Early Access - Dan Weiss

It’s been a few years since I’ve spoken to Dan Weiss, who I’ve known since we were both in the vicinity of our music school in the early 2000s. Dan was, on various occasions, a teacher - such as when he’d sub for John Riley, or when I sought him out for a the odd lesson later on.

But mostly Dan was the hard-to-categorize drummer who was blowing everybody’s mind. First on early gigs with people like Tigran Hamasyan, then later with Dave Binney at the 55 Bar, and throughout with people like Thomas Morgan, Miles Okazaki, and Jacob Sachs.

Since then, Dan’s gotten a lot of well-deserved recognition, and influenced a generation of drummers.

When Dan and I (digitally) sat down, I wanted to reach back to some of my first recollections of hearing him play, and also dig into how he became what he is.

Hope you enjoy this conversation - there are a lot of nuggets.

And if you haven’t caught my video on the 5 weirdest drum setup trends of 2023, that’s below.

Enjoy!

Early Access - Stanton Moore

When I got Stanton on the line, I was expecting we’d talk all about his core passion and expertise - New Orleans music. And we did get there.

But it turns out Stanton is also fascinated with the world of online drumming and content creation. I hadn’t realized this, but he’s taken the transition to the “influencer economy” very seriously, and even assembled a production team that helps him produce high quality courses and constant YouTube content.

As such we “nerded out” about content creation for a good 25 minutes. If you came to hear Stanton talk Johnny V and Tipitina’s, you can skip over the “online” stuff, but there are gems in there.

Eventually we do get to New Orleans music, and Stanton gives a masterclass in how rhythms that sound like clave ended up in a riff his organist Robert Walter played for him in 2010 - hint: because there is clave in New Orleans music.

And of course Stanton responds to my playing on his most famous tune, Pie Eyed Manc. If you’d like to see the entire video of my journey to learn that, that’s below.

Finally, if you’ve been waiting for an opportunity to study with me live, and it just-so-happens you want to work on your improvisation and making complete musical sentences on the drums without stumbling over your “words”, my live group coaching program is only open for a few more days. Way more info about that here, if you’re interested.

Bye for now!

Early Access - Dana Hawkins

Anyone who came up listening to drum youtube in the 20-teens is familiar with Dana Hawkins. His collabs with Evan Marien started appearing in 2010. Every few months, there would be a new one, and it was pure drum-fusion crack.

I actually met Dana in person before I discovered those videos, however. He was playing with two of my friends on a live gig on the Lower East Side.

In any event, I had zero idea how this conversation would go, because I’ve never before spoke to Dana at length. I’m happy to say it went to territory I never anticipated. Dana’s takes on things like the word “jazz”, the music industry, and “kids these days” are deep, surprising, funny, and at-time firey.

I’m going to have Dana’s thoughts and this conversation on the brain for some time to come, and I hope you do too.

Enjoy!

N

Free Course - How to Improvise

I love this thumbnail. “Wha?”

Anyway grab your free transcription here.

Now, let's talk about how to solo on the drums.

Little topic, right?

Should be easy to cover in...what...8 minutes, 11 seconds? (Less if you consider at least 45 seconds are probably me wasting time.)

But I wanted to make a stab at showing you part of the system I'm using with my coaching students. I've talked to enough teachers and students to know this is a thing: the "gen-1" drum instruction didn't have much to say about how to take vocabulary you'd learned dutifully from all those books or transcriptions, and actually apply it to your playing.

A growing number of teachers is now starting to close this gap, and I'd like to flatter myself and think I'm one of them.

See if you agree.

Anyway, the key distinction, in my opinion, is that between being able to memorize a lick or fill, and improvise it. In one scenario, you have a map to follow, in the other you know how to negotiate the territory without a map.

But how do you get there? Well, that's exactly what I take an 8-minute stab at.

Of course things like my group coaching program go way deeper. But I wanted to "demo" the method in a way you can see clearly, and start getting simple results right now. Oh, and it includes a transcription!

Hope you enjoy!