What do we make of Danny Sapko?

[Mrbigstuff]

On 15/12/2025 at 12:57, Linus27 said:

 

I don't understand why the other girl was so impressed with Mohini writing charts when working out a song. This is literally exactly what I do first time listening to a song. I have books and books of charts from bands I've played for, mostly original music where I've charted out the chords. I then work out the bass line based on the groove or what I'm hearing melodically. I thought this was the norm and everyone does it this way but there was nothing impressive or amazing to me what Mohini did in this video. 

SBL are very clever in recognising that their target audience aren’t overly proficient - hence need the lessons. Scott and Ian are great at expressing their wonder of each other’s skills for example.
I haven’t watched the video mentioned but doubt the shock was genuine, unless it was due to the speed rather than method. 

[ghostwheel]

13 hours ago, Musicman20 said:

Danny seems like a normal lad and a good player. He has tried for a long time to get where he has, and now it is paying off.

 

He is one of those players who can genuinely play well either plectrum or finger style. I tend to find especially with fingerstyle players, they  don't seem to nail it as much with a plectrum. 

 

Not sure his bands are that great....YET. I think he has potential though. It seems a bit 'punk by numbers'.....like my first punk band (even though his playing is WELL beyond that). 

 

Curious...is his dive into the punk scene a new thing?

 

 

FWIW Vonderplanetz - Door to Midnight

[TimR]

7 hours ago, Mrbigstuff said:

SBL are very clever in recognising that their target audience aren’t overly proficient - hence need the lessons. Scott and Ian are great at expressing their wonder of each other’s skills for example.
I haven’t watched the video mentioned but doubt the shock was genuine, unless it was due to the speed rather than method. 

 

I wouldn't have used the word shocked. I would have said surprised. 

 

A lot of the Artists they have on are not musicians. They play bass in bands.

[RichT]

Everyone else I've seen on SBL does it by ear, as would I, I never write charts. Not saying either way is better/worse just that not everyone does it the same way. Sharon's no slouch either, she's another ex-Berklee bassist. 

 

Back on to Danny though, this is a few months old but it popped up on my YouTube the other night. His comic delivery in the first half of the video is brilliant, and then properly shows off his playing chops in the second half.

 

Edited December 18, 2025 by RichT
spelling

[mep]

All this talk about Danny Sapko. Perhaps we need to rename this forum to BESHCHAT.

[Owen]

People shouting, rolling their eyes, making big eyes, fast edits, waving their arms, faux indignation etc on YT. The joy is that there is much better content on there so no one has to watch shouty people. 

[wateroftyne]

2 hours ago, RichT said:

Everyone else I've seen on SBL does it by ear, as would I, I never write charts. Not saying either way is better/worse just that not everyone does it the same way. Sharon's no slouch either, she's another ex-Berklee bassist. 

 

Back on to Danny though, this is a few months old but it popped up on my YouTube the other night. His comic delivery in the first half of the video is brilliant, and then properly shows off his playing chops in the second half.

 

He is very funny.

[SimonK]

Talk about getting everywhere - this was from BBC sports personality of the year last night!

 

[EBS_freak]

On 15/12/2025 at 10:36, TimR said:

This was the first I saw of her. She can play! 

 

 

 

Also the biggest lie that she hasn't heard that before.

[mep]

10 minutes ago, EBS_freak said:

Also the biggest lie that she hasn't heard that before.

Do you have any proof of that? Please share.

[EBS_freak]

Absolutely. I'll pull it from the same place she pulled her claim.

[TimR]

She was born the year it was released. And she is American.

 

I don't doubt she's not listened to it before. 

[SimonK]

35 minutes ago, TimR said:

She was born the year it was released. And she is American.

 

I don't doubt she's not listened to it before. 

 

She's Indian.

[lowdown]

On 15/12/2025 at 12:57, Linus27 said:

 

I don't understand why the other girl was so impressed with Mohini writing charts when working out a song. This is literally exactly what I do first time listening to a song. I have books and books of charts from bands I've played for, mostly original music where I've charted out the chords. I then work out the bass line based on the groove or what I'm hearing melodically. I thought this was the norm and everyone does it this way but there was nothing impressive or amazing to me what Mohini did in this video. 

 

I agree with all you say.

She wasn't transcribing the Bass part, she was jamming (her take) over the chord changes, which aren't difficult.

In fact, anyone with decent relevant pitch would pick up those changes quite quickly, on the fly. That's what good, experienced musicians with a strong ear do.

 

I will add, I think she is a very good musician all round.

[TimR]

 

 

[Burns-bass]

1 hour ago, TimR said:

 

 

Crikey I watched 38 seconds and that must be one of the worst things I’ve seen. 

[mep]

Ive seen the videos that call out the guitarist. Well done Danny for all the research needed and exposing him.

[TheLowDown]

I'm sure he's a lovely guy in real life, but his YouTube persona and especially his voice is very grating! 

[TimR]

2 hours ago, Burns-bass said:

Crikey I watched 38 seconds and that must be one of the worst things I’ve seen. 

 

You should have given it a full minute. It gets much better. 

[Burns-bass]

6 hours ago, TimR said:

 

You should have given it a full minute. It gets much better. 

Two guys who’ve done nothing in music not talking about much music while holding basses. And Danny Sapko has a truly terrible feel. Scott can play, obvs, but it’s typically the same show-offy modal

licks you get taught in the latter part of a jazz course. 

[SteveXFR]

I can't watch anything with Scott Devine. The jazz noodling just gets irritating after a while and when someone else is playing its like he's got jazz bass tourettes with random outbursts of "pocket", "tasty" or "ooh yeah". His American clone is much better though.

[Cato]

I've just seen a new Sapko clip about guitarist Ichika Nito who I'm only vaguely aware of because he has a very nice Ibanez sig.

 

This time the accusations are over editing his social media clips and not being able to replicate his performances live.

 

All seems a bit more tenuous than the Giacomo plagiarism stuff to me but 'calling people out' seems to be a popular genre on social media these days.

 

 

 

 

Edited 2 hours ago by Cato

[SimonK]

Just now, Cato said:

I've just seen a new Sapko clip about guitarist Ichika Nito who I'm only vaguely aware of because he has a very nice Ibanez sig.

 

This time the accusations are over editing his social media clips and nit being able to replicate his performances live.

 

All seems a bit more tenuous than the Giacomo plagiarismstuff to me but 'calling people out' seems to be a popular genre on social media tese days.

 

It's just psychology - everyone is interested in a scandal - more clicks, more likes = more money!

 

Thing is social media starts to take it too far and thus anyone making a living on it needs to play the game. Has anyone noticed that facebook is now full of posts with something that is obviously wrong - especially driving videos - simply to lure people into saying "they didn't do anything wrong" or similar? A really irritating genre.

 

Still these sorts of forums are probably one of the oldest form of online interaction (after list servers) and still seem to be maintaining their value.

[SimonK]

RE Ichika Nito, someone has tried an obsessive take down (one wonders about neurodiversity!) of him which I think Danny Sapko must have seen. I've linked the below to 34 minutes in which I think summarises what has happened in this case - Ichika has produced super virtuoso videos that are beyond his own ability to perform which I suppose is cheating, although not the "ultimate" fake guitarist. Mind you the most popular comment in the chat underneath is Jared Dines complaining no one has accused him of being a fake guitarist yet!

 

 

Edited 1 hour ago by SimonK

[Burns-bass]

This is an interesting one. I’ve worked with several producers of big bands who’ve told me stories of musicians whose tracks are all composites of takes because they literally can’t play it all the way through. In the 60s they’d smuggle studio musicians in to redo parts etc.

 

Stitching together takes isn’t the same as plagiarism.

 

Danny is making cash and we’re all contributing to it, so he’s currently winning.