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.
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.
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 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.
