One of my favorite things to do at places like Whole Foods or the store in a yoga studio is to put on headphones and listen to some of the music they are promoting.Ā One of my main tasks when I am at Kripalu or Omega is to plunk myself down and go through dozens of CDs and then only let my self buy my favorite 10%.
Just so you understand part of my biases, if a CD has a lot of slow-moving and then fast tempo songs I tend to discard those, even if I really dig them since I want to have one consistent mood when I am teaching or practicing and donāt have to get up and change the music….I just find that disruptive for myself.Ā I tend to stay away from stuff that has loud bells or chimes in the middle of a long tranquil spell since it breaks the mood.Ā Ā Itās hard to hold tree pose when all of a sudden you hear a clanging, āGONGā.
Most of the music works well for other things like massage and other spiritual activities and some of them are just slow and sensual and great for just chilling and romancing. if you donāt like hearing someone chant Oooooommmmm for a full hour when you are practicing then you can check these out.
So here is my list of Yoga Music CDs Reviews, in no particular order.
Creation by David Young – This is a great all purpose yoga, massage or just chill CD.Ā It has an even ambient tone and no surprises on it.Ā He has a lot of other great romantic, spiritual music, some of which are more suited to yoga than others.
Mirabai Ceiba – A Hundred Blessings. Some of the tracks are in English and some in Sanskrit and one is even in Spanish.Ā Their voices are soothing and quite melodic but the transition from a slow paced to a fast paced song might catch you off guard if you arenāt watching the pace of your class.Ā Suitable for a vigorously paced yoga class for some of the songs.
Snataum Kaur – She does traditional Kirtan or chanting, some in English, some in Sanskrit.Ā One of my Indian friends hates going and hearing westerners chant in Sanskrit…she says it hurts her ears to have Westerners butcher the sacred sounds of Sanskrit.Ā (Hey Nikita, sometimes it hurts my ears to hear you butcher the English language with your Bengali accent)Ā Kaurās voice is very pure and angelic.Ā Ā My favorite CDs of hers are Prem and Celebrate Peace.Ā Iāve been to a few of her concerts, which are not as pulsating as Krishna Das but still a moving and profound experience.
Sounds of Sleep for Infants –Ā Iāve never heard anyone else play this at a yoga studio or any hippy-dippy event.Ā It is basically the sound of heartbeat with some very soft music in the background which was produced so that parents could have a way to soothe their colicky infants to sleep.Ā I actually like playing this for myself when I go to bed and then I got the idea to play this during the restorative part of the yoga class.Ā Ā Itās quite hypnotic and ambient. I wouldnāt play this during a vigorous yoga class but perfect for shivasana or for a restorative or gentle class.