I'm not new, but I've been away for so long it's like I am.

Joshua

I'm Joshua, from Kansas, USA.

I'm taking on a U2 tribute act and I've noticed how hard it is to keep up with Bono. I don't know if it's because of he sings, that my tonal emulation is actually causing me to oversing, or use too much air...but I'd love to talk about it with anyone who's interested.

Terence

Bono himself probably sings his own recorded material in certain ways to preserve his voice on tour. These guys go for it in the studio, combine their best takes, and then have to represent it live. That's tough to do.

I wonder if he's on record talking about this? Might be worth a search to see what he goes through on tour.

My recollection of his recorded singing is that he tends to splat when going all out. That is, vowel mods be damned in favor of intensity. Seems that would be very hard on the voice, day after day.

Joshua

@Terence you nailed it. He does bad stuff for sure, breaks all over the place.

He doesn't replicate it live, but his tone does a lot to carry the feel. When I posted this, I felt like I'd already discovered the solution, which turns out to be placement (more on that in a second) rather than tone but I wanted to open up to hear from others.

It turns out that what was doing, since i've been away for so long, is immediately trying to replicate tone while holding pitch. This was causing me to stress the cords by singing to far forward and leaning on those cords and brightness to hold pitch. Last weekend I was in my office rehearsing to a karoake track and just decided to sing it like me, rather than him and I found the proper placement and from there was able to build back to tone. Then I remembered that nearly 10 years ago, that was my break through with Steve Perry and Toto & Chris Cornell, way back when I was doing all that stuff.

Still Bono is pretty awesome.

Terence

Joshua said:

just decided to sing it like me, rather than him and I found the proper placement and from there was able to build back to tone. Then I remembered that nearly 10 years ago, that was my break through with Steve Perry and Toto & Chris Cornell, way back when I was doing all that stuff.

Great insight and breakthrough there, @Joshua . Makes total sense that we have to be ourselves at the extremes of our range. There's lots of impersonators for Frank Sinatra or Michael Bublé but few to none for Mickey Thomas or Pavoratti or Bono, for that matter.

I admire Bono's voice, as well, and am sympathetic to the challenges of performing at a high level for an entire concert season.

BTW, if you're up for it, could you comment on this thread about your extended rest period and what it's been like to rise back to your previous state?

https://forum.kentamplinvocalacademy.com/discussion/17181/extended-rest-experiences

Joshua

Done! @Terence

michaelmusic

It can definitely be harmful to imitate a singer when you haven't become proficient in applying the correct techniques. When singing Bono, I have to focus a lot of my mix voice and using a tone of breath support. I occassioanly still raise the larynx so it's important to try singing a pitch with the vowel and making sure you are placeming that vowel correctly with no tension.

Joshua

@michaelmusic I've love to hear a demo. I'm still struggling a bit, in part because I've not chosen yet what I think I can safely emulate and what is reasonable.