Did Billie Joe ever LEARN to sing?

[Guest Hayley]

he was born with a talent to sing

but im sure he did some extra practicing or lessons to further his talent or broaden it

This.

[Nova-Caine]

I don't think his vocal range has expanded THAT much in the last few years

His vocal range is apparent on the Foxboro Hot Tubs album. It's vastly different to anything he's done before, well anything he's allowed us to hear anyway.

(not aimed at you Isabel)

I don't see why people think its a bad thing that he may have got some kind of vocal coaching. I don't know many professional singers that haven't had some form of breathing coaching or scale coaching. It's normal really.

[Greenday_Aussie]

^ Exactly, its not a bad thing at all.

[Jacinta]

I'd say perhaps he could of had some vocal coaching just because of the progression of his voice over time, but I don't know about actual lesson in singing.

[iHasan]

I think most of the songs or maybe all songs on AI and 21st CB has Bill's voice in computerized form.

[cNjTheNewAuthority]

I don't see why people think its a bad thing that he may have got some kind of vocal coaching. I don't know many professional singers that haven't had some form of breathing coaching or scale coaching. It's normal really.

Hmmm,when I started this thread,all I asked about was whether Billie receieved any sort of vocal training/lessons.I didn't say anything about whether if he had that it was bad or good,kind of funny how people like to sidetrack.All I said was that as in the case of The Ramones,early punk vocals back then in the 20th Century mostly weren't produced through formal training.(eg.Joey Ramone http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Ramone#Vocal_style)

(not talking about you Nova-Caine©,but those who steered off this topic's discussion.)

[Isabel]

seriously? his voice is in a whole new range now, it's completely expanded in both lower and higher directions, not to mention it's grown even more powerful.

Well I'd agree that there's definitely a difference between 1,039 Smoothed Out Slappy Hours and now, but like, since Warning I can't really see a huge difference, because he doesn't actually use a wide vocal range in the songs, really. He sings at a similar register throughout, most of the time. The only sign of variety I can hear distinctly is in 21 Guns and Before The Lobotomy. Every other vocal range he uses, I have heard a good few times before.

That's just what I think anyway.

[Nova-Caine]

Hmmm,when I started this thread,all I asked about was whether Billie receieved any sort of vocal training/lessons.I didn't say anything about whether if he had that it was bad or good,kind of funny how people like to sidetrack.All I said was that as in the case of The Ramones,early punk vocals back then in the 20th Century mostly weren't produced through formal training.(eg.Joey Ramone http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Ramone#Vocal_style)

(not talking about you Nova-Caine©,but those who steered off this topic's discussion.)

No I know, but some go no no no he hasn't like its wrong or a bad thing. His voice is a musical instrument and he needs to look after it properly and do whatever it takes for him to get through gruelling tour schedule, to record albums to the standard that he thinks is fit for GD. To basically give the best he can for himself, his band and the paying audience. If there's one thing we all know about Billie is that he cares about what he does, its his life and he loves it.

The world and music industry is a much different animal than it was when 'punk' exploded into our ears with the likes of the Ramones and Patti Smith but then again those acts didn't have the demand that GD do.

The paying public are very demanding now and want and expect more for their dollar/pound. Green Day's status has changed and along with this their touring/promotion habits will have changed. More huge shows, in fact probably more shows and more demand to see them from all quarters. It's a business and it demands the best of them all 24/7 unfortunately.

Maybe he hasn't had any coaching etc who knows except those close to him, but I hope whatever he does he looks after himself and his voice to the highest standards he can.

(well i know what i'm on about anyway if i sound muddled sorry)

x

[Hellcat]

DONT TAKE GUITAR LESSONS

DONT TAKE BASS LESSONS

DONT TAKE DRUM LESSONS

DONT TAKE SINGING LESSONS

caps was needed haha.

Ive never taken lessons and im okay at singing and good at guitar.

its just self taught. taking lessons at the very beginning might give you a few pointers.

but in the end its just yourself and the guitar and improve as time goes by.

Piano and other classical instruments I would take lessons for.

just a few lessons.

like i did like 3 months of piano at school just to learn the basics. now i know the rest.

thinking about going back for piano for a bit.

but guitar drums and bass and singing rock no way.

just comes with experience.

[cNjTheNewAuthority]

DONT TAKE GUITAR LESSONS

DONT TAKE BASS LESSONS

DONT TAKE DRUM LESSONS

DONT TAKE SINGING LESSONS

caps was needed haha.

Ive never taken lessons and im okay at singing and good at guitar.

its just self taught. taking lessons at the very beginning might give you a few pointers.

but in the end its just yourself and the guitar and improve as time goes by.

Piano and other classical instruments I would take lessons for.

just a few lessons.

like i did like 3 months of piano at school just to learn the basics. now i know the rest.

thinking about going back for piano for a bit.

but guitar drums and bass and singing rock no way.

just comes with experience.

Not if you're singing on a professional level,strumming in front of 65,000 people LIVE,and no way if your drumming infront of your fans.

[Cerry]

DONT TAKE GUITAR LESSONS

DONT TAKE BASS LESSONS

DONT TAKE DRUM LESSONS

DONT TAKE SINGING LESSONS

caps was needed haha.

Ive never taken lessons and im okay at singing and good at guitar.

its just self taught. taking lessons at the very beginning might give you a few pointers.

but in the end its just yourself and the guitar and improve as time goes by.

Piano and other classical instruments I would take lessons for.

just a few lessons.

like i did like 3 months of piano at school just to learn the basics. now i know the rest.

thinking about going back for piano for a bit.

but guitar drums and bass and singing rock no way.

just comes with experience.

You might be okay at singing soundwise, but what's your technique like? Could you sing for a couple of hours at a time, and still have your voice sound completely normal at the end, and feel absolutely no pain? It's one thing to play a guitar or the drums with poor technique, when the worst you'll do is make things a little more difficult for yourself. If you're singing with poor technique, particularly rock type stuff, then you're putting yourself in line for all kinds of fun things, like vocal strain (which is usuallly temporary), vocal nodules (which require surgery to remove, and months of recovery afterwards) or permanent damage to your vocal chords (which means your voice is gone forever). Lessons from a good teacher should give you a technique that prevents those things, and for any instrument, it provides you with a someone to notice things you don't hear yourself, and tends to improve your ear. As long as you've got a teacher who's willing to teach the style you want to learn, there's absolutely no reason why you shouldn't have lessons, and lots of reasons why it would be a good thing.

[cNjTheNewAuthority]

You might be okay at singing soundwise, but what's your technique like? Could you sing for a couple of hours at a time, and still have your voice sound completely normal at the end, and feel absolutely no pain? It's one thing to play a guitar or the drums with poor technique, when the worst you'll do is make things a little more difficult for yourself. If you're singing with poor technique, particularly rock type stuff, then you're putting yourself in line for all kinds of fun things, like vocal strain (which is usuallly temporary), vocal nodules (which require surgery to remove, and months of recovery afterwards) or permanent damage to your vocal chords (which means your voice is gone forever). Lessons from a good teacher should give you a technique that prevents those things, and for any instrument, it provides you with a someone to notice things you don't hear yourself, and tends to improve your ear. As long as you've got a teacher who's willing to teach the style you want to learn, there's absolutely no reason why you shouldn't have lessons, and lots of reasons why it would be a good thing.

Agreed.What with effects on electric guitars too nowadays it isn't really about "skill".

[CarmenPunkGirl]

i think he teach himself how to sing better

[iLozza!]

I've seen a few interviews where he mentions he has. So, going by that, yes.

[kevin mask]

hello mates, I'm a newcomer here, I sing and play the guitar and I'll soon sing and play in a green day tribute band, therefore I've been looking into billie's singing in order to understand his vocal abilities and in particular how his voice has changed and improved from american idiot on.

His range his pretty large for what we can hear now, dunno whether he's extended his range by taking lessons or if his new songs exploit his full range now unlike in the older albums.

I think his range now goes from a low E2 to a high B4 which are 2 octaves and a half

anyway here are some differences that I've noticed about his range:

in the first album 1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours we can hear very high notes (that he rarely hits) in "I was there" and "disappearing boy", (G#4 and A4) but were always tuned down of a tone or a semitone in lives at that period, his voice was very thin here and lacked of technique

from kerplunk to warning there's no song which is particularly difficult or high to sing, just medium high notes, the highest note that he hits in almost all of his songs is a F#4 (which begins to be high if you have a medium low tessitura, but still manageable)

as most of you guys have noticed the first changament and a remarkable improvement in vocal quality can be heard in the american idiot tour, his voice now sounds very educated, strong, in tune most of the times, and with an amazing large range, his voice timbre is not one of the highest, I consider BJ a bright baritone or a low tenor cause you can easily hear lot of harmonics during his singing, in spite of his medium baritonal tessitura he pulls off very high tenor notes, the first time I saw we're the champions live I was utterly amazed, he hits a high A4 for many times which is not an easy task for an untrained baritone, you never hear a high A4 in his songs from kerplunk to warning.

Jesus of suburbia: this is a damn hard song to be sung, your vocal chords really need a lot of stamina to perform the 1st 2 parts, it's high and keeps hitting his highest register for at least 5 minutes in a row, impossible for an untrained singer unless the singer has a natural high tessitura, but billie doesn't as we said.

holiday: another song that pushes his range almost to his limits, and the last high F4 has to be kept for about 15 seconds, believe me guys, it's not a child's play at all.

same thing for homecoming, very tough at some points, an untrained baritone could sing the first chunk but would lose power soon and eventually stop after a few seconds

21st century breakdown works pretty much like american idiot, high songs that wear out your vocal chords are now even more, and for what I saw in some lives on youtube he can perform these songs perfectly without showing any harm.

So has BJ worked/ing with a coach? I'd say yes, definitely! what he does now with his voice is very tiring for the vocal chords, and can be very harmful if it's not done in the right way, he never seems tired tho, always in a good shape and never sounds quite or voiceless even after 2 hours of singing.

Not to mention all the screams he does while talking to the crowd, that'd be damn harmful for a normal person, I still wonder how the heck he can scream like that for more than 2 hours everyday and still have a perfect voice.

what do you guys think?

[Greenday_Aussie]

Half I didnt understand (A4? huh) but it makes sence.

I think your 100% right!

[kevin mask]

Half I didnt understand (A4? huh) but it makes sence.

I think your 100% right!

you didn't understand my poor english? in that case sorry, (it's a very in depth technical topic for a non native speaker), or just the A4?

anyway the number indicates the pitch of the note, in the american measurement the central C is a C4 (not the explosive), and a high tenor C would be a C5,so the A4 is one tone and a half below the C5

for those who play the guitar the thick E string is a E2, the thin one is a E4

BJ's range in my opinion (as I already said) goes from E2 to B4 (B4 is pulled off by pressing the thin E string on the 7th fret)

hope I made things clearer with this explanation

[Miqui_Dee]

Well I have read in several places and know that Billie Joe went to Fiat for singing lessons as a small child, as did all of his siblings but the instructer knew Billie had talent, went on to make "Look for Love", blah blah blah.

I think Billie's voice has just matured over time basically. If you've been singing for that long, your voice is bound to get better over time. Maybe he's had coaching over the past few years, but who knows. I think I remember reading that he had been doing some sort of recent vocal stuff though...

[Greenday_Aussie]

you didn't understand my poor english? in that case sorry, (it's a very in depth technical topic for a non native speaker), or just the A4?

anyway the number indicates the pitch of the note, in the american measurement the central C is a C4 (not the explosive), and a high tenor C would be a C5,so the A4 is one tone and a half below the C5

for those who play the guitar the thick E string is a E2, the thin one is a E4

BJ's range in my opinion (as I already said) goes from E2 to B4 (B4 is pulled off by pressing the thin E string on the 7th fret)

hope I made things clearer with this explanation

I play guitar, so I got that.

Bloody hell, a high B?! Damn!

The most amazing note Ive heard Billie pull off is in the intro of Little Girl, the Run AWAAAAAAAYY part () Its hard work getting your voice to hit that note, especially loud (I cant only do it if I sing it really softly...grr)

[kevin mask]

I play guitar, so I got that.

Bloody hell, a high B?! Damn!

The most amazing note Ive heard Billie pull off is in the intro of Little Girl, the Run AWAAAAAAAYY part () Its hard work getting your voice to hit that note, especially loud (I cant only do it if I sing it really softly...grr)

the run away note is not that high compared to other green day's songs, it's a F4, same note as in holiday, any sort of voice could do it, even a bass, but yeah for low tessituras it could be the highest reachable note, I'm sure if you work on it you can hit a F4.

actually BJ never hit a high B4 in his songs nor in covers, but when he yells at the crowd if you pay attention the pitch corrisponds to a high B flat or B, it's very high and that makes me think he never really used his full potential in his songs, could also be that he can hit those very high notes only when he screams so hard, I'm pretty sure it's like this, cause when he used to screw around playing quick covers like eye of the tiger, he could hit a B flat but it was very quite, husky and strained.

so for what we've got so far it's safe to say:

his highest singable note is a A4 (we're the champions "and I'll come through" and the chorus)

screaming and yelling he can hit a B4

for what concerns the other songs till american idiot, he never goes higher than a F#4, in 21st century breakdown he hits a few G#4, A4 and A#4, but I still have to watch a full live of the 21st century tour so I don't know if he really pulls off those high notes so often even at live, as you guys know he gets helped a lot by the other members.

I personally can reach a pretty decent high G4, sometimes a G#4 but it still sounds like a choked squealing chicken, so I better hold off from doing that

[Haz]

DONT TAKE GUITAR LESSONS

DONT TAKE BASS LESSONS

DONT TAKE DRUM LESSONS

DONT TAKE SINGING LESSONS

I disagree with you. See i taught myself guitar, drums and bass and i make the sound normally but my hand techniques are rubbish and so i started taking lessons recently and i have improved a lot quicker since then. I don't do singing so idk though.

[kevin mask]

I disagree with you. See i taught myself guitar, drums and bass and i make the sound normally but my hand techniques are rubbish and so i started taking lessons recently and i have improved a lot quicker since then. I don't do singing so idk though.

agree, you learn quickly and avoid bad habbits from the beginning

[kevin mask]

The people who ran that music school were responsible for Look For Love, yes?

I guess fiat stands for Fiatarone, Marie Louise Fiatarone was his vocal coach when he was little, and yes she wrote the song "look for love" with her husband

[Kayfabe]

Singing lessons at the ford-something

it's on GDA

[Haydée]

I doubt it o.o

I like Billie's voice, but he can't sing.