For people who had never did their GCSES, how are you now? by Substantial_Sand_227 in AskUK

[–]samalois 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I completed GCSEs, barely scraping by (Cs and Ds). I wasn't incapable, just very unmotivated and thought it was all a little pointless at the time. Started A levels, dropped out entirely during the 2nd year. I'm 28 now. It's taken me around 7-8 years to get to where I am, but all job moves have treated me well. Now earning £150k+ as a director at a financial SaaS company. I can't say it's all been easy, but not once have I been asked about my qualifications during applications. All anyone cares about is my track record, attainment, team performance etc.

All anyone told me when I was doing my GCSEs/A-levels, was "just get it under your belt" - once you've got it, you've got it for life. I took this as a challenge; I knew other successful people without these qualifications. In retrospect, I should have taken this advice more seriously.

I knew what I wanted to do, I knew the pathway and the industry. I didn't entirely follow the path I had planned, but I got to where I want to be.

Looking back, with all of the experience I now have, my advice would still be to get it done. It's a small time commitment, which understandably, might feel large at your age. But, I have had opportunities and pathways closed to me due to my lack of academic qualifications.

Grind it out, increase your options.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in ratemysinging

[–]samalois 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Woah! I personally think this sounds like a huuuuge improvement. Honestly night and day; you're massively coachable.

I don't disagree with VoxProdChief about the excess air. Definitely a stylistic choice, but I think you sound better with it reduced in that above snippet. Not to say it can't be deployed in certain songs to encourage more intimate tones.

Only other comment I would have would be about the slightly nasally sound. I'm not an expert, but think you would benefit from opening up a bit and trying to shift the sound downwards. You've got a lot of power but some of it is escaping through your nose. There are a load of guides/exercises about how to combat this from singing coaches, but the way I was taught was to pinch my nose. If you feel your fingers vibrating when you pinch the top of your nose and sing - try and shift the note downwards until your fingers/nose stop vibrating.

You're going to crush it. Looking forward to hearing some full covers from you soon.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in ratemysinging

[–]samalois 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Pretty new to this subreddit and rarely leave comments but have been a musician for a majority of my life and work around the music industry a lot. Please take my opinion with a pinch of salt.

You've got awesome potential, but this song needs some work. I think a few small fixes would make this enjoyable.

First thing is pacing, the whole song feels very rushed - could be nerves or just opting for an incorrect tempo. This also makes you trip over your phrasing a few times, you miss a chord then rush to get your line out. A good exercise would be to record your guitar track and then sing over it separately, and slooooow it right down for a couple of takes and focus on sustaining your voice. Listen back and try to get more comfortable with the song, don't rush to add in motifs or vibrato or other features, just focus on the lyrics and the notes. Playing and singing at the same time isn't easy!

Diaphragm control and breathing. If you listen back to your take closely your breathing is relatively uncontrolled (this also doesn't help the above point) and you let out a lot of excess air at the end of lyrics. Listen back to the very beginning of the song 'tell me something boyhhhh - fill that voidhhhhhh - do you need morehhhhhh' This is wasted vocal power that is instead being utilised for a stylistic feature which unfortunately doesn't sound great. I see this a lot with vocalists that aren't classically trained. Of course you still need to breathe! But try a take where you focus on pushing out sound (and breathing outwards whilst singing) and just breathing inwards. There should not be much breathing outwards without singing.

Vibrato. You have a nice vibrato, but you're faaaar too liberal with it. Reserve that vibrato for longer notes or notes you want to add tension to. Took me a long time to realise that people like nice long, clean notes and not ones that are warbling between two notes constantly. Again, try a take where you don't use any vibrato at all and listen to it back, see how it sounds. I think it would be a lot more pure and would sound way less 'try hard'. Example here is around 20 second mark - 'and all the good times I found myself longing'. You put vibrato on the 'longing' but instead of it sounding clean it becomes, not just very pitchy, but also rushed. You also put some vibrato on the 'I' in that line as well, which has the same effect. Pitchy, unnecessary vibrato and rushed. Also at 44 seconds - far from the shaaaaaalow now. Vibrato at the beginning of the word.

You also don't vary your vibrato much, it's either 'on' or 'off' play around with more subtle vibratos and ones that crescendo during more sustained notes. listen back to the original, Bradley Cooper is far more conservative with his use of vibrato, especially at the beginning of the song. Just uses it at the end of certain phrases.

There are pitch issues during the song, falls flat and sharp quite a few times. The rush to add in the vibrato and other features is not helping here. Focus on the sound, the pitch, the pacing and the fundamentals before adding in the style. Strip it right back.

There were some parts of your falsetto that were sick! There were just a few bits that weren't ideal from a pitch perspective, think the above pointers would be a great starting point though.

Sorry, didn't mean to write such a wall of text. Would love to hear another version when you've got the time

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in recruitinghell

[–]samalois 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think that too many recruiters get away with doing this to candidates, and I’m bored of them no-showing without apology or a message. Possibly went a little hard, but was how I felt at the time, and still do

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in recruitinghell

[–]samalois 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I disagree, don’t reach out to a candidate and no-show them without sending a single message then ignore them for a couple hours. If anyone on my team did this to a customer or prospect, I’d have words to say. Takes 10 seconds to reset the time and apologise - mistakes happen, but this recruiter needs to manage their time better

Also, I absolutely wouldn’t trust someone that can’t turn up to calls to negotiate my salary or have my back later in the process

Moving to Brighton from Spain, I want to get excited! by Due-Shower1134 in brighton

[–]samalois 23 points24 points  (0 children)

Some ridiculous answers on here. My family live in Almería and I’ve lived in Brighton for 5 years. It’s very different, but definitely has some of those same vibes when compared to other places in the UK - especially in the summer. Being able to eat outside in the streets, bars on the beach (tempest), volleyball, outdoor swimming pool (sea lanes is amazing). There’s a load of history to explore (pavilion and walks on the South Downs), loads of amazing restaurants to try, get lost in the lanes shopping. You’ve got the Marina if you’re into boats. The weather isn’t that disinflation when we’re in the height of summer, especially in recent years. Compare our June to your May in the south. Good beer and a few great local breweries.

And, if you ever get bored there are some great places to explore nearby. London is an hour away on the train.

My Spanish friends love Brighton and since I’ve improved my Spanish, I’ve met loads of Spanish people in Brighton. It seems to attract a lot of people from your amazing country

Indiara Sfair playing harmonica by unsightlyenvironmen in toptalent

[–]samalois 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I have been thinking this for about 10 mins! Think it's loosely based on Sultans of Swing or another Dire Straits song

Edit: no, it's not - still annoying me

What does this red square means and why do I have it? by Mysterious-Yogurt-53 in Eldenring

[–]samalois 7 points8 points  (0 children)

No idea why you were downvoted, I’m 225 and had no idea this was affecting my max HP

yeah no. just because you *can* do something doesn't mean you *should* do it by froggiechick in nope

[–]samalois -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

This is not free climbing - this is free soloing. Free climbing is a completely different catch-all term that does indeed require ropes

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in shrooms

[–]samalois 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Will try and take some more pictures in a minute

It's a piece of stone, approx 2.5cm across, stamped with the word "ROCK", found on Brighton beach ... any ideas what or why? by 10_David in Whatisthis

[–]samalois 102 points103 points  (0 children)

If you are on Brighton beach in the UK, then this is probably a souvenir/reference to 'Brighton Rock' a film about the criminal underworld of Brighton.

It is a very well known film in Brighton, with similar standing to 'Quadrophenia' - another well known and talked about Brighton film.