Discussion Forum: General Discussion: Iyengar Yoga: Play music

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Discussion Forum: General Discussion: Iyengar Yoga:
Play music

Bryan Alexander
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Mar 25, 2003, 1:27 PM

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Does anyone out there practice with music playing in the background? What kind of music do you listen to?

Does music help or hinder you?

I confess that I find music kind of distracting.

Bryan Alexander
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Mar 29, 2003, 6:58 AM

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Yes, Bryan, on Sundays, there's usually music playing at the yoga studio's open practice. That's the one time of the week when I have music during my practice. Usually some kind of music from Asia--Ravi Shankar, or gamelan, or some kind of chanting.

It works to balance my scientific approach to asanas with a spiritual mood.

What's your problem? You get distracted? Is your mind so narrow that it cannot hold two tracks at once?

Lianne
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Apr 1, 2003, 8:28 PM

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LOL! Bryan - you're cracking me up here. Tongue

Up until a few months ago, I really didn't like practicing with music - like you I found it distracting. But I had some friends who always practiced with music - so one day I gave it another try and like you, I really liked it. I think it depends on the mood I'm in. I like how you put it:

Quote

It works to balance my scientific approach to asanas with a spiritual mood

I never really thought of it that way - but I think you're right. Smile

I often play eastern music, but often anything that is mellow works for me. Like Leonard Cohen's latest "10 new songs", is a good one.

Lianne

Bryan Alexander
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Apr 2, 2003, 7:08 AM

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Is someone interrupting my conversation with myself?

Bryan Alexander
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Apr 3, 2003, 5:18 AM

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Anyway, it's obvious that music agitates some people's minds, causing them to see the world in dichotomies such as science/spirit. Oy, you people!

Tom
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Apr 3, 2003, 5:50 AM

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I couldn't interrupt the conversation you were having with yourself... The music was too loud...(smile)
I don't play music for my personal practice. I find it distracts me from being fully engaged. I have played it for some classes to impart certain qualities to the session. I have attended quite a number of sessions that employ recorded music. The body is clearly moved by music, whatever the rhythm, so it's quite natural to desire sound. The correlation between sound and yoga is something Ramanand Patel teaches in enhancing breath, practice and awareness.(Yogacarya Shri B.K.S.Iyengar student since 1968). Jaime Stover Schmitt,(author of Every Woman's Yoga) incorporates music in her teaching as well. I seem to recall she studied with Srivatsa Ramaswami and AG Mohan. (I don't know if either of these teachers encourages the use of music). Perhaps Ramanand or Jaime would be a good resource for your inquiry. There was a list of music put together by about 35 folks I attended a yoga and movement workshop with last year. It was one of those things were everyone contributes their "favorite" music for inspiration/practice. If I can find it, I'd be happy to send it to you. Have you heard anything from The Yoga of Sound by Russill Paul?
Namaste'
Tom

markc
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Apr 18, 2003, 12:22 PM

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Regarding music during asanas, I would say that it depends on what one's goal is. If yoga asanas are primarily a physical practice, then music won't make a lot of difference.

However, I encourage everyone to explore the depth of yoga as a technique for spiritual unfoldment. If one is familiar with locating the trancendent within oneself through meditation, then there is a rich opportunity for experience.

I started meditating 31 years ago and though I meditate daily, I have been somewhat sporatic in my asanas during that time. I did them perhaps 10 minutes daily for a couple of years, increasing to 30 min daily for another couple of years, then sliding back to perhaps only once in several months for the next 15 years. About 10 years ago I got into running and found that I got more bliss doing asanas to warmup than I did in the run. I really got into seeing how long I could hold each pose, and settled in at 3-5 min each. That's when I started transcending in various poses and soon gave up on running altogether as a set of asanas took 2-3 hours.

At the time I started listening to a CD of The Blue Pearl Experience, which chants Om Namah Shivayah very slowly, so that two reps take a full minute. I found this to be a very blissful way to time each pose.

I did this each weekend for a couple of years, and then slipped away again for 8 years. Six months ago I got back into the routine and have done an hour and a half daily for the last two months.

As I have become more familiar with the subtler levels of the mind, I find that the character of the inner light and celestial symphony changes with each pose. Having any kind of music or chanting on tends to dilute the ability to immerse myself in these more fascinating levels, so I have found that the sounds of silence are most pleasing.

I encourage learning to transcend and then listen to the bliss of silence in the asanas.

Enjoy,
Mark

Silvia
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Sep 2, 2003, 3:40 AM

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The silence! Yoga in a marginal neighborhood in Cuba!

Hello Markc and everybody who has written about this!

I definitive prefer the silence when I do yoga. I agree with Markc. Sometimes I have tried to listen to som music while doing asanas -different kinds of music- but I feel is distracting.
I experience the silence is the best for really concentrating in breathing during asanas and being aware of the very much that happends inside me -to me? me? with me?- during asana practice.

When I began practice Iyengar yoga I was living in Cuba, my homeland. I was taking my classes at the National Theater, and it was silence there. But I used to live in a little apartment in a old and half-marginal part of Havanna. My neighbors were always talking -with high cuban voices, screaming, arguing, the children were playing, sometimes a ball would bang my door... and people selling things would go by my door, chanting prices and qualities of different products: Aguacateeeeee! Mangooooo! Cebooooollas!

It was difficult to feel the silent in my room and in myself, like an aura, separating me from the crowd. But I wanted to do yoga. So I tried to do my best.

Now I live in Sweden and I enjoy the Swedish silence for my asana practice, but I miss my neighbors very much. You can't have all!

Good luck with your practice!
Silvia.

Bryan Alexander
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Sep 4, 2003, 10:52 AM

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Silvia, your comment reminded me of a meditation group I used to belong to. We met in a certain person's home, and she lived next door to a special home for people with a combination of schizophrenia and any other physical disability. Such strange vocalizations! And across the street there lived a professional trumpet player who often practiced during our silent sittings.

Silvia
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Sep 10, 2003, 12:30 AM

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Hello Brian! I smile while reading your poster... Strange place for meditating. But one do the best one can! Wink

I hope you have a better place now.
I had also a trumpet player next building in Havanna. But it was ok. Around the corner was a drums player. I used to thank God for I just got the trumpet!
Saludos!
Silvia.

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