Drumeo, a company that offers online drum lessons, occasionally enlists famous drummers to learn parts of different songs in a recurring YouTube video series. For their most recent entry, they got Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy to attempt Danny Carey’s complicated drums on Tool’s 2019 Fear Inoculum track “Pneuma.”

The video was filmed over six hours. “This makes Dream Theater sound like fuckin’ Weezer,” he says at one point. In a YouTube comment, Portnoy elaborated on the difficulty of trying to learn this drum part: “Glad to see you all enjoying this exercise in human torture! Also, relieved to see I’m not getting bashed (at least too badly) for not ‘nailing it’…yes, this was a massive challenge!!” He continued:

As I mentioned in the video, I think watching Danny’s performance video and taking a look at the transcriptions were surely helpful…those are two additional tools I would’ve utilized at home if I were auditioning for a band or preparing to learn songs for a tour… (I also am NOT a professional transcriber nor sight reader…which would’ve surely sped up the process for a lot of drummers who are good at that)

Surely this playthrough is rough in spots, but I did the best I could with the pressure of cameras rolling and a clock ticking…what a challenge!!! Wow…

Check out the video below.

UPDATE: Portnoy shared a photo of himself in a Pinkerton shirt along with a message to Weezer fans:

…and to all the @weezer fans that were butthurt from my *JOKE* on @drumeoofficial, this shirt’s for you! Let the record show I am a HUGE fan of @rivers_cuomo & the band! The Blue Album and Pinkerton being absolute all-time favs from the 90’s! Nuthin but love and respect for them… 🙌

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