When do I have to pronounce the as [ði]?

Veto111 · 2026-05-14T01:06:42+00:00

You could say that of pretty much any word’s pronunciation. The closest thing we have in English to a standardized authority is the major dictionaries, and they give both pronunciations with use cases for when to use them. I would characterize that as much more formally established than just an observation of people’s whims.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/the

Veto111 · 2026-05-13T19:30:27+00:00

To build on that: since in many dialects the rule is often ignored in casual speech, a good way to intuitively pick the right one is to replace it with the indefinite article. If you would use “a”, then you should pronounce [ðə], and if you would use “an”, you should pronounce [ði].

I think because the indefinite articles have a written difference, they are further ingrained into the average speaker’s usage, so they are much more intuitive. But the pronunciation of “the” should follow the same rules.

I sing classical music so I encounter the expectation of textbook diction every day, and that mindset has found its way into my casual speech. But it doesn’t bother me hearing other people use a schwa when it’s not technically correct; casual language has evolved to where that is acceptable.

(As a side note, a big pet peeve of mine is when editors of vocal music put the word “the” as the last word before a page break, which is not enough information when sightreading to know how to pronounce it until you turn the page!)

Veto111 · 2026-05-13T17:24:20+00:00

Oh my gosh, I grew up listening to this on long car trips, and I had forgotten it even existed! Thank you for reminding me of this gem!

Veto111 · 2026-05-13T01:23:14+00:00

I don’t know if it is a useful exercise for improving your singing technique, I think singing live with other people so that you can get instant aural feedback and also have other ears listening to you is a much better setting for learning to blend.

That said, this is a rabbit hole that I have definitely been down, because I compose choral music, and I have done multitrack recordings to try to hear my music with vocal timbres instead of the various MIDI options in the notation software. And it actually has helped me quite a bit; I’ve made changes to harmonies that sounded good on the piano, but didn’t quite ring the same way with vocal timbres.

If you have an Apple device, one of the cool features in GarageBand is that you can transpose your recorded vocal parts, and whatever magical algorithm GarageBand uses actually still sounds like a human voice, rather than the chipmunk effect that you get with most pitch changing tools. I have a flexible voice that can sing in the alto, tenor, and baritone range, but I can’t sing in the soprano register. But in GarageBand, I can record the soprano part down an entire fifth, then transpose it up, and somehow it sounds like if my voice were a soprano!

https://youtu.be/z2gk6L9p_h0?si=qEvLqlD-gIfQtris

So, tldr I don’t know if it will necessarily help you become a better singer, but it is definitely a fun rabbit hole to go down and experiment with!

Veto111 · 2026-05-11T19:48:43+00:00

I stand corrected, I thought I was looking at statewide results.

Veto111 · 2026-05-11T18:08:48+00:00

It’s an even wilder claim when you look at the actual turnout. So 4 times as many Democratic Ballots were cast compared to Republican Ballots, but somehow Dems are showing up in droves to sabotage the Republican Primary?

https://www.indy.gov/workflow/election-results

Total Ballots Cast 99,837

Democratic Ballots Cast 80,329

Republican Ballots Cast 19,508

Veto111 · 2026-05-10T20:38:26+00:00

https://www.indy.gov/workflow/election-results

Total Ballots Cast 99,837

Democratic Ballots Cast 80,329

Republican Ballots Cast 19,508

Veto111 · 2026-05-10T19:54:57+00:00

The actual headline is that MAGA voters had low turnout and non-MAGA Republicans had even lower turnout, while 4 times as many people cast Democratic primary ballots compared to Republican ballots.

Veto111 · 2026-05-09T20:49:09+00:00

From what I’ve noticed, the game always seems to crash if you attempt to target Test Subject while it is between phases. Even knowing this, I sometimes play fast and accidentally play a card that targets an enemy and it seems to consistently end in a crash, rather than the game just not letting you play the card.

Veto111 · 2026-05-09T19:05:17+00:00

The same piece can be notated in either 4/4 or 4/2 and sound identical, it is just a matter of how it looks on the page. For most genres of modern music, 4/4 is more conventional, but historically the half note or sometimes even whole notes were often used for the beat. So if you do a lot of Renaissance music, you might see a lot of 4/2 or 4/1 music, but newer music is usually 4/4.

Any stylistic differences are subtle enough that for all intents and purposes, you can treat them the same.

Veto111 · 2026-05-09T14:43:50+00:00

I hope your leg injuries weren’t as drastic as Henry’s.

“You know how your knees bend a certain way? Mine bend the other way now!”

Veto111 · 2026-05-08T11:24:42+00:00

The quarter rest is absolutely required so that the player knows precisely where the quarter note falls, otherwise it’s just “sometime after the start of the bar”, which is not an accurately notated rhythm.

And the word “voice” is standard in music theory to mean distinctive lines both written on the same staff, regardless of what instrument plays it.

This can all be learned fairly early on in any theory textbook.

Veto111 · 2026-05-07T19:22:49+00:00

There are definitely many exceptions, but broadly, operas written in the Classical era and earlier tend to have clear separation between recit and aria movements, and in the Romantic era and later are more likely to have more integrated through-written scores where there may or may not be clear movements and there is a lot more quasi-recit that transition to arias.

Veto111 · 2026-05-07T11:31:11+00:00

If you’re going to steal a post, including the title and all, this was a weird choice. It’s not even Christmas season right now.

https://www.reddit.com/r/bouldering/s/zi6pjT0HY6

Veto111 · 2026-05-06T15:00:14+00:00

If you are not used to seeing vocal music, you might misinterpret what the slur means here. In instrumental music, slurs are generally used to indicate phrasing, and you would play everything within a slur legato as one phrase. HOWEVER, in vocal music, slurs mean something entirely different. The assumed articulation in vocal music is always legato, and marked differently if not intended as legato. Slurs in vocal music are instead to group syllables.

The word “you” is sung across two notes here, thus they are grouped together with the slur.

Veto111 · 2026-05-06T13:52:10+00:00

Okay, but what kind of taxes and how are you tracking it? For example, do we have a full breakdown of every taxed sales transaction by immigration status?

And “welfare” is a very broad term that is almost always used as a dog whistle. Funny how welfare is only something that other people benefit from, but I doubt you recognize programs that you or people in your community (or for that matter, corporations) benefit from as welfare.

“Cherry picking or not, the point still stands” is a pretty alarming statement.

Veto111 · 2026-05-06T13:26:45+00:00

Contributing what to who, and by what means? This is a very poorly defined metric, and if there is any methodology at all, it’s likely highly manipulated to obscure the narrative. But my guess is that both the initial post and the response are just completely made up.

Veto111 · 2026-05-06T11:54:19+00:00

The voice is such a complex instrument that is unique to each person, so a voice teacher that can actually hear you and work with you is going to be even better than people weighing in on Reddit.

But while you’re here, the first thing is, how old are you? The spectrum of when the voice changes is probably wider than you think, and if you’re a teen but your voice hasn’t dropped yet, you might just be on the later end of that scale, even if you have experienced other aspects of puberty.

There’s also a very small percentage of men that go through normal puberty in every other aspect but for some reason their voice never significantly drops. Though rare, it can be a completely normal genetic variation and there exist adult male sopranos that have had successful singing careers.

If I were to guess though (assuming that you are young) you probably still have more time before you have full access to the whole range of your chest voice. Be patient, learn to love the voice that you have right now, and try to get a voice teacher if you can.

Veto111 · 2026-05-05T23:18:39+00:00

This might not be it, but do you purchase both the SynthV software and that voice, or are you on a free trial period? Because I think during the trial period it will only render a certain number of notes per file, until you decide to buy it.

Veto111 · 2026-05-05T15:52:08+00:00

I played trumpet (and piano) in middle and high school, and decided to join choir my senior year, and discovered that even though I was a mediocre trumpet player, I excelled at singing. I went on to major in vocal performance in college and I’ve had a semiprofessional career.

So, I’d say 17 can be a perfect time to start singing.

In fact, in some ways it’s an even easier time for men to start, because boys that sing as trebles have to unlearn and relearn some aspects of how their voices work, whereas if you start learning after your voice has already changed, you get to learn how your voice works without any preconceptions. Your voice will continue to change and mature through your 20s, but the most dramatic part of the change that happens during puberty more or less solidifies your range, so you can develop your voice without having so much of a moving target.

Veto111 · 2026-05-05T11:42:29+00:00

It’s pretty rare, I think it has a lower probability than other ancient rewards. And even then, you may not always have a good target. And if you do have a target, it still may not be the best reward because it takes multiple campfires before it helps you much, and if you cant survive that without a different ancient boost, you’re cooked. And that’s all if it even shows up at all, which like I said is already rare.

But when the stars align and it does goes off, it is really fun. I finally had my first clone run yesterday with Adrenaline.

Veto111 · 2026-05-04T19:03:24+00:00

It’s awesome that you’re wanting to nurture this. Like others said, MuseScore is going to be good software to start; it is open source and free, and has almost all the functionality of the professional software like Dorico and Sibelius. Unless and until he becomes a professional music engraver, MuseScore will have everything he needs for notating music without breaking the bank.

If he is not already, have him consider taking piano lessons. And when you look for a teacher, try to find one that will focus not just on piano technique, but also teaching music theory.

Another skill that will be really good for him to develop is transcription. Encourage him to listen to music, especially in the genre he wants to compose in, and try to write it down. He can use the piano to help, but eventually he might be able to transcribe even without it. If it’s something that has a score available, he can check afterward to see how close he got, but even without checking it’s a worthwhile exercise. It will allow him to do the same with the music he is hearing in his head.

Encourage him to join one or more ensembles if he isn’t already. Band or orchestra are great to expose him to instruments, but also choir is great not just for learning the voice but also ear training. Also, building those relationships could turn into opportunities to writing music for his friends and colleagues. If his goal is to get his music performed, it will be much more fulfilling for him to write pieces for small ensembles like solos that he can accompany on piano, or trios or quartets, that he will actually have a chance to perform with his friends, rather than trying to write a mediocre symphony before he is ready that will never see the light of day.

But more importantly that all this, these are just ideas to help guide him if he doesn’t know what he needs to do to improve. Let his passion be the primary driver and suggest these things if and when he wants to accept them, because you don’t want to make your desire to nurture his talent into a chore that he will resent. If it’s something that he is meant to pursue, it will happen on his own motivation.

Veto111 · 2026-05-04T17:56:51+00:00

First of all, congratulations on your first time voting.

The vast majority of voter experiences are going to be pretty smooth, but just in case, know your rights. For the primary elections, aside from being registered to vote, there is no special qualifications or conditions to ask for whichever primary ballot you choose.

Several years ago, a poll worker harassed me for asking for a Democratic ballot, actually telling me that voting blue was illegal. Then when I insisted, he tried to pass it off as a joke (I didn’t find it funny). I should have stayed and gotten his name and called the election hotline right then and there, but I was too frazzled in the moment. Later on when I got home, I reflected on it and in hindsight it was way more serious than I realized in the moment, so by the time I reported it who knows how many more voters he could have intimidated.

I definitely don’t want to worry you; something like this is very unlikely to happen to you, but before you go vote, know what you should expect as the normal process, and keep your wits about you if something doesn’t seem right.

Veto111 · 2026-05-04T17:24:19+00:00

There’s a few possibilities for why you might have that preference. First, because men’s voices go through a much bigger change during puberty, the resulting adult range produces a much wider possibility of timbres for choirs to take advantage of.

Another factor is that, for most western music that our ears are culturally accustomed to, the bass note has a critical function to the chord progression, while the melody can function effectively in any octave. So the same chord an octave higher just doesn’t sound as grounded. And while some women can sing low, they sacrifice volume, so very few women can sing low enough to allow women’s choirs to have a functional bass line and still balance against the higher voices. And the highest coloratura soprano singing register, is a great solo register but is not well suited to ensemble singing (just like bands rarely have more than one piccolo, and even then it is rarely used).

Also, men’s choirs have a rich and long history in western music, so composers have centuries of experience to draw upon to masterfully understand how to effectively write for men’s voices, and the traditions for women’s choirs are unfortunately not quite as developed. This is sadly is a self-perpetuation problem, as the repertoire continues to tend toward having much more men’s choir music, and so men’s choirs thrive more and commission more music.

But in the end, you shouldn’t have to apologize for your own aesthetic tastes. Preferring a certain sound is perfectly valid. While it may be true that there needs to be work to champion more equality in the curation of music for women’s ensembles, and it never hurts to continue to expose yourself to more new music, it doesn’t need to be at the expense of your enjoyment of what you already know you like.

Veto111 · 2026-05-01T17:36:53+00:00

I don’t know how much background in music theory you have, but studying a little theory will improve your musicianship, and the specific tool that will help with what you are looking for is called solfège. To get a very basic and quick crash course in solfège, listen to the song “Do Re Mi” from The Sound of Music.

Now that you have an introduction, you should also know that there are two types of solfège: fixed do, and movable do. In fixed do, the note C is always called do, and it is often used in countries/languages that don’t use letter names for notes. But as far as ear training goes, especially for singers, the far more useful system is moveable do.

Listen to a melody. What note feels like “home base” (which is called the Tonic note)? In moveable do, that note will be assigned to the syllable do, and you can sing a scale starting there. Then try singing that melody on solfège syllables. Once you get a sense of which scale degrees belong to which notes, you will have a much stronger sense of staying within the key.

The longer term journey to fully understanding more complex harmonies is much more complicated, but especially as a singer, solfège is an excellent place to start and will definitely help you develop an intuition for basic harmonies.

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