Sync Yoga with Music

Use music during your yoga practice to harmonize your breathing and life.
Publish date:
Updated on
Sequence to reach Natarajasana (Lord of the Dance Pose)

The power of music is undeniable. Music moves us. But its effects go far beyond our surface experience of song and rhythm. If you've been to a symphony performance, you've heard the musicians simultaneously tuning their instruments to the same note before they begin playing together. If one instrument is slightly out of tune, the other instruments pull that instrument into tune, in a seemingly magical but actually natural phenomenon known as "entrainment," the process of waveforms coming into sync. The result is a harmonious expression of sound.

On a visceral level, we've experienced something similar when our breath or heartbeat naturally falls into sync with that of our loved ones, or when we've clapped or tapped our feet in time at a concert or kirtan. As human beings, we instinctively experience synchronicity through both hearing sounds and feeling rhythms in our bodies. In no place is this more intensely and profoundly experienced for yogis than in a group yoga class. When we practice together, moving and breathing as one, we naturally come into rhythm with one another—whether we're practicing to a Led Zeppelin soundtrack, a classic Sanskrit bhajan, or simply to the sounds of our coordinated Ujjayi breathing.

This visceral experience of oneness through rhythm and sound is like a signpost pointing us to the deeper experience of yoga, the state of enlightenment. I had my first hints of this in my first Jivamukti Yoga class, when the instructor seemed to perfectly time the rhythm of our movements and breath with the driving beat of Krishna Das's "Baba Hanuman" chant. By the end of class, I felt as though I could lie perfectly content in Savasana until the end of time. I've had other moments like this while working with groups to coordinate Sun Salutations without instruction, led only by our synchronous breath.



In Sync




Attend a yoga class with a friend and make a pact to breathe in sync with each other. A nicely audible Ujjayi breath will assist with this. Listen to your friend's breath and, as you coordinate movement and breathing, see how this focus changes the energy of the practice and deepens your connection with your friend.
