SINGING CLASS: BRADLEY COOPER FOR LADY GAGA

Singing out loud is both a joy and a curse.

It’s a joy when it’s good, a curse when it’s not.

It’s also a curse when someone you’ve known for years decides to sing for the first time in a pitch perfect voice. What took so long?

Add disappointment to the singing list when a musician refuses to learn how to sing. That wasn’t Bradley Cooper while he prepped for A Star Is Born.

While none of us has Lukas Nelson to coach us the way he did Jackson Maine, he left a few clues.

Together, they channeled a list of greats that included Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson (who starred in the 1976 A Star Is Bornfilm), Jim Morrison, Young, and, of course, Nelson’s father, Willie. “We’d talk about the soul of performance,” Nelson recalled, “and what it really means to connect to an audience; how to connect the way the heroes he was trying to emulate did.”

Because the character is a country singer in the movie it makes sense to find the core of country in past greats and current icons. No Garth Brooks, but we’ll survive.

Cooper also worked with a dialect coach, Tim Monich, to lower his singing voice a full octave. He wanted Maine to have a deep, raspy delivery, one not unlike his on-screen brother in the movie, Sam Elliott. They worked together five days a week, for four hours a day, for about six months to get Cooper ready, and, reportedly, it took every bit of it.

The rest of us sing in the car and talk in a voice we never think about. Why? Because we’re not hambones. Or are we?

I’ve been listening to Apple Music with request after request of, “Hey Siri.”

The most interesting, more like surprising, results came when I asked for Janis Joplin. You know her as a member of the 27 Club, a screaming tornado of hair and blues poured into a mic like Southern Comfort on ice.

The cool thing about asking Siri is the list that comes up. Janis Joplin studio tracks revealed a singer deep in the process, guiding the recording like a boss, not some wasted wretch delivered to the studio in a wheel barrow.

She was a total pro on the job; it was the down time that got hard.

I asked Siri to play Elvis and got the same thing. One of his amazing vocal tricks is the operatic high note at the end of Now Or Never. Turns out his early work had lots of high operatic notes. And such a controlled vibrato at the top of his range.

Lately I’ve been on a Lady Gaga jag with the idea she could sing anything better than the original singer singing. Early Elvis, especially his gospel work, shows a hidden Elvis few could ever approach.

Is it a matter of breath? I’ll agree with Cooper.

“I had no idea how to breathe,” he said. “I knew nothing about singing—nothing. It’s such a different art form to sing in front of people, because you lose your breath right away when you’re nervous.” He credits his teachers for crossing the hurdle. “Lukas Nelson [is] an incredible musician … it’s because I was a good student and listened to great teachers [that] I was able to do it.”

Breathing? Who knew it could be such a challenge? I know someone up to it.

Bradley Cooper didn’t mention the Alexander Technique. I googled it for you.

If you have a singer who isn’t singing, but you know they really want to and are afraid of sounding silly, be a good role model and be silly first. Set an example.

If they jump up and run out, it might be time to get a coach.

My ‘A Star Is Born’ review:

A Star Is Born showed the rags to riches rise we’ve all missed because we don’t sing in public. And didn’t get discovered like Lana Turner at the Top Hat.

Lady Gaga played a character destined for the sort of life promised to those who never break free of the expectations they’ve grown up with. It’s good enough to follow others’ lead right up until it’s not, and A Star Is Born reveals what it takes to break out.

Caring about someone is key. Bradley Cooper played drunk and high the way drunk and high looks after a few decades. If you’ve ever been in the same room with a lifestyle boozer you noticed something. You could almost smell the alcohol stench fumes oozing off the Star screen. Cooper played the most convincing drunk since Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart.

Gaga loved Jackson Maine so much it makes the audience wonder if they ever loved anyone, or if anyone loved them, just half as much. By the time you reach the sidewalk after watching A Star Is Born you’ll find an extra chamber has grown in your heart. Call it the Gaga Chamber.