There is a synergy between vocal technique and your inner singer.
One without the other will not be effective.
Are you paying enough attention to your technique?
In this episode I talk about the importance of a solid technique (pedagogy) coupled with a supportive Inner Singer.
It’s important to include this aspect to really reach your vocal potential!
Enjoy!
The Inner Singer Podcast
Episode 26 – Transcripts
FUNdamentals are Fun!
Well, hey there, everybody. Thank you for listening. This is Mike Goodrich here. Welcome to the Inner Singer Podcast, episode 26. I can’t believe that that’s half a year. Wow! Twenty-six weeks.
And I have a confession to make. After 26 weeks of doing this completely non-scripted, I don’t have a clue what I’ve said so far. Every time I have an idea now, I think, “Have I said that before?”
I’m also creating a course. I’m not sure when you’ll be listening to this, so it’ll either be created or I’m still creating it right now called The Inner Singer. It’s an audio course.
And in doing so, I’m talking all the time. And then I’m doing my podcast all the time, and I’m teaching all the time.
So, when it comes to sit down today, I have an idea. I thought, “Have I said this before?” So, I guess I’ll just have to trust that if I’ve said it before, then it’s going to be different this time because I’m different now, and maybe you’ll hear it differently because you’re different now.
And I don’t think I’ve said it the way I’m going to say it anyway. You be the judge as to whether or not I’ve said it.
Having said that though, I was thinking—and please let me know what you think about this idea. It’s been all me for 26 weeks. That’s a lot of me. I love this. It’s great! I really, really do. I really do love doing it. But it is all me.
And I was wondering maybe. Do you guys perhaps want me to do some interviews with people rather than just having all me all the time? It’s like the Oprah Network, right? No, it’s like Mike Goodrich all the time.
It’s fine with me. I can always think of something to say. But I was thinking maybe you might want to hear some interviews with people on this particular subject.
So, if you do, let me know. Give me the feedback and let me know who you might like to hear. Of course, I have no idea when you’ll be hearing this because this is way off in the future I might be doing interviews and you might have already heard who you want to hear. But anyway, if not, if you’re hearing anywhere close to when I’m recording it when it comes out, then let me know.
Okay, enough said about that. Let’s move into what I was wanting to chat about today. And that is Capoeira.
Does anybody know what that is? And I know that some people do. I’ve been noticing a tremendous amount of activity coming in from Brazil lately to my email list, getting my stuff.
Capoeira is an amazing art form. And it’s Brazilian with African roots. It is a martial art, but it’s a combination of martial arts and dance and acrobatics and almost gymnastics. It’s dancing and music. It’s just a phenomenal—really, it’s a great, great art. My son is taking it.
This is going somewhere, by the way. This will make sense in a minute.
Mywhole life, ever since I can remember, I’ve not been very limber. My son is amazingly limber. He’s doing all these amazing kicks and all these things. He’s 8 ½, almost 9 I guess. Just amazing! He really took to it. It’s really cool.
And so I’ve been stretching. I have a student of mine that’s a black belter in a couple of different disciplines. He’s helping me stretch and do some things because I sort of have this secret desire to do Capoeira. They had a big batizado. They had it a few weeks back. They bring people from all over the world. And it’s just amazing to watch.
And for the longest time, I’ve been watching saying to all the other people, all the other parents there saying, “Well, if I was younger, I’d do this. If I was younger, I’d do this.” And all of a sudden, it hit me. Maybe I can do it. Maybe I can just do it my way.
The academy that my son studies in is amazing—supportive, amazing people. So I’m sure they would let me do it my way and not be judgmental at all, just probably be excited that I wanted to do it.
But anyway, why do I bring that up? Well, a couple of reasons. Number one, because I was thinking about what was realistic for me to do and what was unrealistic for me to do. I have always been this kind of crazy with things, “Well, I can do anything.” And I’ve been really proven wrong a lot because I haven’t really been—some of my fantasies—
And I refer back to it now. I remember. My dreams or delusions have been fantasies. I mean, I didn’t know they were fantasies at the time.
So I’m trying to really approach this from a realistic “What can I do without limiting myself without having unrealistic expectations, but without placing on my self unrealistic limitations?” So, I thought, “I’m not very limber.”
I could hold my leg up. I’m better now. I could stretch my leg up and hold it up about six or eight inches off the ground. Seriously, that was about it.
I showed this to my student, and I said, “Okay, look, here’s where I am now. Can I do this? Can I ever kick sort of moderately high?” He looked at me, he looked at my body type, he kind of have me do a couple of things, and he said, “I could have you kicking over your head easily in six to nine months.” I thought, “Wow! That’s pretty cool. Okay…”
And this guy is really, really great. He really knows his stuff.
So, I’ve been stretching and I’m getting a little better, I’m a little higher. I’m still not officially taking Capoeira. I have not taken a class. I’m kind of doing this closet Capoeira. I watch YouTube videos and I do all these things. I just really secretly have this total love for this art form right now.
And my little boy and I play Capoeira. That’s what I love about it. You play game. It’s not sparring, you play games. Nobody hits anybody. And so I say, “Let’s play Capoeira.” We do this together.
Now, what does this have to do with singing at all? Well, a couple of things.
Number one, when I was doing Capoeira the other day and playing with my son, I realized I’m really enjoying this. But I honestly would enjoy it more if I was able to do more. And the only way I’m going to be able to do more is to do it more, get with somebody who really knows their stuff, can really help me, can really help me with the technical aspect of it—the stretching, the kicks, the form.
I’m really, really into good form as you know. I’ve been a vocal technique teacher for 25+ years. So I’m really into form. I used to work out like crazy. I haven’t for many years. I need to get back to that, by the way. And so I’m really into form—not necessarily how much I could lift, but form. That’s how I am with the voice, and that’s how I will be Capoeira, really, really into the form.
But I realized that, “Wow! I would really honestly, no kidding, enjoy this more if I was better. If I cld kick a little higher and have a little bit more fun and do more in the games and do more in the moves and do them well—pretty well at least—this would actually be more fun.”
And it’s not that it’s not fun already. It is fun. I mean, I just love it. It’s really, really fun already. So it’s not like I’m saying, “Oh, gosh. I got to get better. I’m so awful. This is no fun. I have to get to this certain level before I have any fun.” It’s not that. I just realized that, “You know, the better I get this, the more fun I’ll have.”
And quite frankly, it’s been the same thing with singing. You could probably identify with this. Isn’t it true that the more accomplished you are with something, the more fun it becomes? And again, that’s not to say that it’s not fun anyway. It’s just the better we get at something, the more fun we can have, the freer we can be.
I mean, driving was always fun when I was a kid, learning how to drive. But when I got better at driving and I didn’t have to think about it at all, it became relaxing instead of stressful. I remember I used to go out for drives just to relax. And I still like to drive. It still is a relaxing thing—not so much in L.A. sometimes.
And so, I realized that. I said, “So, what could I do?” I need to have realistic ideas with regards to what I can do—I’m not 20 years old, but I’m not 80 years old either—and also, understand what is realistic for me with regards to my expectations, but also what’s realistic for me with regards to my limitations. I don’t want to expect that I can be a master of Capoeira. That’s pretty ridiculous. But I also don’t want to expect that I can’t do some of the moves that maybe I’m thinking, “Well, I should be younger if I want to do this.” So, it’s been a really interesting process to look at this.
Now, again, relating this back to singing—and your singing, more importantly. Like I said, I’ve been a technique guy for years. I want to start bringing some more technique ideas into the Inner Singer and show you how that works within the context of the inner singer. And I believe I did some of that last week as well in the podcast. I know I’m doing it in the course a bit. It’s very, very important.
Whatever technique you happen to study, it’s really, really important that you have a very, very good foundation from a technical aspect. I’ve never been one of these guys, and I won’t be one of these guys, that says, “You can just smile your way into great voice… positive think your way into great voice… just be happy and you’ll get crazy.” That’s not really been my experience. And that’s not really been the experience of too many people that I know.
Most people have a solid technique. Most people get a solid technique. They work with a teacher, they work with a pedagogy. They work on something with somebody with the right attitude.
And when you’re working with a really solid technique, something that really works all the time, and you have your inner singer supporting you, then it’s awesome.
One without the other isn’t as great. The synergy of the two is what we’re looking for. A great technique with an inner singer that’s not supportive, we already know what that does. We don’t get anywhere. And an inner singer that is very supportive and enthusiastic and joyful but without the technique and the facility to do the singing and the expression, then again, it’s half the fun.
But with both together, that’s when you nail it. That’s when it’s fabulous.
And that’s what I’m looking at with my Capoeira, getting in classes with great teachers, really supportive people, and then taking care of my inner Capoeira.
So, inside, I’m doing everything I talk about in this course. And what I’m finding lately and the feedback that I’ve had, which has been really, really great with this podcast—I don’t know if you’d mind my mentioning, so I won’t mention who he is, but he’s in my family—he’s like, “I was listening to your podcast. They’re really good.”
He said, “I know it’s the Inner Singer, and I don’t sing at all, but it’s just been a really great way to get to know you better and hear you teach because I would’ve never been able to hear you teach.” He goes, “You’re really talking about my inner insurance man.”
And so, I thought, “That’s really cool!” People are really looking at this outside of just singing.
And so I’m practicing what I preach with this in Capoeira and realizing, “Wow! This is really my inner Capoeira because I can use all these techniques that I use for singing for that and I can approach it from joy and I can approach it with a playful attitude. I can on the other hand then get the best education in it that I can get, get the best teaching in it and have the best teachers that guide me with the best form, so that I learn correctly.
Now, it’s really interesting when I look at the martial arts. I don’t know that much about martial arts, but I would sort of figure when you watch kicks and you watch all these things—the thing that attracted me to Capoeira is that nobody really fights. I suppose they do, but there’s no talk of it in the academy here. I love when they have two people playing. They say, “Let’s play a game of Capoeira.” And so that’s what I really, really love.
And watching all these different YouTube videos and all these people stretching and doing kicks for all these different disciplines of martial arts, they’re very very, very similar. And so, I doubt if you would go study any kind of a martial art where they would do something that was just not good for your body necessarily.
Now, the challenge with singing that I’ve always felt is—and I’m very open to different techniques. I’m very open to different ways of singing. I mean, I was just sitting at the piano the other night belting out Billy Joel. And honestly, to be as transparent as possible, I wasn’t thinking about vowels. I wasn’t narrowing vowels. I wasn’t doing anything that I teach because I just wanted to sing and have fun and rock out.
Now, that’s not really my forte. I just wanted to have some fun. But I don’t do that on a regular basis because I’m not sure anybody would really want to hear it on a regular basis. But I really love doing it. And I wasn’t concerned with whether or not it was good for my voice or I was doing the right thing or I was technically proficient or whatever, anything like that.
But the reason I bring that up is because when we are studying different techniques, there are some techniques that just are not good for your voice. There are certain ways of singing that are just categorically not good. And sometimes, they don’t hurt some people. But sometimes, they really trash other people.
So, you really want to be aware and really wise when you’re picking a technique to support yourself, to support your voice. You have the best chance of picking a technique that’s really going to be supportive if you are in the really right mindset and really the right place and coming from a place of joy and love of the art rather than a place of wanting to show off or anything like that.
And I’m sure that nobody that listens to this podcast is in a place of wanting to show off, although, quite frankly, aren’t we all, once in a while? I mean, really, if I can sit down and play Billy Joel at some place and really surprise everybody, so they would think, “Wow! I didn’t know he could do that. That’s pretty cool. He’s playing and singing Billy Joel. That’s awesome,” yeah, of course, who wouldn’t want to do that? I’ll be honest about that. That would be fun. But it’s not main motivation for doing it.
There’s nothing wrong with that. There’s nothing with having that part of us that is the showman or the show woman that really wants to get up there and wow the crowd, that really wants people to say, “Wow! That was awesome.” There’s nothing wrong with that. Who doesn’t want to do that?
I mean, I have secretly wanted to do that in Capoeira. I’m kind of wanting to prepare for the batizado next year, go in and play. It’d be great if somebody walks up and say, “Dude, man! How long have you been doing this?” I’ll say, “Oh, about a year.” “Wow! That’s pretty cool, especially for your age. That’s awesome.” So, I think that would be really, really good. But again, that’s not my motivation for doing it. My motivation is the love of doing it, the love of the art form. It’s great for the body and all these things.
So, that’s what I want to bring more into this inner singer dialogue, the idea of a technique that will support you, an inner singer that will support you. The synergy of those two is unstoppable. Like I say, one without the other, not so great. But the synergy of them two, the sum is greater than the two parts. When you add one and one together, you don’t get two in that case. You get the synergy. It’s much more than two. Each one supports the other.
Honestly, I got some feedback lately. I thought it’s great and it was hard to disagree too. I wrote the person back. They were very, very nice to give me the feedback. They said, “You know, your subjects are really, really good, but you kind of repeat yourself and take a long time to get to the point.”
I totally understood. I wrote him back and explained why that was. And a lot of these ideas, really, it’s kind of the art of reformation. We talk about a lot of things that need to be heard over and over and over again, especially when we’re talking about the inner singer. We’re talking about so many new ideas and new concepts and it hits up against old wirings. So, all that is really, really true.
The interesting thing about today is, honestly, I don’t even listen back to these. But I think really the point of today and the takeaway of today is don’t just work on your inner singer. Don’t throw everything out. Don’t not study voice. Don’t not take lessons. Don’t practice your voice physically. But include and integrate everything that we do here with the inner singer with your vocalizing, your singing.
Find yourself a great pedagogy that’s really, really supportive and will help get you where you want to go. Like I said—here we go with the repetitive—one without the other, not so great. Both together, the synergy of those two is fabulous.
So, I guess if I had a takeaway today, it would be the joy of it. Play with it. Get great training on all levels. And really watch your inner singer. Do everything that we talk about in these podcasts.
And if you haven’t seen Capoeira, you should watch it on YouTube just for fun. Isn’t this the craziest podcast I’ve ever done? I’m either going to get feedback that, “Wow! That was pretty cool” or “Wow, dude. You just went nowhere with this.” Sometimes, I get off and I go to my wife, “I don’t know what I just said, but we’ll see.”
And sometimes, that’s what people really like. And sometimes, maybe they don’t. So we’ll just see how this one goes.
But please, let me know if you want me to do some interviews or anything fun. This was just a little glimpse into my life today and some ideas that I had. I hope you kind of enjoyed it.
Capoeira is spelled not like it sounds. It’s C-A-P-O-E-I-R-A, Capoeira. It took me forever to be able to remember how to say it. Check it out on YouTube. It’s awesome.
Anyway, I’m signing off. Thanks so much for listening. I hope that I made some kind of a point today. I know I was kind of rambling—and I’m rambling right now. Maybe it’s because it’s cloudy in Los Angeles, it rained a little, and it just never does that I’m a little bit thrown. So anyway, this is a crazy day.
But anyway, I hope you enjoyed this. I will sign off now. I look forward to seeing you next week. Bye bye.