At first, Green Day was part of the California punk scene. Childhood friends Billie Joe Armstrong (guitar, vocals) and Mike Dirnt (bass; born Mike Pritchard) formed their first band, Sweet Children, in Rodeo, California when they were 14 years old. By 1989, the group had added drummer Al Sobrante and changed their name to Green Day. That year, the band independently released their first EP, 1,000 Hours, which was well-received in the punk scene. Soon, the group had signed a contract with the local independent label, Lookout! Records. 39/Smooth, Green Day’s first album, was released later that year. Shortly after its release, the band replaced Kiftmeyer with Tre Cool (born Frank Edwin Wright, III); Tre Cool became the band’s permanent drummer.

Throughout the early ’90s, Green Day continued to cultivate a cult following, which only gained strength with the release of their second album, 1992′s Kerplunk. The underground success of Kerplunk led to a wave of interest from major record labels; the band eventually decided to sign with Reprise. Dookie, Green Day’s major label debut, was released in the spring of 1994. Thanks to MTV support for the initial single “Longview,” Dookie became a major hit. The album continued to gain momentum throughout the summer, with the second single “Basket Case” spending five weeks on the top of the American modern rock charts. At the end of the summer, the band stole the show at Wo odstock ’94, which helped the sales of Dookie increase.

By the time the fourth single “When I Come Around” began its seven-week stay at number one in the modern rock charts in early 1995, Dookie had sold over five million copies in the US alone; it would eventually top eight million in America, selling over eleven million copies internationally. Dookie also won the 1994 Grammy for Best Alternative Music Performance.

Green Day quickly followed Dookie with Insomniac in the fall of 1995; during the summer, they hit number one again on the modern rock charts with “J.A.R.,” their contribution to the Angus soundtrack. Insomniac performed well initially, entering the US charts at number two, and selling over two million copies by the spring of 1996, yet none of its singles — including the radio favorite “Brain Stew/Jaded” — were as popular as those from Dookie. In the spring of 1996, Green Day abruptly canceled a European tour, claiming exhaustion. Following the cancellation, the band spent the rest of the year resting and writing new material. The end result is what is called by many, the best album of their career, Nimrod.

Nimrod was well recieved by most critics and fans. The album sold 80,000 copies in it’s first week to land at #10 on the Billboard charts. The first single from Nimrod was “Hitchin’ A Ride”.  The single made it to No.5 on the modern rock charts and was in heavy rotation on MuchMusic and MTV. The next single the band released would not make it to number one (it’s highest position was #2), but it is now probably the most well known songs Green Day ever wrote. Featuring Billie Joe on accoustic guitar and vocals, “Time Of Your Life” became the song to play in any remotely sad situation. The song was even used on the last ever episode of the hit TV show Seinfeld (it was also the most watched finale in the history of TV). Along with Seinfeld, the song was also played on E.R on two different shows.

Nimrod has sold about two million copies, the lowest sales total out of their three major label albums, but it probably garnered the band more respect than they could have expected with another Dookie or Insomniac. The band also vastly improved their live show and even one “Best Live Performance” at the Kerrang awards.

After nearly two years with barely any mention of the band, Green Day returned in late 1999 to play Neil Young’s “Bridge School Benefit Concert”, their first live accoustic performance. Green Day began recording their follow-up to “Nimrod” shortly after, which would eventually become “Warning:”. Early in the recording process, the band decided to fire their new producer, Scott Litt, and produce the album themselves, marking the first time since “Kerplunk” that anyone but Rob Cavallo produced the bands recording. After they finished recording, Green Day decided to do something else they hadn’t done before headline the 2000 Vans Warped Tour. Green Day played an amazing set and brought more fans to the tour than any other year in Warped’s history (their Toronto performance alone attracted 7,000 more fans than they had any other year).

“Warning:” was released in the fall of 2000, and is by far Green Day’s most ambitious album to date. If its first singles, “Minority” and the album’s title track, are any indication, the album could prove to be extremely successful. Just four weeks after the release of “Minority”, it sat atop Billboard’s Modern Rock chart; no other Green Day song has hit the top that fast.

In September of 2004 Green Day  released “American Idiot”, an album which lashes out against the American government and the media. “American Idiot” was the first Green Day record ever to debut at #1 on the Billboard Charts, and other music charts around the world. The album’s title track, was an instant success. The follow up single, “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” experienced a must greater success. “American Idiot” was nominated for seven Grammy awards, and took home one, “Best Rock Album”. In August of 2005, Green Day took home 7 Video Music Awards from MTV.

The singer — who took a break from music after being dropped by her former record label, having her first child with and divorcing rapper Nas — is reemerging with a new sound, new look, and a new place to call her label home.

She leaked the new single today via her twitter page and followed it up with a message to fans, saying she’s wrote it with “love and life in mind.”

Kelis compares her life to a song being sung in acapella and once love enters it, it’s brimming with pulsating beats and synthesis as illustrated by production by David Guetta. Although the overall sound is nothing new, the sincerity in the lyrics mixed with the danceable beat makes it pretty refreshing.

Kelis’ as-yet-untitled album is, she says, “pretty much done” and will be released in 2010.

However, different story go for her lifestyle. There is some rumors have swirled for nearly a year over the current status of the marriage between one of hip hop’s royal couples, Nas and Kelis.

Reports began surfacing that the couple had broken up after a blind item about an R&B singer being caught in a sex tape with someone other than her rapper husband appeared on several gossip blogs. The gossip seemed to quiet down a bit when Nas announced his wife was pregnant with their first child together in February, but the lack of public appearances together did nothing to keep the rumors at bay.

Vibe magazine confirmed today that Nas and Kelis are no more. According to the papers obtained by the publication, Nas and Kelis have been officially separated since April 20 with Kelis filing for divorce today (April 30).

“I can confirm that she has filed for divorce,” a spokesperson told Vibe. “We request the media to respect her privacy during this very difficult time.”

The pair had been married for over five years; they tied the knot in July of 2003 in an intimate ceremony in Atlanta.

Their unborn child, a boy, is due July 21.

The answer I came up with is this: you must practice exercises that teach your voice to sing correctly… to sing with correct technique.

You see, anyone can make a sound with their voice and call it singing. But not everyone can sing with good technique, which ultimately sounds FAR better in the end!

If you are not entirely happy with your voice, it’s probably a technique issue. Once you master good vocal technique, you can bet that your voice will sound fantastic. And when you start singing with good vocal technique, there are some great bonuses…

Firstly, you will be able to sing over a large vocal range. Most singer voices are capable of singing three octaves at least if they are functioning properly. You can do this because with correct technique you will be “thinning” out your vocal cords as you sing high into your range.

This is a technique that isn’t that common in most singers, because most singing instructors don’t know how to teach it properly!

But it can be learned, quite easily too. You see, there are exercises that encourage this behavior in your vocal cords. They are simple exercises, but the way they have been created, they quickly teach your vocal cords to thin out as you sing higher.

It is this way that you can quickly learn how to increase your vocal range in a big way.

In other issues such as how to sing with no tension, how to sing with sweet tone quality, how to perfect your vibrato, how to do faster licks and trills… it’s the same situation.

It’s the vocal exercises that you practice are the vital key to mastering all these issues.

There are great vocal exercises that can quickly teach your voice what it must do to master all the points I just mentioned. And there are also vocal exercises that encourage your voice to NOT do these things well at all!

That’s the different between good vocal instruction and bad vocal instruction. That’s the reason why so many singers never end up with the voice of their dreams.

It’s not that their voice isn’t capable of doing great things. It’s because they are practicing exercises that are ineffective at teaching their voice to function properly.

Back to the initial question, what’s the best way to learn to sing?

And the answer is: practice exercises that teach your voice to function with correct technique.