For a long while I had trouble finding music I liked for yoga. Then F got me one CD, a friend at work passed along another, I picked up a few recommendations from Yoga Journal or random Amazon lists, I figured out what that one great song they always play at the yoga studio was, and along the way I built up a bit of a collection. I thought I’d share with you a mix I made for a yoga class.
Yoga Class Mix # 1: nine songs, 1 hour
| Track No. | Song Title | Duration | Artist | Album | Notes |
| 1 | Crazy Heart | 7:10 | Bahramji and Maneesh de Moor | Call Of The Mystic | I discovered Maneesh de Moor in somebody’s yoga music list on amazon.com. I don’t love the whole album, but this is a good, mellow song to start out a yoga practice and warm you up. |
| 2 | Mahadeva | 5:41 | Anoushka Shankar | Rise | This up-tempo song gets your practice moving. |
| 3 | Rupa Tujhe Deva | 9:10 | Cheb I Sabbah | Krishna Lila | This one’s a little funky, with some Eastern flair. |
| 4 | Namah Shivaya | 7:17 | Krishna Das | Pilgrim Heart | Krishna Das is one of my very favorite musicians for yoga. He’s got like a dozen albums and they all pretty much sound alike, which is great because you can pop on one of his albums and just asana out. This is one of his more upbeat songs. I really like to chant along with him as I practice. |
| 5 | Self Travels | 5:27 | DJ Drez | Jahta Beat – The Progression | I found DJ Drez recommended in Yoga Journal. His music is like yoga meets dance club: funky, great beat, lots of interesting samples mixed in. |
| 6 | Nataraja | 15:06 | Jai Uttal/Ben Leinbach | Music for Yoga and Other Joys | This is the song I loved at the yoga center. The whole album is solid, but this song is just fantastic. It’s mellow and really long, so you can just flow from pose to pose while the song backs you up. I put this song here in my mix because around here it’s usually time for a balance pose, and this song reminds me to do natarajasana. |
| 7 | Rever’s Edge | 2:49 | FLCL Soundtrack | FLCL is an anime series that my friend DB loves, and I scored this song from him. It’s a really beautiful little instrumental, and coming at this point in the mix, it reminds me to slow it down for savasana if I haven’t already. | |
| 8 | Alone In Kyoto | 4:48 | AIR | Lost In Translation Soundtrack | I discovered this song by accident: I’d downloaded the soundtrack to the movie Lost in Translation and put it on my iPod but hadn’t listened to it yet, and then the song came up in random play and I was floored. It’s really beautiful, perfect for calming down and getting ready to relax. |
| 9 | Sri Krishna Arati | 6:51 | Bhagavan Das | Now | Bhagavan Das’s album “Now” is really structured with yoga in mind – you can just pop in the whole album and practice all the way through. This is the savasana song. It’s a good length for savasana, and it even ends with bells gently chiming to bring you back to yourself, followed by “Om” and “Shanti” each chanted three times. I usually stop the song (by gradually turning the volume down) before we get to the bells so I can bring my students out of savasana myself, but it’s a perfect song for an individual practice. |
Rox Does Yoga 