Joe Cocker's unique gravelly and soulful vocal style is sought after by many aspiring singers. To learn how to sing like Joe Cocker, one must understand his trademark growl and gritty vocal tone.

The most critical element in Joe Cocker's singing is his ability to create vocal gravel. The voice expert Marc Reynolds writes in his book The Essential Guide to Singing, “Growl is when tensions are created in the back of the throat by engaging the aryepiglottic sphincter muscles. It can be understood like clenched teeth.”

To learn how to sing like Joe, one must first train their voice to make a growling sound. Before attempting to growl, there are a few warm-ups that can help create the sound. One such exercise is the Growl Exercise on Singing Carrots. Using this tool can improve your enunciation and pitch accuracy. Practicing with this exercise can create that gravelly sound that Joe often used.

Breathing, posture, and the opening of the mouth and throat all contribute to creating a sound like Joe Cocker's. Singing Carrots offers many articles on these topics, including Breathing Basics and How posture affects your singing.

Another useful exercise to practice is the Sustain Vocal exercise. This tool provides a quick three-minute exercise that guides you through specific intervals and patterns that can help you to improve breath support and vocal tone. The importance of practicing good breathing techniques and breath support is essential to creating Joe Cocker's signature sound, and this tool can aid in achieving that goal.

Joe Cocker's powerful and emotional performances are another aspect that makes his singing so unique. To learn how to incorporate these emotions into your singing, How to sing with intuition, skills, emotion, and thinking covers many topics on interpreting songs and performing with your heart and soul.

Finally, Joe Cocker's song catalog is an excellent resource to learn his unique style. The song “With a Little Help from my Friends'' is a great example of the gravelly and soulful vocal tone that Joe Cocker is known for. Singing along to his songs is a great way to improve your pitch accuracy and become more familiar with his unique style.

In conclusion, there is no shortcut to learning how to sing like Joe Cocker. Still, by practicing these exercises, following Singing Carrots' courses, and using the tools in combination with his soulful style, one can attain a unique voice like Joe Cocker's.