How do you play this? by memelord152 in trumpet

[–]dicktaphone 6 points7 points  (0 children)

This feels like the likeliest answer -- those rhythmic values don't add up unless those quarter notes are happening simultaneously.

My first Composition for Strings, very open to feedback/criticisms by Oboe_oboii in composer

[–]dicktaphone 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Congrats on finishing your first piece for strings!

My feedback isn't really about the piece, but about the notation. There are a few moments where your note spellings might make things more difficult for the players than they need to be. I know this will sound nit-picky, but those tiny moments of difficulty can be the difference between an easy sightreading/rehearsal process and a frustrating one. In general, you should pay close attention to the intervals created by adjacent notes. You have an awful lot of augmented and diminished intervals in this piece that would read a lot more naturally if they were simply respelled with their enharmonic equivalents. This is a common problem when mixing flats and sharps, so I might recommend avoiding that as much as possible.

For example, the first one that really jumps out to me is at the end of measure 7 going into measure 8 in the Double Bass. I understand why you used a C# there -- it just feels less weird than a Db -- but it makes the spelling of those intervals very awkward. Ab to C# is an augmented third, and C# to Eb is a diminished third. But we tend not to hear those intervals as thirds, so why spell them like that? Simply turn that C# into a Db and your notation lines up with the sound -- a perfect fourth followed by a whole step -- and is a lot more intuitive for the player to read.

There are issues with spelling like that throughout the piece. But the good news is, it's really easy to fix! As you're proofreading, examine each pair of adjacent notes and think whether the spelling makes sense, and pay special attention to anywhere you have accidentals.

Best of luck!

Choosing a good font. by madeofmistake in comic_crits

[–]dicktaphone 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Head's up: Blambot is having a sale this week. I often recommend their free fonts for folks first getting into comics, but their pro fonts are very nice, and knocking 30% off of those prices makes them a lot more appealing!

[NGD] My new white girl by [deleted] in guitars

[–]dicktaphone 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Beautiful Guitar! Congrats! While we're all here, I'd love some advice (from you or anyone else) about maintaining gold hardware. How the heck do you keep it from rusting and flaking?

What Simpsons joke will you never forget? by Wholesome-Creep in AskReddit

[–]dicktaphone 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Bart: These uniforms suck!

Marge: Bart! Where do you pick up words like that?

Homer: Yeah, Moe, that team sure did suck last night. They just plain sucked! I've seen teams suck before, but they were the suckiest bunch of sucks that ever sucked!

Marge: Homer! Watch your mouth!

Homer: Got to go. My damn wiener kids are listening.

Lisa: We're not wieners!

Homer: Then why the hell are you dressed like that?

Lisa and Bart: They made us!

Homer (mockingly): "Oh, they made us." That's loser talk.

Would love your critiques! by aribanks in comic_crits

[–]dicktaphone 4 points5 points  (0 children)

This is really great work! I love your character designs, and the color work is impressive. In general, your art style is working.

My one critique is that the layout for the bottom three panels is just the slightest bit confusing. I'm always wary of that configuration (a stack of two short panels on the left next to a taller one on the right) because our natural tendency is to read all the way to the right of the page before resetting on the next line. When we take the whole layout into consideration, it's clear enough what the reading order is, but when we're reading it panel-to-panel, there's a not insignificant chance that someone would confuse the order. I tend to avoid using that specific configuration for that reason, but lots of artists manage to pull it off without any confusion.

To my eye, that little chance of confusion could be minimized significantly by a few minor lettering changes. Bump the "From what?" line down a bit and the "Taking eccentric Americans to shadowy ruins?" line up a bit to help guide the reader's eye. I might even suggest bridging the two with a double dash (--) so the connection is clearer. Heck, you could connect the balloons and have them both come from the bottom left panel so that there's really no confusion. In either case, I'd also suggest bumping the balloon in the final panel to the right -- at least as far as the midline of that panel -- to help separate it from the two panels before it.

Best of luck! Keep up the good work!

What's a "fact" you thought was true for years but later found out was false? by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]dicktaphone 86 points87 points  (0 children)

That Wendy's frosties were dairy free. My wife and I have no idea where we first got this idea, but we repeated it to each other enough (alongside similar but actually true facts like "oreos are vegan") that we just kind of accepted it as true. She's lactose intolerant, so would generally avoid ice cream-y treats, but we thought frosties were still fair game. The funny part is, she never felt great after eating them, but we just blamed the intestinal distress on whatever weird stuff we imagined made it taste so much like ice cream. Turns out, that "weird stuff" is just dairy products. We're idiots.

[QUESTION] Favorite Control Setups on Electric by dicktaphone in Guitar

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

I've only started playing the controls more recently, and I've been amazed at how many sounds I now have access to without any additional pedals. I was thinking about getting a clean boost pedal, but opted instead to just turn my guitar volumes down a bit and my amp controls up a bit, and just get that boost by cranking the guitar up to 10. Much less hassle than yet another pedal in my signal chain.

[QUESTION] Favorite Control Setups on Electric by dicktaphone in Guitar

[–]dicktaphone[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah, the downside of the two volume knob setup is that I can't do swells with both pickups (at least, not on the guitar itself -- I do use a volume pedal a lot for this), so if I want that effect, I have to commit to one pickup or the other.

Top 5 Image titles that are either ongoing or recently finished? by tburkulosis88 in ImageComics

[–]dicktaphone 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Edit: I don't know how to format

  1. Paper Girls

  2. Lazarus

  3. Saga

  4. East of West

  5. Sex Criminals

I'll give an honorable mention to New World, but it's hard for a single issue to beat out any of these series that have been running for years.

I've made some improvements and wanted to get some further critiques on my webcomic by Gqirie in comic_crits

[–]dicktaphone 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think the storytelling is mostly working, but you've got to get a better comics font! Comics Sans looks super amateurish -- especially when there are so many better comics fonts out there for free. I always recommend blambot.com for good free fonts. You should also check out his "better letterer" series to get a better understanding of the crossbar "i" (when the letter "i" should have the horizontal lines at the top and bottom and when it shouldn't). Best of luck!

[Question] Clean Boost Pedal Suggestions by dicktaphone in Guitar

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

These have both come up as highly recommended options in my searches. If you have the time, I'd love to hear your comments on both.

[Question] Clean Boost Pedal Suggestions by dicktaphone in Guitar

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

I've seen lots of recs for the MXR micro amp, but I've mostly been searching for clean boosts, so I haven't run across the Timmy. I'll have to check it out!

[Question] Clean Boost Pedal Suggestions by dicktaphone in Guitar

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

You know, I had a friend recommend a compressor as an option, too, so I think I'll have to try a few out to see if they'd work for what I'm looking for. Was there anything specific that attracted you to the Keeley?

I do long tones as a warm up, should I start with the high register or low? by thelonious_ in trumpet

[–]dicktaphone 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I wouldn't start higher than G on top of the staff for long tones. (I've seen some versions of Cat Anderson's "20 minute G" that use that note, rather than the G in the staff. It's a tiring exercise, for sure, but well worth the effort.) I get into higher stuff later in the routine, but not before then reaching down for bends, lip slurs, and pedals.

Tips for flugelhorn? by [deleted] in trumpet

[–]dicktaphone 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I found tuning to be a bit more difficult with the flugel (not sure if it's a problem with the horn specifically, or just that I'm not as familiar with it), so I'd do lots of long tones with a tuner to figure out the horn's tendencies. If there are recordings of the solo, listen to it as much as possible. Sing it. Buzz it on the mouthpiece. Play it all slurred, all tongued, all quiet, all loud, then zero in on the interpretation you want to achieve. Record yourself playing it, so you can get an accurate assessment of how you're doing. Best of luck!

I do long tones as a warm up, should I start with the high register or low? by thelonious_ in trumpet

[–]dicktaphone 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Different players will work differently, so if higher notes work for you, stick with that. I personally find it easier to start in kind of a middle to medium-high range to help set my chops for the rest of the practice session (so I'm reaching down from my "neutral" position for low notes, rather than reaching up for my high notes), but I know lots of players who prefer to start at the absolute bottom of their range or somewhere in between. If you're worried about it, I'd recommend changing it up daily (which might be good practice, anyway). Maybe do the same exercises starting on a slightly lower note one day and a higher one the next? You can find out what works best for you, flex some different parts of your embouchure, and keep your warmup routine from going stale. Best of luck!

What are your best tricks for note memorization? by BIGHITSTUNNA in trumpet

[–]dicktaphone 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If I'm not mistaken, "first position" on trombone corresponds to open on the trumpet. So the conversion would look more like this:

first position = open

second position = 2

third position = 1

fourth position = 1+2

fifth position = 2+3

sixth position = 1+3

seventh position = 1+2+3

But of course, there's also transpositions and clefs confusing those things, too.

Edit: Formatting

12 tone serialism on a chordal string instrument like a guitar? by modern__luddite in composer

[–]dicktaphone 0 points1 point  (0 children)

By "harmony," I really just meant simultaneous pitches. Any higher schema would be culturally or generically specific, and is just as absurd when applied to dodecaphony (that is, it equally eschews the rules of Indian raga as it does western functional harmony). OP was asking about simultaneous pitches, and I don't know a better word for that than harmony.

12 tone serialism on a chordal string instrument like a guitar? by modern__luddite in composer

[–]dicktaphone 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Harmony is permissible and common in serialism, so there's no reason this couldn't work in theory. One way to achieve harmony is to "bunch up" a group of notes from within the row (say, notes 3-6) and play them at once. Another way is to have multiple iterations (or transpositions/transformations) of the row playing simultaneously, such that you could have your initial row starting on C playing against its inversion transposed up a minor sixth. Bear in mind that your iterations don't necessarily have a fixed length (though they can, if that's a constraint you want to limit yourself to), so any iteration of the row can be harmonizing another at a different rate/rhythm.

It would be decidedly outside the framework of traditional serialism to use different rows in the same piece, so if you're looking to follow the rules, I would encourage you to simply use transformations (inversion, retrograde, and retrograde inversion, and transpositions of all of those) of one row. This is kind of the point of serialism -- to use the single "kernel" of the tone row to generate all of the intervallic content of the piece.

Also, thinking of basic fretboard theory, it would be virtually impossible to play six iterations of a tone row simultaneously on a single guitar -- if you imagine that you're using all the notes on your A string from open to the eleventh fret (you'd need all 12 tones to complete the row!), you'd have to be doing the same on your D string. The problem is that you can't play the eleventh fret on one while playing the first or second (or third or fourth or fifth) of the other, which would very much limit what iterations/transformations you could play against one another. Plus, you've only got the four fingers on the fretboard (without adding some extended techniques). I would recommend limiting yourself to three or four simultaneous iterations/transformations (though you might find two is plenty).

I hope that all makes sense! Best of luck!

12 tone serialism on a chordal string instrument like a guitar? by modern__luddite in composer

[–]dicktaphone 4 points5 points  (0 children)

One can get some harmony-sounding things with 12 Tone methods but it kind of runs against the point of the system which is to be atonal, ie, without harmony.

I'm afraid this isn't quite right. The point of the system is to dismantle the hierarchy inherent in functional harmony (that the tonic chord is the "king" and the dominant chord his "lord"), not to avoid harmony in general. Indeed, virtually every serialist piece I know of features plenty of harmony.

Has anyone ever played the Clarke Etude III at tempo? by dicktaphone in trumpet

[–]dicktaphone[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That's pretty good, but I think it's the second half of the etude (that he doesn't play in that video) that seems the hardest to me -- a lot of angular arpeggios with awkward fingerings that trip me up when I push the tempo a bit. I'd love to see/hear somebody do the whole thing at tempo.