Michael Franti, Girish, Deva Premal, Wah, Jai Uttal.  For most of us yogis we've heard their tunes in our yoga classes.  Or not.  Ask your fellow yogis about how they feel about music in the yoga room and you'll hear a wide range of opinions.  Although it's a personal preference, it can also be a philosophical question with regard to the purpose of our yoga.  If we are in class to still our minds and get in touch with our bodies, does Marvin Gaye, Thievery Corp, or Coldplay help or hinder?  If you like classes that play music does that make you shallow and unyogic?  An article in latest edition of Common Ground boldly states, ". . . it [music] enhances the experience, allows for creative expression and brings yogis into a deeper state of letting go that allows the meditative and healing qualifies of yoga to be heightened." (1)

Regardless of your opinion of music in the studios, it has become big business.  The most asked question after class is not "can you help me with my triangle pose", but "what was that song you played for savasana?".  You think I'm kidding.  In addition to playlists of celebrity yogis in Yoga Journal, yoga mixes in iTunes, OmStream, there is now YogiTunes(.com), created to connect yoga teachers, students and musicians.   Live music in the yoga room is popping up and, of course, the festivals--Wanderlust and BhaktiFest.  Listen to some teachers and musicians talk about the phenomenon here. Note the cameos (at 0:59 seconds) by Sebatopol's own Yoga Journal Magazine editor, Kaitlin Quistgaard, also in Common Ground this month, and turquoise-clad Ann Austin next to her doing her Warrior II rock-star-thing. 

The music question seems to follow the different styles of yoga.  Iyengar and Ashtanga, no way; Kundalini, yes; Vinyasa, definitely, almost required; Bhakti via Rusty Wells, loud and hip.  Judith Lasater is adamant about music during restorative yoga.  She feels that audio stimulation will interfere with nervous system especially if it is tied to memories.  However, many restorative yoga students like the calming effect of music and that it can actually focus the mind rather than distract it.

Personally, I like music with my practice-loud-ish, but not blaring.   I like to shake my booty a bit in downward dog, and the right music can put it in the mood.   My husband even has an opinion, "My choice is hip music before class, semi hip during and chillaxin for savasana."  I have tons of yoga mixes for teaching, but since leaving San Francisco, I've found few studios that encourage music and some that forbid it.   Fortunately, along with many different styles of yoga we also can choose whether we want music or not.

What about you?  

Do you like/not like music with your practice?  I'd like to know.

(1) No Author, "Introducing YogiTunes." Common Ground, September 2011 

[Want to read some of my earlier posting.  You can find them here.  Enjoy.]  

Are you a student of Anne O'Brien's, yogini and teacher extraordinare?  I am and so glad to see her teaching a Saturday morning class at Yoga Community in Sonoma from 10:30 - 12:30.  It's a Level 3 class so students should be regular practitioners with no major injuries. 

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