How to Sing like Billie Joe Armstrong

Billie Joe grew up in Rodeo, a small Californian town located near Berkeley.

He was born in a music-loving family with his dad and uncle known for jazz drumming.

However, he took a slightly different route to music and unlike his father and uncle he plays the guitar.

At the age of ten when he lost his dad, he became a friend of Mike Pritchard, a neighbor who like Billie Joe is passionate about music. 

The two little friends dropped out of high school and started a music band known as Sweet Children.

Seeing how ambitious he was about music, the mother supported his efforts to drop out of school to pursue his music career.

He started his music career fully when he turned seventeen years old.

Billie Joe is blessed naturally with a distinctive voice that is very suitable for the kind of music his team of three makes at Green day. 

He is a songwriter and the lead vocalist at Green Day.

His unique voice made him famous in the mid-’90s as a lead singer of one of the most popular pop-punk bands.

He’s a vocalist contributor to a handful of pop punk’s most representations such as “Basket Case”, “Welcome to Paradise” and “American Idiot”. 

His song-writing resonates with plenty of fans.

He writes lyrics related to anxious feelings, the use of drugs, and real-life experiences.

Although he is not characteristically bad at singing, Billie Joe’s tendency is more on solid singing in the mid-range.

His voice often gets a bit nervous when he is singing upper register.

He doesn’t sing the lower and upper range frequently.

Nonetheless, Billie Joe has validated his strengths in low and up range through a few of their release where he sporadically easily dips low to a second octave like in (“Working Class Hero”) and afterward went up to the fifth octave. 

Nonetheless, Billie Joe has continued to be acclaimed as one of the most distinguishable vocalists in contemporary rock music because his unique slurry vocal style became the sought-for pop-punk vocal in the latter part of the 1990s.

Here is an article I wrote showing you how to sing better

Below are some of the tips that can help you sing like Billie Joe Armstrong

Sing as honest as you can

Billie Joe portrays honesty to his audience when he sings on stage.

It is all about getting your audience to connect with the message you are trying to deliver through your music.

For Billie, an easy way to achieve this connection is to first try to connect to his inner self.

That’s your key for transcending like Billie Joe. Avoid forging it out. Be your authentic self.

Be patient and flexible

Billie Joe didn’t get where he is now in a single day.

He worked hard for it. While some things can come easily, others may take days, months, and even years.

Be patient.

A few Green band music only takes a few minutes of inspiration while some of them like the “Basket Case” took several years of hard work.  

While he found it difficult to write the music at first, by constantly changing the lyrics and moving from relationship music to a neurotic song for the panic-stricken, he finally arrived there. 

Billie Joe Armstrong Vocal Range: Block your nose without sounding nasal

A great way to achieve the unique voice of Billie Joe is to sing as if your nose is stuffed without sounding nasal.

When you do that maintain the feeling and free the nose blockage. You can achieve these through these two tips:

Place your voice below the mid-point of your pharynx. 

Nonetheless, don’t descent too low that you move lower than your pharynx.

Billie Joe’s vocals are mostly hyponasal, so, to sing like him, you must learn to block your and sing as if you’ve got a stuffed nose. 

It may be a great idea to try singing like Billie Joe when you feel sick with nasal congestions. A lot easier, then huh! 

Billie Joe Armstrong Singing Voice: Integrate vibrato and falsetto

Learn to integrate vibrato and falsetto/head voice into your singing.

The time it takes to develop that singing skills vary.

A few tips you can try for developing your vibrato includes the following: 

Begin to act as if you’re crying. Mimic a crying sound and move your voice to a higher pitch.

Keep going higher and move above E4. Try to move higher to roughly the C5/D5 pitch.

Work gradually and don’t overstrain your vocal cord if you can’t.

Your voice will sound weak and offbeat due to poorly developed and weak muscle.

Another thing that can help you develop your vibrato is laughing in high pitch.

You can equally try to raise your soft palate any time you sing higher notes to allow easy flow of the sound.

This is an effective tip. 

One more thing you can do to develop your vibrato include trying breathing support, this is the main part of it. 

Also, try to relax your face muscles.

A vibrato would swing naturally when there is no inhibition. It will hardly come when you sing under tension. 

Here is an article I wrote showing you how to sing vibrato properly

Be authentic 

Armstrong is popular for delivering a message through his music to the edgy.

He brings authenticity into all his singing and when he sings he does it with great passion. 

He has a way of matching his inner disposition to show his feelings bare by removing his clothes on stage for instance.

While he was acclaimed by the MTV news and Kurt Loder smirks for that authenticity, he was arrested for the same when the band played at Milwaukee.

Learn to work as a team

Billie Joe works with his team as a band.

Although he’s got his unique musical talents and voice, collaborating with his team is a great boost to his strength.

Two heads are always better than one. 

Billie Joe knows and appreciate this and bring up his music inspiration to the team who works on it to reshape it.

As they see fit during their practice.

They can either go with his tune or fine-tunes it to make it better.

It is all about collaborating, adding and removing bits; moving verses, and choruses around to find a perfect tune for a song. 

Try collaboration, it may help to get you where you’re aiming to reach faster than when you work alone.

Practice, Practice, and practice 

Succeeding at any skill needs practice.

The more you practice, the better you get at it.

With a determination to succeed and a little more effort you can get there faster than you’d imagine.

Practice and look for ways to boost your motivation.

Try new challenges and see what you can come up with.

I definitely think that where there is a will, there is away.

It can get difficult but your determination and motivation will see you through till the end. 

Final words: Concentrate on engaging your audience

Your concentration just like Billie Joe should be to go the stage with your audience engaged and when you leave the stage, you leave your audience happy and fulfilled.

You will learn to perform better the more you do it.

Aim to make it emotionally rewarding for your fans.

Help them to feel emotionally involved and part of the show.