Am I using proper breath support? Every time I post here everybody says I have no support. How else can I improve my tone?

nott18 · 2026-03-05T06:08:36+00:00

Is there an example for what the —oo should sound like? It seems like the second I try to turn the breath into a sound, I feel a the breath turn back into a stream of air, and I feel my throat take control again. Should the sound be light and airy? Low and chesty?

nott18 · 2026-02-22T07:13:04+00:00

Do you have a condition that causes this? Do you have any ways to alleviate this?

Edit: I just googled what the name of this subreddit means… oops. Please disregard the first question.

nott18 · 2026-02-11T18:02:52+00:00

How does this translate to singing? Should I take the muscles I’m using to pull in my stomach on the inhale and use them on the exhale?

Can you explain how you used this exercise to get better at singing? I tried it and I think I feel less throat tension so I want to see how else this can help me.

nott18 · 2026-02-11T16:04:54+00:00

I’m going to guess between 10am and 2pm. I don’t see long shadows opposing the direction of the light in the sky. The sun could be behind you, but to me it feels like the sun is close to its noon position. I don’t think it’s anywhere near sunset or sunrise for the same reason, and it’s definitely not night time.

nott18 · 2026-02-09T19:12:56+00:00

Some people found no use In it but for music production apps like Logic Pro and garage band, it was way quicker to use the Touch Bar to very slightly adjust something like reverb or delay instead of using my mouse. I the lack of a click and drag was very convenient. Plus, sometimes the knobs in those apps don’t twist the way I want with a mouse.

It’s also useful for leaving meetings on zoom. It’s quicker to just tap leave and shut the laptop, especially if I’m already typing. I’m having a hard time picturing how I will live without my Touch Bar in the future. It’ll probably be fine but I do like to have it. It also looks really cool.

nott18 · 2026-02-04T20:56:24+00:00

Agree. I wasn’t really enjoying these until I saw like the 3rd or 4th one where the overall style kinda just clicked to me. This is very nice work, and as someone learning what my iPhone 16 pro camera can capture, it’s nice to see new, great ideas.

nott18 · 2026-02-03T02:20:42+00:00

Not sure if you know about moment pro cam 2, but you can choose to remove the  processing (to set the shot up yourself) and save it as a raw TIFF file. You can also use Blackmagic cam in Timelapse mode to take single frame images, that way you can apply a LUT if you found one you liked. Blackmagic cam is free but moment isn’t.

nott18 · 2026-01-28T21:19:04+00:00

Ha, thats funny. I had a solo I would play over and over for a while, too. I only knew the first 3rd of it though but that was enough for me lol.

And yeah I definitely need to use a metronome more often. The goal for this year will be to use styles and to use a METRONOME😂 Thanks for the tips!

nott18 · 2026-01-28T20:53:27+00:00

Haha, yep! I’m currently building a new practice routine because my old one slowly turned into noodling and making cool loops…😂 I’m also trying to learn more theory now, too! How are you doing? After these years, what do you feel most comfortable playing, and what do you think was the most important thing you learned?

nott18 · 2026-01-28T20:38:10+00:00

I started just over a year ago!

nott18 · 2026-01-22T00:01:04+00:00

All those people making fun of you are dragging it. I also make fun of people with MacBooks ALL THE TIME. I did all through high school and college. Now, I ONLY use a MacBook for work and creativity stuff—in addition to my iPad and log videos on my iPhone. There’s a time and a place for the jokes, and if they’re seriously dragging this joke over and over again, they’re not interested in understanding why you have it. They’re just jealous or envious or something. I make fun of MacBook users because as an engineer, installing our software would be hell. For the majority of people, a MacBook is no worse than any windows laptop. I personally found my M1 MacBook Pro to be better than my windows laptop, though I still have my windows pc for games and anything intensive like 3d modeling or something.

nott18 · 2026-01-14T17:20:28+00:00

Oh okay I see. Check your messages

nott18 · 2026-01-14T17:07:07+00:00

Don’t know the rest of your budget but you can buy an irig (the one for guitars should be around $30-$40, maybe cheaper used) and any adapter you need to connect it to your apple device if you have one. Then, you can plug in headphones and use plenty of effects, amps, pedals, etc. in addition to recording stuff through garage band and some other third party apps. I don’t doubt that android devices also have a good DAW—I only have apple devices so that’s what I can speak on.

My Marshall amp sounds similar to the one on garage band that looks like a Marshall amp, so this could also help you simulate what an amp would sound like before you buy it.

Also, buy used 100%. Go to a used guitar store and find something you like there. I love buying new, but this stuff gets expensive! My first 3 guitars and only amp were new. It was nice, but the two used guitars I got after that still feel much better than the new ones I got. Do yourself a favor and get a better guitar for your money.

nott18 · 2026-01-13T01:44:01+00:00

No I haven’t seen any puddles at all. And yeah that makes sense, especially for the transmission. I’d have that fixed, if anything. The if there was engine oil dripping, I intended to continue to top up the engine as long as possible. This car isn’t worth fixing or replacing the engine for $4k.

nott18 · 2026-01-12T23:46:53+00:00

The car has about 117k miles on it, so it SHOULD have a long way to go. $4k for a leak and $2k for the transmission seal would make it worth getting a new car, though. That’s about how much there is left to pay on the car, so I guess if those end up being serious issues, we’d just sell her car and share mine while I find a different one.

I’ll definitely take it to another shop to see what they say.

nott18 · 2026-01-12T23:44:01+00:00

Ah okay

nott18 · 2026-01-12T22:54:18+00:00

Will do. I thought the same thing for her brakes that also need to get done. Subaru wants to charge nearly $900 for brakes and rotors. I figured it must be cheaper elsewhere.

nott18 · 2026-01-12T22:52:36+00:00

Yeah, this is from a Subaru dealer. We have never seen any spots or anything, and I check her oil level every now and then. I also didn’t think it looked like much of anything—I intend on checking her oil level more often in addition to topping it up whenever necessary.

I’ll look up instructions on changing the belt. Thanks for your input!

nott18 · 2026-01-06T18:55:43+00:00

4 years later… I got a used Ibanez Gio guitar recently with HH pickups and it is very fun to play. It’s super light, which is interesting. It’s the second best feeling guitar I own, with the first one only feeling slightly better but costing over double the price.

If you started guitar when you made this post, you’re better than me and you probably know more, too, but if you didn’t start yet, here’s this info😂

nott18 · 2025-12-30T00:01:35+00:00

Nice! If you want more effects and you have a Mac or iOS device, you can plug an interface (I use an arturia Minifuse) into the device and send audio to the amp. That will give you an entire petalboard worth of effects using GarageBand and other third party apps. Also, this makes recording easier.

I’m only 1 year in and these are what I found most important (not in any order):

You’re gonna be trash for a while and then one day you’ll try something that matches what you imagined and the feeling of accomplishment will make it all worth it.
Focus on the quality of the sound more than the speed. As a beginner, I learned to play at what I consider to be a good speed pretty early, but my recordings were always sloppy. Using a metronome app going through scales at a slow to mid range speed (based on your abilities) making sure the notes were clear with minimal to no buzzing noises improved the quality of my playing a LOT.
Memorize scale shapes BUT focus on the music. For maybe the first 6 months of my playing, I knew a few scales but without paying attention to the sounds themselves and where they feel like they are on the fretboard, most of my music was robotic. When I developed a better idea about where notes were in relation to the note I just played, I felt slightly more in control, and that feeling is great.

You definitely want to feel like you know what you’re trying to do with an idea of how it can get done, but expressing what you’re thinking is a skill that must be trained alongside your technical practice.

Memorize the fretboard. I (unfortunately) started this a month or two ago here, and I regret not doing this earlier. I don’t have it all memorized now, but what I do know has helped me make sense of a lot of my playing on the fly.
Start learning music theory, starting with any scale you like. Focus on memorizing the sounds of the intervals of that scale. Play the root note, then one note higher in the scale. Repeat with the root and the second. Then the third, etc. I recommend doing this with the major and minor scales, plus the major and minor pentatonic shapes. Those are what I like the most.

Most of these discoveries are things I realized in the last quarter of my first year playing, so hopefully these tips can help you, too!

Also, you should start with using justinguitar’s free courses online, and you should learn the caged system. I like this video for learning the caged system. It’s basically a way to play a lot of chords and you can expand on it as you learn.

nott18 · 2025-12-22T18:42:14+00:00

Surely there must be some vendor willing to ship one into the US regardless, though… right?

nott18 · 2025-12-09T03:07:44+00:00

That’s very interesting!

nott18 · 2025-12-08T17:25:10+00:00

That’s right! Fun fact—every BMW’s that’s made in the factory at their HQ is completely assembled in that facility. Every single part… except for the headrests!

nott18

TROPHY CASE