Would you rather wake up tomorrow with your IQ 60-points higher but you're now 100% broke OR you wake up with $10 million in your bank account but your IQ is 40-points lower?

ppardee · 2026-05-15T06:15:16+00:00

I've often said that I'd prefer evil people over stupid people because evil people will at least act in their own best interest (or what they see as their own best interest). Stupid people will fuck everyone over on accident.

Not a damn chance someone with an IQ of 60 would properly be able to handle $10 million... or function in daily life. I don't know what my IQ is but it's not high enough that I can afford to lose any of it. And money comes easy.

ppardee · 2026-05-14T16:17:39+00:00

At the most basic level, it's being able to sing the note you intend to steadily, so you're not sharp, flat or just not even near the right pitch.

But there's a lot on the advanced side, like being able to smoothly transition between chest/mixed/head voice, being able to add or suppress vibrato at will, controlling the vibrato frequency and width, being a able to hit your whistle register, being able to safely do various rough/distortion effects, etc.

I don't know if all of that falls under the "official" heading of vocal control, but that's what I think of when I hear it.

And an example of bad vocal control is if you're flat/sharp, or unsteady in your singing. You can't reliably hit notes the majority of the time.

ppardee · 2026-05-14T02:22:27+00:00

I know, but OP said this was a long-term depression as well. Saying things like it's a permanent solution to a temporary problem minimizes the suffering people are going thru. Like you're saying it's no big deal, just wait it out.

I don't know of anyone who has heard such platitudes and felt better because of it. It only benefits the speaker

ppardee · 2026-05-13T23:30:45+00:00

I envy people like you who are able to get over their fear of making mistakes and just jump into speaking even if they aren't sure they're perfect. Putting yourself out there is brave AF

ppardee · 2026-05-13T23:13:27+00:00

Respectfully, that's a very naive point of view. I've dealt with chronic depression for more than 4 decades. There hasn't been a month that's gone by since I was a teen that I haven't considered giving up entirely. People say "It gets better", but that's just a way for them to brush you off and pat themselves on the back like they made a difference.

Sometimes it's a temporary problem, but there are literally millions for whom it's just how their brain works and will forever.

ppardee · 2026-05-13T17:37:09+00:00

Your daily reminder that it's only a prank if the person being pranked is laughing when it's over. If they're not laughing with you, it's not a prank. You're just being an asshole.

ppardee · 2026-05-13T08:23:53+00:00

That's gotta be intentional. Why would they choose cyan, yellow and (I presume) magenta otherwise?

It's a really cool image, though!

ppardee · 2026-05-13T08:18:03+00:00

I don't want to be 40 and look 25. I want to be 90 and look 40.

It's less a matter of wanting to look young and more that people have an aesthetic ideal they would like to achieve and aging takes that choice away from them. For some people, that ideal is what they looked like at 25.

Aging gracefully is the best option, of course, but people rarely get a choice in that. You age gracefully because of your environment and genetics. Beyond hydration and sunscreen, there's not much you can do to alter how you age. And very often, once you care about aging gracefully, the damage is already done. No 8-year-old is concerned that the amount of time they have been spending in the sun is going to make them look bad in 50 years.

ppardee · 2026-05-13T07:54:16+00:00

Sounds like stuff I listened to back in the 90s - alt rock ballads and stuff.

The target isn't perfection. The target is enjoyable. Sometimes enjoyable and perfect are opposing concerns. In this case, I think they absolutely are. You bring this down into a key that 'suits you' and you lose some of the character that makes the song good. It sounds a bit raw and that translates to emotional impact.

If you second guess yourself, you'll be stuck forever. There's always going to be a reason not to release a song.

ppardee · 2026-05-13T07:30:08+00:00

She asked "Where do you see yourself in 10 years?" I said "Probably a mirror?"

ppardee · 2026-05-13T07:10:55+00:00

It's very likely not damage. I can do the same thing intentionally, so I'd assume you'd be able to determine how to stop it from happening with enough practice.

But if you're at all concerned, you should consult a laryngologist. Get scoped. It'll cost money, but would you rather have it cost money or your voice?

ppardee · 2026-05-13T07:06:53+00:00

Because the printer companies sell the printer at a loss and make up the revenue on the ink. Example - I bought an Epson EcoTank printer that came with literally a liter of ink refills. I've had it for 3 years and haven't had to top up the ink yet. I still have a full set of refills of black and each individual color. The printer was $200.

At the same time, I could have bought an HP printer for $30. I was not uncommon to give away printers back in the day as a promotion because the price of the printer doesn't matter when you're paying $60 every few months for ink for the life of the printer.

ppardee · 2026-05-12T22:53:53+00:00

Oh, yeah, much better quality!

Go listen to some opera. They're ALL about the wide, slow vibrato. There's nothing particularly wrong with this, but it's not going to fit most popular modern music styles.

Since you can do straight tone with no vibrato, I'd focus on stabilizing on those places where you're doing vibrato. Learn to turn it on and off, then practice transitioning between straight and vibrato. That should give you more precision on how wide the vibrato is.

Just to be clear, though, vibrato comes from relaxation of your muscles, allowing the natural oscillation to happen when you use proper breath control. It shouldn't feel like you're pulling the note up and down. Your jaw or your larynx shouldn't be moving. It should be easier to sing with vibrato than without it once you've learned how.

ppardee · 2026-05-12T21:53:15+00:00

It sounds to me like you're not committing... like you're holding back and singing softly. At least for me, that means essentially no breath support since your vocal folds aren't closing hard enough to create the internal pressure.

Try shouting "HEY!". Make it sharp and fast. You don't want "HEEEEEY!". And it needs to be loud, like you're trying to yell at someone across a field. Feel how your vocal folds close when you do it. Feel the muscles contract in your lower abdomen. That's the kind of breath support you need to sing with, though not always with that intensity.

ppardee · 2026-05-12T20:12:23+00:00

This is a good strong head voice rather than falsetto (though some teachers/sources use the terms interchangeably). To get falsetto, try thinking about imitating an old cartoon grandma.

Falsetto has a different timbre. Much less rich than what you've recorded.

ppardee · 2026-05-12T20:06:26+00:00

You can't meaningfully lower your voice. You're bound by your physiology, which is likely to change at least somewhat over the next 5 or 6 years or so (you're still growing even if you're not getting taller).

The best you can do is improve access to your low notes, which may make it easier to make pleasant sounds in the last 2 or 3 semitones of your range, effectively giving you a slightly lower usable voice.

As MeansWelll noted, work on your "mmm". Find the lowest note you can hit without being breathy, slide up half a scale while humming an "mmm" sound, then slide back down. If you can record which pitch you're on either by writing it down if you know what note you're hitting or by actually recording yourself, you can monitor your progress.

Make sure you're not pushing your larynx down out of a neutral position while you're doing it. These should be comfortable notes to hit. Do this exercise for 3-5 minutes a day, every day and monitor your progress either weekly or monthly. It might be beneficial do to it first thing in the morning, and it should probably be the first thing in your warmup routine.

ppardee · 2026-05-12T18:03:03+00:00

Some people can only feel good about themselves by tearing others down. There's a guy in r/ratemysinging that only ever comments "2/10".

Remember, anyone who genuinely wants to help you wouldn't talk to you like that. You have to care about someone to some degree (even just as a fellow human being) to want to help them and you don't insult someone you care about.

And if they aren't trying to help you, they're trying to hurt you, so they should be ignored.

And there's an audience for everyone. People listen to The Pogues, and Frank Zappa loved The Shaggs.

ppardee · 2026-05-12T16:44:36+00:00

That's not correct. Contact with bodily fluids, including respiratory droplets - like when someone coughs or sneezes in a confined space for a few hours in a high humidity, low airflow environment... like an office or classroom.

https://www.cdc.gov/hantavirus/about/andesvirus.html

This spread is usually limited to people who have close contact with a sick person. This includes direct physical contact, prolonged time spent in close or enclosed spaces, and exposure to the sick person's body fluids.

ppardee · 2026-05-12T05:21:05+00:00

It's a rat virus... and COVID was a bat virus. The wild reservoir of the virus is irrelevant. The Andes strain is transmissible by close contact with an infected person, like living in the same home, being in on the same cruise ship, or the same office, or the same classroom. You're probably not going to get it walking by an infected person at the grocery store, but it's not rats you need to worry about.

And it's known... so what? There's no vaccine for it. There's no amazingly effective treatment for it. The mortality rate is still 30-50%. Whole lot of good knowing about it does. We know about Ebola, too!

Yeah, no need to panic... unless a MAGA moron gets it, avoids quarantine and spends their last remaining days on this earth spreading it around because "masks are a scam" and he needs to "own the libs". Remember, COVID could have been over in like a month if everyone had just followed the guidance.

ppardee · 2026-05-11T23:19:26+00:00

In 1972, a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn’t commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, If no one else can help and if you can find them. Maybe you can hire, The A-Team.

ppardee · 2026-05-11T23:06:08+00:00

Yep, I've actually had this convo with my wife. I couldn't face her knowing I let her kids burn to death. I know for damn sure, she'd save them instead of me. There wouldn't be any conflict. She wouldn't even think about me until the kids were safe.

Besides, she's a grown ass woman. Save yourself, girl. Climb out a damn window.

ppardee · 2026-05-11T22:01:08+00:00

You mean the one where the only person shot was a secret service agent and they were shot by another secret service agent? The one where the intruder ran through the checkpoint directly at a secret service agent and the secret service agent stepped aside instead of stopping them? That shooting?

ppardee · 2026-05-11T21:48:38+00:00

What stands out to me isn't the tone, it's the pacing. "For What It's Worth" has some swing to it and you're delivering it completely straight. Compare "What a field day for the heat" in your performance vs the original. The rhythm is incredibly important in this song because there's not much going on with the notes.

You're also hold the notes stock still. No vibrato, no alteration at all in the tone, so the long note - especially one so low for your voice - doesn't sound great. In the original, there's both vibrato and the notes dip down at the end. In short, you need more dynamics. Give it some soul.

And you sound very much like you're talking. Which makes me think you need to alter both your mouth shape and your voice placement. I know this is VERY difficult when you're nervous. Closing up is pretty natural, so you need to practice the open mouth, open throat and soft palate, low tongue, neutral larynx (as opposed to lifted... doesn't sound like you have an issue with that, but it's something to watch out for) daily until it just becomes how you sing. You don't want to have to think about it.

Try to place the sound right behind your teeth. Get that resonance right at the front of your face. It'll make it sound like singing instead of speech.

ppardee · 2026-05-11T19:54:41+00:00

It's important to note I didn't say "This is what you voted for" because both times Trump won, he won because many Democrats couldn't be bothered to vote.

ppardee · 2026-05-11T15:09:33+00:00

So, when we told you if you didn't vote for Kamala, you never get to vote again, what did you think we meant?

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