Monday, October 28, 2013

Musical yoga

Nothing can help you reach a higher level of consciousness faster than music. Supriya Sharma finds out how yoga classes, in India and abroad, are using music to reach out to more people.

In a faintly lit room young yogis try and balance delicate asanas to the tune of a sitar. The room vibrates with this coming together of two ancient forms. As the class sways to yoga guru Zubin Atre's postures, the accompanying sitarist Galen Passen does impromptu musical improvisations making it a seamless flow of energies. Sitar yoga has caught the fancy of Delhiites, who love this new concept of musical yoga sessions. "I have done improvised jam sessions before, where a group of people play music, dance, and sometimes do yoga simultaneously at my yoga studio. Passen and I improvised together at one such session, and then the idea of sitar yoga followed," tells Atre.


Music can help lift students through difficult sequences with upbeat music or create a restorative vibe with calm music. A soulful musician can truly make a difference in creating the perfect atmosphere for a class. Combining music with yoga is a famous practice abroad. Musician Todd Boston fuses acoustic world instruments together to create a unique and beautiful sound. With no pre-recorded tracks he mixes and blends the instruments and his voice in harmony to create a musical journey of soulful, heartfelt compositions. He has played at the Kundalini Yoga and Music Festival in Rishikesh. Similarly, Yoga Soundscape is a unique yoga and music experience curated and guided by Aarona Pichinson in New York. Every week, an eclectic array of talented musicians, laptop masters, or DJs perform live soulful music ranging from old-world tribal instrumental to experimental electronic beats for classes filled with stretched-out breaths and sweaty patches! Source