Sweet people! If you know me, you know that I love music. And musicians. And dancing. And chanting. And singing. And music music music. And since I grew up dancing and playing instruments and being totally immersed in a community that valued music as much as I did, it’s only natural that a truly significant part of my yoga practice includes the music I listen to.

Yet I have mixed feelings about music in yoga classes, and I’m sure many of you do too. In my years of teaching and practicing, not a day goes by where I don’t ask myself the question: should music really be playing during a yoga class or home practice?

And for me, the answer is yes…kinda.

Here are some issues that come to mind:

• Some teachers play really crappy music.
• Crappy is a very subjective term.
• Some teachers play music so loud you can’t hear the teachings.
• It’s easy for music-led yoga classes to become hip, cool fitness classes with hip, cool music.
• Music has an emotive quality…and that may or may not be a good thing.

Let’s discuss:

Musical Taste:

So what happens when you go to class and your teacher starts playing something god awful? Is it part of your sadhana then to practice patience, detachment, and compassion for other people’s less-than-palettable musical taste? That’s certainly a great container for growth, but there’s certainly a lot to be said for learning to tune out your own mental chatter than the chatter of your least favorite Top 40 song playing in your yoga class.

DJ -vs- Yoga Teacher

My teacher and friend Rebecca Pacheco once told me: “You’re a yoga teacher first, DJ second…if at all.” Emphasis there on the “if at all.”

So great if you happen to have dope taste in music and know how to piece together a playlist really nicely….what if your students lose track of what you’re teaching since they’re so wrapped up in what you’re spinning?

Why not just run them lose on a treadmill with some headphones and call it day? Well, then, they wouldn’t be doing yoga. So there’s that.

Music + Emotion

This is the biggest issue for me on the “music + yoga” front. Because music has an emotive quality to it. It helps us go to those places in our hearts, pasts, and memories. It evokes. It inspires. It emotes. This is why we love music, and this is why so many of us love practicing with music…it helps us go to the places you want to go. I can’t tell you how many times I practiced listening to Bon Iver’s cover of I Can’t Make You Love Me after a disastrous break-up. It helped get that good “yoga cry” going on and I felt like I was being productive and working through my shit.

So great, we get ourselves into a space where we can release and let go and heal and do whatever we need to do.  But…is that really a good thing? When we start going in to a practice expecting a certain outcome (to get over a guy, let my body heal, to banish fear of our  potential, to become stronger…), when does that start to be a crutch for our experience as practitioners? Aren’t we limiting our experience to what we desire? And if we’re letting our desires dictate our practice, then our practice just becomes one giant ego trip, instead of an escape from ego. You give the ego an inch and it asks for a mile, so when you play a sappy love song or super peppy dance-tastic jam, you better believe the ego is gonna go wild with that s***.

And while it’s great to have a tool that helps you go where you need to go…isn’t it better for you in the long run to just learn how to get there?

So What’s the Verdict?

This all being said….I play music in nearly all my classes. Why? Because it’s in my bones. I move to music. I teach with music because it is part of my offering. Just like balloons and bad jokes and getting out of your comfort zone and Kundalini kriyas and heart-felt pep talks are part of my offerings. To know Sweet G is to be immersed in music, so to cut that out of my teaching –to me– feels like I’m selling you, my students, a little bit short.

But I do understand that that’s not always the case with every teacher. And I do understand the emotive and ego-inducing qualities of music. It’s beecause of that I try to mitigate the smoke-and-mirrors effect that music has in a class. How? By being a yoga teacher first and a DJ….last. I appreciate music as a tool, just as blocks and straps and blankets help students access poses in a different way. I accept its limitations and the allure of music to dictate my students’ experience. Which simply means I need to be more articulate, clear, and strong in the Truth of what teachings I am offering.

In short…I just. teach. yoga. The music just comes along for the ride.

And with that said, here’s a playlist from this week’s classes at VIRAYOGA. I’ll be archiving + posting them here.

Yoga teachers, chime in! Do you play music in your class? Why or why not?

Let us know!

{ sat nam + namaste }

xo

G