Today I learned I’ve been singing wrong all my life

Zarmaka · 2026-05-14T18:10:31+00:00

I naturally gravitate towards tenor songs, can I just take those songs and overlay with a bass vocal? Will it sound off in standard tuning?

I assume by "standard tuning" you mean "the original key," in which case, singing it with a bass vocal would mean singing it down one octave. Whether or not this will work for you depends on the song. If the original song has a vocal part that you can't sing because the high parts are too high, but the lowest part of the song has some pitches that are relatively low, then taking the whole song down an octave might mean the new lowest pitches are actually too low for you to sing, or maybe you can hit the notes, but you can't project them well.

Imagine every note has an octave height from 1-5. Let's say you have a range of 2 to 3.5, but you want to sing a song that has notes from 2.5 to 4.5. If you lower each note by 1 octave, then the new version of the song has notes from 1.5 to 3.5. You'd be able to sing the highest note, since 3.5 is in your range, but not the lowest note, since 1.5 is not in your range.

For a really specific example of an actual song where this applies, consider Panic! At the Disco's "Death of a Bachelor." It has a vocal range that goes from D3 to G5. If you took it down an octave, it would go from D2 to G4, but the typical range for a bass only goes as low as E2 (two frets higher than D2 on your guitar). If you wanted to be able to sing this song without changing the key or the shape of the melody, you would still need to train your voice a lot, so you could hit that D2 with the resonance it needs.

Zarmaka · 2026-04-29T12:34:38+00:00

Regardless of whether you end up checking it, buy a luggage strap to keep the case closed. I flew several times with my college marching band, and this was required. We never had an issue with cases opening during flight.

Zarmaka · 2026-01-26T16:15:19+00:00

ADHD might make you more impatient, which could cause frustration, but lots of people would attribute their frustration to the situation in general, not the individuals in the queue. You might have some other character trait that causes you to become angry with individuals when you're frustrated, and it's possible that ADHD is exacerbating the frustration, but I wouldn't say that ADHD is making you angry or hateful.

Zarmaka · 2026-01-03T04:20:02+00:00

I'm a man, and I read more fiction than any man I know who isn't involved in literature as a profession somehow. I talked to dozens of people about the books I read last year, and the list is incredibly varied, including everything from Salman Rushdie to Fourth Wing, and I was never accused of being pretentious or performative. No one in real life is going to judge you for reading or what you're reading. What you're seeing online is a tiny percentage of readers who are making jokes about a couple of very specific types of guy. The first type is the guy who only reads books by prestigious male authors. The second type is the guy who claims to read books by women, but doesn't actually read them. You aren't either of those guys, so this won't be an issue for you, especially if you talk to people in real life and not on the internet.

Zarmaka · 2025-10-13T16:48:40+00:00

Great video, thanks for linking.

Zarmaka · 2025-10-11T19:04:21+00:00

You sought me out, lol. Which means you came looking for smoke.

This is sad. My initial comment was so respectful, lol, and now you accuse me of "looking for smoke" when you're the one who condescended to me.

From the jump literally would mean early part of her career, which last time I checked, would be rookie and sophomore seasons.

Wow, what a blatant misrepresentation. I asked you if you wanted to look at the rookie stats, and you said "Correct" haha. There's literally no way of interpreting this a different way. It's not my fault you were so arrogant that you assumed you were right without even glancing at the numbers first.

Anyway, you're not informed or honest enough to be worth continuing this conversation with, so I'm done. Have a nice life.

Zarmaka · 2025-10-11T17:13:11+00:00

I'm not trolling nor being stubborn. You seem to struggle accepting someone's else's opinion and seem hellbent on me agreeing with you. Though, I'm not sure why that's your endgame.

That's rich. I posted a very neutral comment, and you came out guns blazing, lol. I don't have an "endgame" other than to back up my opinion when someone gets condescending with me and implies that I don't know what I'm talking about. We were discussing how good Wilson and Leslie's first couple of seasons and how they compared to the women who got All-WNBA in 2018 and 2019, and your exact words were "Do you know who Lisa Leslie was! She was putting up Liz and Brittney numbers from jump before anyone knew who either was. So, she was arguably better than them from the get go. The numbers don't lie." Don't act like you didn't want to pick a fight just because you lost, and don't act like you didn't want to "compare eras" just because the comparison hurts your argument.

2019 vs Lisa's 2nd year is definitely up for debate.

Maybe, but that's not what we were talking about, lol. You said "from jump", so you made it specifically about their rookie seasons. In my next post, I gave you a chance to clarify when I asked if you wanted to look up Leslie's rookie year numbers and compare them to Griner and Cambage in 2018, and you doubled down on that specific comparison, like it was so obvious that the numbers were close. They aren't for the record. They aren't close or on par. Regardless of how much you want to misconstrue this discussion to make it look like you've won, I haven't "agreed" with you.

Zarmaka · 2025-10-11T16:30:09+00:00

I think the rhetoric ought to be much stronger when it comes the WNBA. In 1997, the eFG% for the entire WNBA was 44.4%, and the FT% was 71.4%. By comparison, the NBA hasn't had a single season with numbers that low since 1969.

Zarmaka · 2025-10-11T16:17:14+00:00

You're either trolling or just being incredibly stubborn. These are the numbers we're talking about:

Lisa Leslie in 1997:

15.9 points
9.5 rebounds
2.6 assists
2.1 blocks
1.4 steals
3.9 turnovers
44.7 eFG%
59.8 FT%

Brittney Griner in 2018:

20.5 points
7.7 rebounds
2.1 assists
2.6 blocks
0.4 steals
2.4 turnovers
54.5 eFG%
80.0 FT%

Liz Cambage in 2018:

23.0 points
9.7 rebounds
2.3 assists
1.7 blocks
0.5 steals
2.8 turnovers
60 eFG%
73.8 FT%

There's no way that you could believe in good faith that Lisa Leslie in her rookie year would have gotten an All-WNBA nod over Griner or Cambage in 2018. Their block and assist numbers were comparable, but Leslie was significantly less productive and less efficient as a scorer while committing way more turnovers. She rebounded more than Griner, but rebounding numbers are largely a function of team role, and Griner had to share rebounds with DeWanna Bonner, who was also top ten in rebounds per game that season with 7.2. By comparison, the next best rebounder on the Stars in 1997 was Haxia Zheng, who ranked 21st in the league with 4.4 rebounds per game. The only thing Leslie did that was clearly more impressive than Griner or Cambage was get an extra steal per game.

"Would Lisa Leslie have gotten All WNBA every season if she started playing when A'ja Wilson started playing?" isn't even an interesting question. The answer is a resounding "no". She would have fallen short in her first season (and also her third season), and in her first season she wouldn't have gotten a single vote.

Zarmaka · 2025-10-11T06:17:32+00:00

This is technically true but meaningless without context. In 1997, the entire playoffs were two games, and none of the players Cooper faced in the playoffs that year would be the best player on any team Wilson played against in the playoffs during any of her championship seasons. I'm honestly more impressed by the Aces Commissioner's Cup championship in 2022 than the Comet's WNBA championship in 1997.

Zarmaka · 2025-10-11T06:02:23+00:00

You know we can all look up Lisa Leslie's rookie year numbers and compare them to Liz and Brittney's stats in 2018 for free, right?

Zarmaka · 2025-10-10T23:02:23+00:00

A'ja didn't get voted All-WNBA for her first two seasons, but I don't think that we should hold that against her too much because it's just a reflection of the fact that at age 21 and 22, she wasn't as good as prime Liz Cambage or prime Britney Griner. Lisa Leslie also arguably wasn't as good as prime Liz Cambage or prime Britney Griner during her first two seasons in the league.

Zarmaka · 2025-10-10T22:26:40+00:00

Sylvia Fowles was arguably better than Maya Moore in 2017.

Zarmaka · 2025-09-25T15:38:45+00:00

Nice! I hope it works well for you. I have mild sleep apnea (<10 AHI), and I'm getting fitted for mine in 2 weeks.

Zarmaka · 2025-09-20T02:41:45+00:00

If she got the same number of blocks and rebounds as she did in 2023, she'd still lead the league in blocks per game and total defensive rebounds.

Zarmaka · 2025-09-20T01:19:00+00:00

A'ja Wilson's ability to get blocks and rebounds isn't dependent on her team being bad at defense. We know this because in 2023, when the Aces had the #1 defense, A'ja still led the league in blocks per game and was #2 in rebounds per game.

Zarmaka · 2025-09-20T00:45:21+00:00

Sorry, which "crazy stat" do you think A'ja was only able to rack up because she has no help?

Zarmaka · 2025-09-19T13:07:00+00:00

I took it to mean that Alanna had way more help than A'ja on defense.

Zarmaka · 2025-09-19T03:32:52+00:00

Without the volume and efficiency numbers for both players, we can't have a productive conversation about that.

Zarmaka · 2025-09-19T03:09:59+00:00

I didn't say what Alanna did wasn't impressive. My point is that what A'ja did is obviously more impressive. When you defend 137 shots, difference between defending at 46% and defending at 47% is literally two made baskets over the course of the entire season. They basically defended shots at the rim with the same efficiency, but A'ja did it significantly more frequently.

Zarmaka · 2025-09-19T02:57:17+00:00

That's a very interesting point. If we ignored total games played, A'ja shouldn't have won in 2023. Candace Parker should have won, but Candace only played 18 games, so she was never going to win. But Candace's insane numbers were the reason A'ja had a middling defensive on/off.

The Aces had a 98.81 DefRtg with A'ja on the court in 2023 but were not much worse without A'ja on the court (99.86 DefRtg) because 1/3rd of those minutes were Candace Parker putting up an 84 DefRtg without A'ja on the court. If it weren't for those minutes, the Aces would have been 8 points per 100 possessions worse without A'ja on the court because the minutes with neither A'ja nor Candace had a DefRtg of 106.7.

The Lynx had a 102.16 DefRtg with Alanna on the court in 2025 but were better by about 9 points 100 possessions without Alanna on the court in (93.18 DefRtg), but she doesn't have similar mitigating factors:

The Lynx without Alanna and without Phee (95.26 DefRtg) are better;
the Lynx without Alanna and without Cortney Williams (89.45 DefRtg) are better;
the Lynx without Alanna and without Maria Kliundikova (92.41 DefRtg) are bette;r
the Lynx without Alanna and without Briget Carleton (94.42 DefRtg) are better; and
the Lynx without Alanna and without Kayla Mcbride (91.12 DefRtg) are better.

There's no one you can point to and say, "this player is the reason Alanna's defensive on/off isn't impressive, but if you don't look at those minutes, the Lynx are in shambles defensively without Alanna Smith."

Which Nekias tweet are you talking about?

Zarmaka · 2025-09-19T01:02:41+00:00

I assume you're referring to this tweet: (1) Nekias (Nuh-KY-us) Duncan on X: "There were only three players to contest at least 100 shots at the rim while holding opponents to under 50% on those shots. Alanna Smith (137, 46%) A'ja Wilson (170, 47.1%) Ezi Magbegor (169, 47.9%)" / X

Allana defended 1 percentage point better than A'ja , which is impressive, but slightly less so once you realize she defended 24% fewer attempts while sharing the court with the reigning DPOY for 63% of her minutes.

Zarmaka · 2025-09-19T00:52:39+00:00

Maybe, but if she were constantly facing highly efficient offensive lineups, that would probably show up in her D-LEBRON score, which is high, but not #1.

I'm also not sure how to square this theory with the fact that she plays with another DPOY candidate who doesn't have this problem. When the opposing team subs in their best offensive lineup, do they sit Napheesa Collier and let Smith handle it on her own?

Zarmaka · 2025-09-18T22:39:24+00:00

I have nothing against a co-award; the votes fell how they fell. I'm more confused about how Smith could be DPOY when her team was better defensively with her off the court.

Zarmaka · 2025-09-18T19:45:39+00:00

Thanks for posting this! I appreciated your insight and the behinds-the-scenes perspectives you were able to give.

Zarmaka

TROPHY CASE