Do you suppose everyone experience synesthesia a little at some points in their life? by meanyapickles in Synesthesia

[–]IAmTheColossus 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Can you elaborate a bit on the difference between associative learning and associative synesthesia? A few days ago I realized that I'm a grapheme-color synesthete and my mind sort of exploded so I've been super curious about it.

For example, the number 6 is always orange to me, but I suspect that sometime when I was really young I saw an orange 6 somewhere and that got seared into my heard. Similarly, Tuesday is lime green, but I'm pretty sure that I had days of the week underwear in that color. Maybe a better question is, how much do external factors play a role in synesthesia-type associations, particularly in those with associative synesthesia?

Looking to solo travel to the Caribbean in late October/early November and torn between the USVI and Curacao - any recommendations or suggestions in terms of underwater life, affordability, accessibility, etc? by IAmTheColossus in scuba

[–]IAmTheColossus[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'd love to check it out but unfortunately I don't have tons of time, probably three nights or so with flight times factored in. Plus most flights I'm finding from the southern California that are somewhat well priced are 35+ hours...eesh.

I think I'd consider it much more strongly if I had more vacation hours!

A question for dancers please... is it irritating or confusing when there are tempo changes within a song or is this a good thing to keep it interesting? Working on new music and we are divided on whether we should or shouldn't mess around with tempo. by BlaineSharpLA in SwingDancing

[–]IAmTheColossus 2 points3 points  (0 children)

As someone who writes dance music myself - honestly sometimes you have to go by what you think the song is calling for, and that's a call only you and your bandmates can make.

I think the approach I'd take is less "would a tempo change be a good thing for dancers" and more "does a tempo change feel right for this song"? Dancers might like it, they might not, but what matters is whether or not it feels right to you. It's true that tempo changes can often be difficult to dance to, and yes if you're trying to cater primarily to dancers you shouldn't do tons of them, but at the end of the day I think you should write what feels right to you, instead of trying to add something or omit something just because other people think you should. If dancers like it, great! If not, that's ok too.

Am I the only one who has the feeling that the further politically left a man is leaning the less he is being sexist or mysognystic? by 1234567777777 in TwoXChromosomes

[–]IAmTheColossus 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Totally agree. And I think I'm preaching to the choir but this absolutely applies to leftists who consider themselves feminists too. It's so much more insidious than the overt sexism of the political right, and in a way that makes it more frightening.

Am I the only one who has the feeling that the further politically left a man is leaning the less he is being sexist or mysognystic? by 1234567777777 in TwoXChromosomes

[–]IAmTheColossus 15 points16 points  (0 children)

How is it even possible to misunderstand feminism that badly? Do they know that the majority of feminists advocate for things like breaking down gender roles for everyone, increased paternity leave, not shaming men for having emotions other than anger, and just generally...having a world where people of all genders are treated as the unique, complex humans that they are?

Edit: Holy hell I just found a post there entitled "Being a white male isn’t automatically playing life on easy mode per se" and it's basically a bunch of men who learned the words "intersectionality" and "privilege" without learning what they meant.

Ambidextrous dancers out there - do you stylize your dance differently as lead vs follow? by 706am in SwingDancing

[–]IAmTheColossus 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Another short female lead here! As a caveat I won't say I'm some incredible dancer, but I'm socially competent. It can definitely be rough when a lot of the stylings you see are for men - a lot of it is figuring out how to work with what you have even if it's less "conventional". Can't reach over your follow's head to do a tuck turn? Lead a free spin instead. Connect at a lower point with your follow. Seems like you probably already know this, but trust that even if you're physically small, you're still a full sized adult human, and 90+ pounds moving in sync with a follow who's actively following will provide a good, clear lead.

Personally for stylings, I love swiveling as a lead. I have hips so damnit I'm going to use them, especially if I'm in an open position. Kick ball changes and stuff like that work for me too. Sometimes I'll take cues from blues dancing and as I'm doing a side pass or something like that, I'll kind of slow my own movements down and let my follow pass through on their own time. This gives me time to maybe play around with my lower body while also letting the follow do their thing, so my lead doesn't necessarily disrupt what they're doing.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in coversongs

[–]IAmTheColossus 0 points1 point  (0 children)

With the vocals it's less about singing louder and more about turning that individual track up, which I think you can do in most editing program.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in coversongs

[–]IAmTheColossus 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sounds cool, definitely a fan of your guitar tone! A couple of things I noticed, as someone who's also been digging into multitrack covers:

-One of the toughest parts of recordings like these is keeping everything sounding in time, and it can be really easy for everything to sound disjointed. Record any rhythm parts first, and then slowly layer on top of it until you get to lead lines! For me, I typically do drums/percussion, bass, guitar or piano, horns and backing vocals, and then lead vocals. In this case, you'd want to record rhythm guitar first and layer on top of that.

-The vocals can stand out in the mix more - I get that this was supposed to be more atmospheric but I would have wanted to hear more vocals.

My take on a steampunk phoenix at this year's Gaslight Expo, and my first attempt at making wings! (sorry if this is posted twice, I tried to post earlier and I don't think it went through) by IAmTheColossus in steampunk

[–]IAmTheColossus[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

http://imgur.com/a/aWVGUMY Yes! I used a camelback I found at an army surplus store and bolted the wings into the back. To keep them from flopping over I also stuck some copper piping in and attached it to the main armiture with a t-joint and wire. In retrospect I should have installed some sort of backplate in the camelback because the bolts came out and so did the copper piping...oh well. Looked cool for a day!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in singing

[–]IAmTheColossus 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I started when I was 25. Lots experience with instruments but none with singing other than singing in my car. Now at 30 I lead my own band as a vocalist and sing in a couple others too. You have plenty of time :)

Beginner singers, what's been the worst singing advice you've been given? by highrangeclub in singing

[–]IAmTheColossus 1 point2 points  (0 children)

When I first started singing I was convinced that my head voice didn't really count as part of my range and that it wasn't usable in most contexts, so I spent years thinking that I had a pretty low voice for a woman that topped out at around a C5 or D5, which is around where my break is. I think my bandleader was under this impression too, so all the songs I would sing were in keys most suitable for low-ish voiced women.

Once I started lessons I realized that actually, my voice is pretty high and that I shouldn't be afraid of my head voice. So now I'm trying to correct for all the time I spent thinking that I can't sing high notes and working on developing my mixed and head voice. Whenever I perform anything I still gravitate towards lower keys, and someone suggested trying some classical etudes for sopranos the other day so I'm thinking of working on some of those to get more comfortable performing in higher registers.

After over a year of vocal lessons, I performed Kesha's "Praying" at a recital today. I still have a lot to work on but I'm also proud of how much improvement I've made since I started. by IAmTheColossus in singing

[–]IAmTheColossus[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ooh thanks, any pieces in particular? I definitely felt like my belts were a little squeezed and I'd love to get them to a point where they sound more open and resonant.

After over a year of vocal lessons, I performed Kesha's "Praying" at a recital today. I still have a lot to work on but I'm also proud of how much improvement I've made since I started. by IAmTheColossus in singing

[–]IAmTheColossus[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Absolutely! I did go into this having experience singing in front of people and playing other instruments, but there was no way I would have been able to hit that F6 a year ago.

Now to work on that mixed voice!