well as Dan’s solo albums Sixteen, Fourteen and Tintal Drumset Solos.

Get them here.

It’s really cool that these charts have been made available. The music is complex and being able to see it dissected is incredible valuable.

Dan gave me permission to post a sample from one of the scores. This is from Depredation. Notice that even the drum parts are transcribed.

Screenshot of a sheet music sample of the song Depredation by Starebaby

Read on for a little background on Starebaby.

Continue reading “Starebaby Sheet Music”