Dannyjoe Carter and finger mechanics

Playing Technique
#23

On a video the sound obviously isn’t perfect and depending on the technology used to record the video, the sound may be far less than perfect. I saw him play one foot in front of me. That’s the best visual and sound quality you’r ever going to get and I can assure you, Dannyjoe Carter doesn’t miss notes in the way that was described. Does he ever miss note? He’s human; I’m sure he occasionally does. But to go as far as to say “…It’s not even clear that such a small movement is large enough to get from one string to another and back again…” is just incredibly disrespectful to the player just as saying “…very little of the slow phrase is actually being played” as it were an indisputable fact that the musician and his video is some sort of a fraud is just so low…I could go further but to make these statements erroneously and irresponsibly because either it’s too fast for him to properly hear all the notes or for some other possible reason (just too much work to figure out what Dannyjoe is doing and then explain it to the Masters Of Mechanics subscribers) as if Troy is infallible is not only beyond arrogant, but it’s just unconscionably insulting to the musician.

You can’t tell me that looking at this relatively short video gives Troy a better assessment of his accuracy and veracity than if he were standing one foot away from him just as I was when I saw him play. Troy even questioned if Dannyjoe’s technique would allow him to move from one string to the adjacent string and back again! Troy isn’t stupid and neither is Dannyjoe. Considering Dannyjoe has been playing guitar for roughly 40 years, if his technique didn’t allow him to move from one string to the next string and back again, he wouldn’t use the technique! That’s obvious. With that in mind, it would have been far more honest to simply say “I don’t know how he does it. Let’s have him in our studio and figure this out”! We don’t pay $20 a month for Masters Of Mechanics to ignore the man Guitar World magazine ranked as the fastest clean alternate picker in the world.

Troy, how interested are you in finding out how Dannyjoe Carter accomplishes his incredible alternate picking using his thumb and index finger technique? Have you even tried to contact him for an interview? Let’s see exactly what’s doing using your camera that fits right on the guitar. This is a picking technique that doesn’t deserve to go unresearched and not anylyzed in person. This is the only type of flatpick alternate picking mechanic (thumb and index finger) that you haven’t analyzed in depth. Masters Of Mechanics won’t be complete without it.I’ve been playing for 33 years and I honestly believe Dannyjoe has discovered what is the fastest, most accurate picking technique known to man with the greatest amount of economy of motion possible.

#24

I hear ya Acecrusher. Danny Joe is the fastest finger mechanic player I’ve seen. He’s pretty damn fast.

:bear:

1 Like
#25

I just checked out Dannyjoe’s Youtube channel. Can somebody explain to me why his spectacular picking videos have so few views? The guy’s is amazing! Maybe it’s a fake channel ?

It’s the channel that other members shared videos from:

#26

Man, I’m always interested! I want to know everything. Here’s the challenge, and I’m being honest here. One of the hardest things about this job is separating fact from fiction in guitar technique, while also being careful to not offend anyone, and to not inject ego into the equation. I’m constantly reminding myself to state things observationally, as in “I’m seeing this” or “I’m hearing this”, rather than making a value judgement about someone’s playing being good or bad. Nobody cares what I like or don’t like. They just want to learn and get better. I apologize if I’ve failed being objective in commenting on the clips in this thread.

The truth is there are a lot of players where I might be curious about what’s going on, but my best guess tells me I’m going to see something the player is not aware of and that has the potential to be something that is awkward for both of us. Of course I would still like to know, but now we have the practical issue of how do you set up such a meeting?

Let’s say we reach out to player XYZ. Then I get on a plane, cart all my gear out to wherever, set it all up, film a bunch of things. Some are totally not what the player thinks is happening. Maybe a lot of them. I might even be able to hear it as soon as I walk in the room, but for whatever reason the player cannot.

How could this happen? It is very, very easy to “not hear” things. It happens to me and happens to everyone, even in our own playing. An entire generation didn’t hear the swiping on “Intense Rock”. When you point it out it’s as clear as day. Someone on the forum said something about wanting to throw their guitar out when they heard it. Whether or not you find swiping acceptable creatively is a whole can of worms, and it applies to any aspect of your technique, not just swiping. We talked about this in your swiping thread. The judgement call is different for everyone. But the bottom line is, how can someone play a particular way for years and years, and not know? The answer is: very easily.

Anyway, let’s say the player is a super nice person and I like them. Just given the invasive nature of what we do, you have to be pretty chill to agree to meet with us. So I’m definitely not there to try and take them down a peg. On top of that, the technique the player has might be really perfect for a certain kind of line. But the player doesn’t know it, and doesn’t play that kind of line, because they’re not a mechanics nerd. Here comes random guy from the internet telling them that their technique works better for one type of line, and it’s not the one they’ve been playing.

Who is this jerk?

Not the jerk I want to be. It’s an awkward scenario for everyone. We think about these sorts of issues every time we get requests to film players.

13 Likes
#27

I’d also like to add the Dannyjoe has seen this thread and certainly didn’t take offence to any of it. In fact he told me he appreciated Troy’s comments and asked me to pass on his thanks for the work he does in the guitar community (I apologise that I forgot to say this before!) so no offence has been taken on his part.

5 Likes
#28

Hey Troy, Thank you! I really appreciate this insight into the difficulties of your business and your honesty! Now I’m better informed as to the myriad of potential difficulties you consider before setting up an interview with a guitarist. I didn’t know that in addition to the technical difficulties of your job that you also have to deal with, or at least consider the likelihood that you may have to deal with some rather touchy subjects with the players you consider interviewing!

3 Likes
#29

Thanks @TheCount for sharing this. I’d not seen it. Interesting player!

I’m kind of in agreement with this, but I also know that in my own playing, while finger motions blend into other grosser motions, they also comprise a significant chunk of what’s going on. Would like to see it explored, re-examined.

(apologies for re-opening the older thread, but wanted to register my vote for the deeper analysis. thanks all and peace out.)

1 Like
#30

Have you ever seen Dallas Perkins play? I took lessons from him for several months back in 1989 and he gets all or at least the vast majority of his pick motion from his fingers. He’s an excellent guitarist and just so happened to be Paul Gilbert’s roommate when they were both at G.I.T. (Guitar Institute of Technology). Besides being an excellent alternate picker, Dallas is a master at sweep picking and doing 6 or even 8 fingered tapping!

1 Like
#31

…have now and looks like he’s got a channel. Thanks.

1 Like