The Benefits Of Singing As Meditation

Singing as Meditation is one of the new tracks in our Yogic Mystery School annual theme, which is Fit Body Mindful Soul. Singing has benefits that are physiological, psychological, and spiritual.

Apart from the obvious spiritual benefits of singing Hindu devotional music, which results in elevated states of consciousness, our practice is exploring the connection between musical sound and our overall health, encompassing both physical and psychological aspects. I believe there’s a significant correlation between the two.

The significant impact of music on health and psychology is not only documented in thousands of years of the Yoga of Sound's development, but also from the contemporary work of Oliver Sacks and the earlier contributions of Don Campbell and Alfred E. Tomatis.

The following insights were shared impromptu when students started to arrive for the session and shared what they were planning to do during the session. You are welcome to listen to actual exchanges in the video clip below or read the summary here. The blog's insights continue to develop beyond the video.

The Benefits of Singing As Meditation

There is a substantial body of research supporting the connection between music and healing. I’d like to give you three noteworthy examples.

First, British-American neurologist Oliver Sacks investigated the relationship between music and the brain, especially concerning Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive decline in older adults. His research provides compelling evidence of music’s restorative power, particularly its ability to connect with the brains of those suffering from dementia.

Another significant figure is Don Campbell, known for his contributions to the field of music health and education. He developed the concept known as the "Mozart Effect," demonstrating how listening to and engaging with music can enhance educational outcomes, particularly in children’s math skills. This effect is especially associated with classical music. Don was a good friend.

Going even further back, we have the work of Alfred E. Tomatis, a French physician who initially helped opera singers recover from eardrum injuries caused by their own powerful singing. Later, he noticed that Benedictine monks in France were becoming ill due to a lack of singing. After the Vatican introduced new laws discouraging Gregorian chant in favor of vernacular language, the monks stopped singing, which contributed to their depression. Tomatis recommended that they return to singing, and this significantly improved their mental well-being.

These three luminaries validated the profound impact of music on health through their research. They inspire us in our efforts today in Yogic Mystery School to discover the healing and transformative power of music through singing, particularly devotional singing.

PROGRESSING FROM SINGLE TONES TO ELABORATE DEVOTIONAL SINGING

The foundation of all vocal expression begins with a single tone. As Lao Tzu says, "The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step." Similarly, the melodic expression found in devotional music starts with a single tone.

Our goal is to channel a significant amount of consciousness into this single tone. Achieving this can lead us deep into the therapeutic and spiritual effects of sound, but how do we accomplish it?

First, we must engage in our meditation practice. However, this practice alone is not enough to enhance our vocal expression; we need to actively learn to produce sounds. Simply making sound without technical knowledge will only take us so far. A high-consciousness tone is not just any tone we produce.

Start by considering how to prolong a tone. What do you notice? What do you hear and feel? Is the tone wavering? Is it uneven at the end? How does the tone change as your breath begins to diminish? Does it end abruptly, or does it resolve smoothly? We focus on these aspects to develop a single tone with greater consciousness.

Clearly, breath control is crucial for producing a single tone, which lies at the heart of Nada Yoga, the Yoga of Sound. How long can you maintain a single tone? Integrating our pranayama practice of yogic breathing into our tone production is essential for this enhancement.

Next, we explore chanting three tones that can alter our brainwaves. Varying tones can help create entrainment, but which tones should we choose? Should we go a half-step above or a whole step above? A half-step below or a whole step below? We must understand musical intervals to discover how they affect our consciousness. Broadly, there is a difference between minor and major intervals. However, as we dive deeper into the process through our Nada Yoga training, we learn the uniqueness of all twelve intervals and the various combinations of them.

Vedic chanting employs a combination of three tones, making it a wonderful way to begin exploring music through the simplicity of chant. However, there is more to Vedic chanting than just the tones. We learn to follow the rules of the Rishis in our practice, as the quality of entrainment achieved through Vedic chanting is further enhanced by precise Sanskrit pronunciation, particularly regarding the length of vowels and tongue placement. Thus, becoming familiar with Sanskrit pronunciation becomes valuable alongside tone variation and tone production.

In contrast, kirtan incorporates many tones. Through kirtan, we utilize a full range of notes, creating particular moods that can persist in our consciousness for extended periods. The Greeks referred to these as "modes" for this reason—because they produce mood. In Indian music, these modes are connected to mystical states and deities as well. At this stage, knowledge of ragas (scales and modes) is beneficial, which is part of our Nada Yoga training. As we progress, the calibration of pitch becomes essential. What is the use of knowing ragas if the intervals are not in tune? This, too, is covered in our Nada Yoga training.

More intricate than kirtan is devotional singing. In Carnatic music, the term for this is "kriti," which shares the same root as "kirtan," meaning to give praise. However, kritis are performed solo rather than in a call-and-response format. These exquisite songs can be sung without rhythm, creating an extraordinary effect on our consciousness. We learn such songs in our course, Singing For God.

In our course, Singing as Meditation, we take these exquisite Hindu devotional songs even further, incorporating everything we have been developing. We also learn to express the poetry of the mystics freely through ragas in an extemporaneous manner. This improvisation represents the highest form of devotional expression. At this stage, students learn to creatively express mantras and sacred verses in their own compositions while offering feedback to one another and receiving expert guidance from the instructor.

Learn more and join the process: 
https://www.russillpaul.us/voice 

In our Yogic Mystery School, we are already well underway on this process that began in June of this year. Singing as Meditation picks up on Singing For God which we offered last year and our Kirtan Masterlcass the year before that.

Singing As Meditation is further supported by our Nada Yoga Music Training conducted in the first half of this year. This training provides the musical and technical understanding of pitch that helps calibrate devotional singing. All of these courses and much more are within our Yoga of Sound Immersion.

Our live Zoom trainings are supported by tutorials accessible 24/7 that students use to prepare depending on their interests and focus at this time. And those who don't prepare can use the training to discern their focus and then choose a piece to work with that is supported by their private session.

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