The Art of Indian Ragas & Rasas
Introduction to Raga Singing and Devotional Chanting

DAYLONG INTENSIVE
Sunday, April 27 10am–5pm

http://www.ciis.edu/publicprograms/spring08/spring08april.html (scroll down)

Location:
CIIS Main Building
1453 Mission St, San Francisco
$125

About the Raga & Rasa System
We explore the architecture of music emotions and the
essence of melodic movement
and deepen the experience of MANTRA HEALING

Ragas are not scales, ragas are inspiring entities that can refine your voice quality by balancing our nervous system, shifting our emotions, and transform consciousness
immediately, deeply, and delightfully. Ragas are "alive", and the best music teachers.

The raga is the most important concept that any student of Indian or Western music should understand to seep listening, improvise & compose music. The Hindi/Urdu word "rag" is derived from the Sanskrit "raga" which means "colour, or passion". It is linked to the Sanskrit word "ranj" which means "to colour" (Apte 1987). Therefore rag may be thought of as an acoustic method of colouring the mind of the listener with an emotion. Musically, ragas are melodic arrangements. Their origins is ancient and sacred, they were composed by celestial beings and channeled by Indian Masters and lineages of musicianship through oral transmission. There are 75.000 ragas and they developed through a modal structure. The slow development of the melody is the heart of this music. The haunting melodies an the microtonal intervalic logic are regarded as the “color of the mind” , being the result of tonal arrangements ruled by cosmological and aesthetic laws related with dimensions of light ( i.e.: night and day ). A raga is complete when it achieves its tonal taste or “rasa” which is another element in classical Indian music.

Rasa is perceived as a sentiment, which could be described as an aesthetic experience. Although rasa is unique, in practice we distinguish several “savors” according to the emotion which colors it : erotic love, pathetic, devotional, comic, fearful, repugnant, horrific, heroic, fantastic, furious, peaceful. The individual feels immersed in that mood to the exclusion of all else including himself. Thus, aesthetic experience is a transformation of not merely feeling, but equally of cognition, “ a condensed understanding in the mode of ecstasy “; the ecstasy of the intellect, an ecstasy itself inscrutable and illuminating. In the Vedas the experience of rasa is described as a flash of super-worldly blinding light, which appears to whom the knowledge of ideal beauty is innate and intuitive. It is an experience impossible to analyze.

We will explore the meaning of rasa through images of taste, relish, essence, something like the nectar of the fruit, the best or finest part of it. It is like perfume, which comes from matter but it is not easy to describe or comprehend, since has non-physical properties, often yielding pleasure. In its subtlest sense, rasa comes to signify a state of heightened delight, the kind of bliss that can be experienced only by the spirit ( “ananda”). It is a pure delight that only the presence of a work of art can make as feel. It is perceived as an emotional pleasure, which Hindus refer to as the “taste of the mind”, or the delight of reason, an inspiring energy which is experienced by sharing a feeling and suddenly understanding the essence of a work of art. Therefore, rasa describes a state of enhanced emotional perception produced by the presence of musical energy and is applicable to all creative expression, being particularly powerful in the art of healing with sound and music.

To read more about this topic go to RECOMMENDED READINGS:
• RAGA YOGA
• RASA, INTO THE CORE OF MUSIC HEALING, by Silvia Nakkach, M.A., M.M.T.
• The Architecture of Music

Bibliography:
• The Classical Music of North India, by Ali Akbar Khan, edited by George Ruckert
• My Music, by Ravi Shankar

Register on line: http://www.ciis.edu/publicprograms/spring08/spring08feb.html#nakkach

The SOUND HEALER’s Seminar

Five Element Evaluation and Sound Healing

The focus of this class is on introducing and developing the foundation skills necessary to evaluate clients. The class presents a model for the sound healer to learn, explore, and develop an energy-based evaluation system in order to integrate diverse skill sets and modalities for sound healing sessions. Students will learn how to access and evaluate the five elements, and create a sound healing session using tuning forks, voice, movement, and music. somatic touch, herbs, counseling questions and suggestions, color, and light visualizations. John will lecture on the five elements, and offer practical exercises for understanding them through stories, the voice, movement patterns, tissue palpation, and intuitive sensing. Students would learn how to write down their evaluation with a special notation for the five elements.

Lunch Break @1-2PM ~
(please bring your lunch/no oven or microwave available)

The Sound Healer’s Clinic

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5
1:30-7PM

Experiential
(The number of participants will be limited to 16, apply asap)

FEES: $150 – with pre-registration only

The focus of the clinic is on supervised evaluation. John will directly work on students as well as watch students evaluate and work among them. Participants bring their health issues and practice questions and John – hands-on- will evaluate and work with it, in a small group resonance and discussion.

HOW THE DAY will FLOW
in accordance with John’s intention:

“ I would evaluate people in the group, teach how I evaluated, and do sessions and explain my process based on my evaluation etc. I though this would be free flowing and organic and could move as the sessions moved…. The session would have more meaning because it would come in the context of a real life situation that a student will bring.

The main structure I have used is quite simple. I just start working on people in the class and talk about what I am doing as I am working and they ask questions. Sometimes we break out and I have the students practice what I was doing and sometimes I go into a lecture on what I was doing. Also during this format I may process students --- this means I start asking them questions and ask them to evaluate someone and seek to find out how they are thinking. Sometimes this is more intellectual and sometimes it may get emotional and I point out issues that need addressing. It is free flowing based on a real person and a real session. I never know what is going to happen however I am always prepared and follow the energy.

I may do not work on everyone in class. In fact I have done these classes and spent a whole day on something one person presented. The reason for this is that we go in depth and this requires all sorts of knowledge, discussion, process, and making connections plus my recommending areas of study to fill in areas of knowledge that a student needs to be successful….. I have found that during the evaluation process that the sounds will appear. The student’s ability to recognize "the appearing" and translate it into voice, tuning, forks, etc. requires a total focus. Anything that is distracting from their focus also distracts from their evaluation or valuing of the client. I help students deal with these distractions and keep on track.”

Suggesting readings :

Beaulieu, John, Music and Sound In The Healing Arts, Station Hill Press, Barrytown NY 1989
Beaulieu, John, Polarity Therapy Workbook, BioSonic Enterprises,Stone Ridge NY 1993

During the sessions some books & learning materials will be available for purchase

Registration & Sign up procedure is as follows:
1 Send Silvia an email at voxmundi@yahoo.com and let her know if you want to sign up for the seminar, the clinic, or both. Silvia requests no phone calls.
2 Print the class Registration Form from the website (http://www.voxmundiproject.com/registration_form.htm ) and fill out one form for each session you want to attend.
3 Write a check payable to Vox Mundi for $150 for one session or $300 for both. (If you want to use PayPal, add 4% = $156 per class.)

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LECTURE
The Art of improvisation

Friday, February 29, 7-9pm
Finding Your Inner Musician

WORKSHOP

Finding Your Inner Musician
David Darling and Silvia Nakkach

Saturday, March 1, 10am–5pm
Sunday, March 2, 9am–noon
David Darling and Silvia Nakkach

REGISTER ON LINE

We are all born with the innate ability to sing, to dance, and to live a celebratory creative lifestyle. Music is one of the most natural ways through which we can heal and celebrate our spirit. Singing, chanting, drumming, and playing the piano or any instrument allows us to nurture a loving relationship with ourselves through music.

This workshop provides a humorous and energetic environment for practicing exercises that will deepen our relationship with our own natural musical self. Through improvisational techniques and musical gestures from the music of India, Brazil, Africa, and the West, students discover how distant worlds of music complement and complete each other, engaging in optimally balanced left and right brain activity.

This all-levels workshop is designed to help you develop confidence through creating a positive musical experience and cultivating a balanced approach to a long-term musical journey.

David Darling, cellist, composer, and educator, has been opening hearts to the mystery of sound for four decades. He is celebrated for his energetic, loving, and accepting style in emancipating the musical soul in those he teaches. He has produced numerous recordings, as well as released eight solo albums and more than three dozen collaborative efforts with such diverse artists as Paul Winter and Jan Garbarek.

Silvia Nakkach, MA, MMT, is an award-winning composer, therapist, and pioneer in the field of sound and transformation of consciousness. She is the founding director of Vox Mundi School of the Voice and a teacher and the academic advisor for the Sound, Voice and Music Healing Certificate at CIIS.

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A Weeklong Creative Expression Retreat
And Chanting Journey

An inspiring way to revitalize your Spring break With extraordinary artist and meditation teacher Mayumi Oda, & Silvia Nakkach, musician

The Yoga of the Voice™
TRAINING SEMINARS
Embracing the Mystical, Creative and Scientific
Dimensions of Sound

Includes:
Sound in Consciousness, Healing & Spirituality
Voice, Transformation, and Music Shamanism


Silvia in Bahia by Meridian
master photographer Meridian can be reached at travellygirl@yahoo.com

Learn about
The 100- Hour Yoga of the Voice™ Certificate from The Vox Mundi School

ADMISSION & REGISTRATION FEE for the CERTIFICATE (one time only): $200
Admission interview is required, the interview can be processed by phone.
To complete the Certificate students must complete 3 weekend seminars and a week-long retreat.
Each weekend offers 20 hours towards the Certificate
Student accrue 30 hours during the week long retreat in Santa Cruz
and students can also accrue or accumulate HOURS by taking:
~ Study Abroad travels - accrue 30 hours - to Japon, India, Brazil, Morocco, or any group study offered by Vox Mundi Project
~ Taking four weekends and a special individual project - this is a special option for international students, or students from out of town.
~ Students from out of town may apply for a customized schedule of classes that includes special individual projects.

To obtain the Certificate all students must complete an midterm integration paper and CD, and a final individual project.
The 100 hours Certificate must be completed in no more than 18 months for local students and up to 24 months for international students

For Inquires about the Certificate please contact our office at 510- 595 0819

(*) Tuition for Santa Cruz Week-Long Retreat please check further details on the Program Page

“I invite you to the great adventure..” The Mother
THE YOGA of the VOICE™
The most accomplished Program of its kind

Integral approach engaging
Body-Mind-Spirit
East/West/ North & South Wisdom
Sound Science
Spirituality
Sacred & Unusual Vocal Arts
Devotional Chanting
Healing Power of Music
Cross-cultural Music Therapy
Shamanic Wisdom
Transformation of Consciousness
Repertoire Development
Improvisation
Cutting-edge Faculty

What is the Yoga of the Voice™?

Unlike any other program, the yoga of the voice™ integrates the transformative discipline of yoga with contemporary techniques of chanting, sound healing, music therapy, improvisation, and voice development as a gateway to connect with our true energetic nature. Students discover scientific, intuitive, and creative ways to address any voice impediment while learning new skills to build a solid sound healing practice.

The 100-hour Yoga of the Voice™ Certificate program is nurtured by a powerful musical lineages providing cross-cultural and stimulating education on the therapeutic, artistic, and transcendental uses of sound, with a renewed spiritual emphasis.

The seminars offer an in-depth study of the different dimensions of the healing voice: the contemplative, the expressive, the shamanic, and the ecstatic. Students learn to embody the quality of singing that transforms energy patterns and emotions, affecting consciousness more efficiently than any other form of sound. Participants become familiar with uses of sound and the voice in yoga, complementary medicine, energy healing, education, performance, and as spiritual practice. The experience supports the aspirant creative and professional path, inspiring deep healing and compassionate insight.

What I will be studying?
Areas of Study

• Sacred Music of The World
• Devotional Chanting & Mantra Medicine
• Shamanic Voices
• The Art of Melodic movement, modes, raga & rasa
• Voice development & The Art of Improvisation
• Sound, Chant, & Music in Healing/ Therapeutic modalities
• Professional Applications
• Repertoire Development
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

• Nada Yoga, Kirtan, Bhakti Yoga and Tibetan spiritual music
• Afro-Brazilian healing songs • Deity invocations • Chants from the Amazon • Sufi Chants • Sonorous & melodious Yogic Practices • Magic seed-syllables • Tuning • Vocal Embellishments • Toning • Resonance • Ancient breathing techniques• Chakras and Subtle Energy Systems • Body postures and Sonorous Mudras • Vocal Meditation • Overtone singing • Contemporary extended vocal techniques • Mystical uses of sound • The effect of sound on the body, the brain, and the mind • Sound Tools as Drones, Tuning forks, bells, and drumming, and digirideu • Intuitive playing skills with simple instruments • Sound and Movement • Conducting sound rituals • Ongoing chanting groups & Music and Sound Healing circles

What can you expect to obtain from this program?

• Personal transformation through a sound
• Practice chanting & music as a sacred art
• Conduct rituals & chanting and study groups
• Access higher states of creativity and liberation through sound
• Learn innovative healing modalities to ‘open’ your voice through ancient breathing and sonorous yogic practices.
• Discover how certain sounds, musical intervals, scales, rhythms, and chants impact specific areas of the brain and the body
• Free oneself from any personal memory of vocal constraint empowering one’s confidence and the readiness to sing.
• Build a practice of chants and sounds that clear, tune, and stimulate the brain and the energy of the charkas.
• Identify ways to transform energy patters and emotional states.
• Learn how to employ musical instruments as healing tools,
• Realize which musical culture awakens your ancestral musical lineage
• Build professional collaborations/networking/ guidance/ tutoring
• Embody divinity through sound, enhancing vitality, and fostering a sense of well-being, openness, and love.
• Become a Certified Sound & Voice Practitioner

Who Should apply?
Musicians & singers, yoga practitioners, health care professionals, clinicians, singers, sound healers, somatic and music therapists, body workers and spiritual seekers

How can you apply this Program?
E-mail or Call to request a phone or personal interview
voxmundi@yahoo.com & (510) 595 0819

About the Program:

Like shamans, yogis, and mystics, today’s sound healing practitioners use sound, music, and the voice as gateways to transcendence and the exploration of consciousness. Integrating science with the wisdom of sacred and aboriginal sound practices, Silvia Nakkach and the Vox Mundi faculty lead participants in an exploration of the role of sound, voice, music, and intention in assisting psycho-spiritual insight and healing.

Merging sound and music therapy practices with the traditions of Indian, Tibetan, and Afro-Brazilian devotional chanting, students learn innovative forms of vocal improvisation, shamanic songs, and divine utterances. Participants will experience an innovative and unique cross-cultural model for using sound, voice, and music in contemporary therapies, with an emphasis on integration and spiritual renewal. In this fascinating seminars information meets inspiration towards a precise and powerful integration in the practitioner personal and professional practice.

With the fast emerging field of Sound and Music in Healing it becomes increasingly important to understand more about how sound and chanting can support therapeutic and growth processes. This program offers an in-depth study of the use of the voice, chanting, and the music of cultures that use sound to transform consciousness and realize healing. The Intensive Certificate is the only of this kind, providing the students with mindful, integral, and stimulating education in an optimum intimate environment for personal and professional development, learning about both practical and transcendental uses of sound, students will be able to go deeper into the experience of the transformative power of sound and the voice.

Using the voice to transform consciousness and promote healing, students will learn a selected repertoire of chants focus on distinct uses of sacred sound from Afro-Brazilian chant, Amazon healing songs, Indian ragas and mantras, and sonorous yogas (ancient yogic practices involving sound). Vocal improvisation, voice range and tone quality are also part of the curriculum of the intensive.

Discovering how through the practice and application of certain sounds, musical intervals and scales, rhythms and chants is possible to impact specific areas of the mind and the body, recognizing immediate ways to transform energy patters and emotional states.

Learning to cultivate familiarity with shamanic forms of vocal expressions and sonorous yogas, such as toning, tuning to the divine energy of seed syllables, invocation, mantras, medicine melodies and vocal meditation and to be able to incorporate these therapeutic practices in daily life and professional practice. Being the finest objective to experience divinity through sound and the devotional nature of sacred chant.

Providing an in-depth understanding of how the integration of chanting, movement and shamanic cosmology becomes a practice of personal empowering and inspiration, realizing improved vitality and spiritual liberation through sound.

Students will discover which musical culture opens personal doorways to open the voice and sing more, experiencing how group chanting encourages kindness and respect for other cultures, traditions and life.

Course Format and Activities

Lecture, discussion, experiential chanting, audition of selected discography, video and digital recording projects, written questionnai