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Yoga and Singing: A Perfect Match

I write to you all after having just finished watching the movie titled "Awake: the Life of Yogananda". I have been profoundly impacted by this film and its interconnectedness to singing. More specifically, I was delighted, although somehow not surprised, to see that Amelita Galli-Curci, a very famous Italian opera singer in the early 1900's, was a visitor to Swami Yogananda's school in Los Angeles, California. The film shows that his teachings completely changed her approach to her own singing and benefited her not only psychologically but also heightened and improved her vocal abilities. This doesn't surprise me because I believe, as a singer, that we are drawn to discovering life's deep truths. We singers are called to tell stories that can uncover pathways into opening the hearts and minds of our listeners in order to positively change them and their views on life and their fellow human beings. When you sing for a living, you are inextricably bound to delve into the difficult emotional work which you have inside yourself, as well as that which you sense in the world around you; in the energy that you feel radiating from each place, thing and person that you meet. You are familiar with this as a singer because you are familiar with feeling the buzz of confirmation, like a bolt of lightning or electricity, when your voice melds with the sublime melody of life. You are listening and looking for the subtle vibrations which your body and your psyche confirm as correct, not only musically but also spiritually. Certainly we are not always experiencing these moments in singing, but when we do, we know. And that is why I think singing is something from which you cannot divest yourself once you've felt that strong pull to become a singer and to make singing your life. It is a calling.

Every time that I've felt the profound calm that is bestowed upon me during meditation, or the supremely exalted feeling that sometimes comes over me while I'm practicing yoga in a series of Asanas, I am reminded how much singing is like yoga. In the best circumstances, singing can take you outside of yourself and your focus on the world and transport you into a realm of peacefulness, joy and love, since that is what you feel as the performer reflected back to you from the eyes of your audience members. Of course this doesn't happen during every performance, but I honestly feel like I know I've done my best when I am electrified in this way while singing, and I have gotten positive feedback from audience members that confirm this suspicion.

I find too, that if I practice Asanas and meditation before I begin singing practice at home, that I am immensely more focused, more attuned to my abilities and the sensitivity with which I can evaluate my tone production both physically by sensations within my body but also aurally by listening to the sounds I'm producing. Yoga helps me feel alive and vibrant and keeps my body flexible, healthy and strong- all things that are necessary for singing. I am more aware of what my body is doing after I've practiced yoga and can therefore more accurately interpret the roles I'm singing, or more freely and organically choose certain reactions or postures without feeling locked in my body or tight in any way. This of course becomes extremely useful when I'm singing and want to portray someone who is utterly different from me in stature, character or manner. I am now much more malleable than I was before I began my daily practice of yoga several years ago.

Thus, I can only encourage fellow singers to practice yoga in both Asana and meditation form, to deepen their awareness of themselves and increase the possibility that during singing they can access that special place of communion between the audience and themselves within the music.


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