VOICE
and SONOROUS YOGIC Practices
Posture, Attitude, Practice, Chanting,
Mantra
If you can sing divine songs
Mostly soulfully,
You are bound to get the same results
As for your sublime meditation
Sri Chinmoy
The Voice is the primordial instrument of transformation
through sound,as a fabric of breath, vibration and emotion,
our singing voice has the ability to affect the body
and the mind more efficiently than any other form of
sound. Whether the song is a prayerful call to spirit
or a comforting non-verbal melody, the slow sounding
of the voice helps to restore the vitality, reduce stress,
stimulating a feeling of well-being and happiness
We only hear (the frequencies) what our own voice
can produce.
As we listen with our skin, the sound of the human voice
massages the bones. Sound works as a vitamin for the
brain. S.Nakkach
We are born with universal wisdom and universal
truth. When we chant we connect internally with our
own vibrational field of collective and individual experience.
We are born with the capacity to liberate our energy.
By chanting we are awakening and pulsing that life-force
that sometimes is partially dormant. S.Nakkach.
"As we discover ways to invoke the spirit
through the voice, we notice patterns emerging in our
breath, the movement of our body and our brain waves
". Don Campbell
Chanting in an slow pace accompany by a soft drone,
have been shown to slow brain waves down to meditative
alpha (8–13 Hz) and theta (4–7 Hz) frequencies.
Such wave patterns correspond to feelings of well-being
and tranquility. A relaxed mind results in clearer thinking
and increased creativity, as well as greater ease in
recalling dreams.
Chanting helps the release of hormones and enzymes that
relax and balance our organs.
According to the French physician and ear specialist
Dr. Alfred Tomatis, chants is nothing less than our
“royal route “ to the divine. It is also
a kind of vocal art that we all can do well. Dr. Tomatis
affirms that Gregorian chants are a fantastic food for
the brain. All the monasteries that closed down are
the ones where the monks didn’t chant. Greogorian
chants contain all the frequencies of the voice spectrum,
roughly from 70 cycles per second up to 9,000 cycles
per second, but with a very different envelop curve
from that of the normal speech. These timbres, rich
in overtones, charge our brain, revitalizing our main
functions and providing a benefit to whoever listens
to it. Gregorian chants are an awakening of the field
of expanded consciousness, inducing concentration and
sharpening the capacity for self-awareness.
The Voice is the primordial instrument of transformation
through sound.
We only hear (the frequencies) what our own voice can
produce.
As we listen with our skin, the sound of the human voice
massages the bones.
“Devotion is the simplest form
of awareness. It is most natural. There is nothing more
thorough, nothing more innocent, nothing more divine.
Devotion is not practiced. It is the spontaneous dignity
of a purified life.”
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
Creative expression is essentially devotional. Devotional
energy is proportional to the self-confidence it generates.
Practicing more of the same creates more confidence.
In music and art, devotion is felt as longing, and
there are many dimension and textures of the emotion
of longing, from longing for a lover that left us, to
longing for the Beloved, an invisible mystical love.
The Magic of Tone
THE BIRTH POINT OF TONE. A focal point on the lower
lip where the inner air meets the outer. According to
indications of Rudolf Steiner the tone has its place
of origin in the pineal gland. It is the combination
of ear, pineal gland, and embouchure
which creates the birth of tone. We can enhance the
magic of tone with emotion, mood, and directing the
awareness to breathing and sound.
THE POSTURE. The motion is minimal and perpetual, a
focused and subtle movement of breath and deep muscles.
The arms and hands become wings. We embody the bird
in fly . The “presence” is relaxed, but
alert, conscious of no distractions. The mind is focused
on the dimension of intoning breath into sound.
THE PRACTICE : Call and response ( in group or with
yourself). Conscious repetition. Listening and sounding.
Sounding and listening. Exploring texture. Pace. Time
and duration. Exploring the connection we make in between
tones, and in between breath, sound, tone and beauty.
Departure from the drone, up and down. Slow. Soft. Returning
to the drone. Resting in the drone. Be one with the
drone.
Opening with: AOM
Seed syllables are conceived as containing both the
qualities of the female and the male, solar and lunar.
The vowels are female and illuminate, bring light, radiance
into the natural state of mind as consciousness. The
male quality is present in the consonants. Like the
“H”, or “M”, this is very important.
Every seed-sound has to be experienced as both female
and male energies, they are the moment of conception
of breath into sacred sound.
We want to sound to vibrate in both qualities to bring
out that into consciousness.
Chanting Practice Session: From TONE to
CHANT
1. AKANDA SWARA PRACTICE - the Practice of the
Unbroken Tone
Practice slow and focus on the space in between
each syllable and producing the whole phrase with one
exhalation
SA, A, NA ,RI, NUM, OUM
2. DHRUPAD, ALAP
TA, NA, RI, RE, RE, Na, NOM, TOM
Dhrupad: means true composition. It
is an old style of North Indian classical music based
of the slow movement of the voice or the instrument
from one note to the other. It requires a severe routine
of practice, the practitioner starts the practice daily
at 4AM for an hour, with the intention to connect with
the inner silence, and according to the cosmic cycle
of light, during day and night. It is the highest form
of vocal meditation
3. VEDIC PRAYER - SARVE SHAAM
OM: (welcome to the Divine through sound)
SARVESHAAM SVASTIR BHAVATU
SARVESHAAM SHAANTIR BHAVATU
SARVESHAAM PURNAM BHAVANTU
SARVESHAAM MANGALAM BHAVANTU
OM SHAANTIH SHAANTIH SHAANTIH
The VEDIC chants are very old forms of devotional recitation
of the sacred books called Vedas. They are ways to pray
band connect with the Divine. They feel like tonal doctors,
or spirit doctors
4. DHYANAM – means contemplation
in the name of the four Mahadevas
OM NAMAS CHANDIKAYAI DHYANAM
OM MAHAKALI DHYANAM
OM MAHALAKSHMI DHYANAM
DANDAM SHAKTIM ASIM CHA CHARMA
JALAJAM GHANTAM SURABHAJANAM
MAHALAKSHMIM SAROJA STHTAM
OM MAHASARASWATI DHYANAM: prosperity
LAXMI MANTRA
OM SRIM HRIM MAHALAKSHMI KAI TE
NAMA NAMAHI (we did this with ornamental singing)
This piece is on Pentatonic Minor scale - SA
– RE – ga - Pa – Dha
It is based on the dancing energy of Shiva, serpentine,
kundalini, dancing, beyond gender, close to rapture,
is sensual to the dimension of sound, and the combination
of spirituality and SENSUALITY of tone help to keep
your commitment to music.
- IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER – comparative
music concepts
In Indian music, the most important is tuning the voice,
the instrument, and the mind to the “swaras”,
the natural tones, which we know as the notes of the
musical scale, Sanskrit system SA, RE, GA, MA, PA, DA,
NI related to European system DO, RE, MI, FA, SOL, LA,
SI. There are 22 microtones in the space of an octave
in the Indian scale, those microtones are called: Shrutis,
they are only performed by designated string instruments
and the voice. It takes many years of solid practice
to be able to listen to them and to identify them. The
shrutis create the rich ornaments that characterize
the Indian music, they constitute the main difference
between the Easter and the Western sound and an approach
to vocal music, and they induce a kind of spiritual
emotional consciousness to the experience of chanting
and listening to music. Is specially the awareness,
the performance, and the subtle “touch”
of the shrutis that conveys the different ragas and
“rasas”.
Discussion:
On the power of 21 minutes per day minimum chanting
EFFECTS:
Cenesthesia; refers to the generalized
feeling of well-being that results when all the body’s
organs systems function properly, in synergetic alignment
to one another, and vibrate in same frequency. Chanting
moves us in that direction.
In this class on SONOROUS YOGAS we are honoring the
vocal traditions that use sound and chant for personal
liberation, as all the yogas does.
The repetitive Mantra- form is the most common vehicle
for liberation through sound, accessible to us.
Sonorous Yoga is the technology that involves this
FORMULA:
~ Respect for the tradition and the
teacher that transmit the lineage. Honoring
~ Intonation is pure and clear
~ Consciousness and continuous awareness
in the dimension of sound
~ Intention of liberation of conditions.
Healing and/or Transformation energy
“ Chanting is a significant and mysterious
practice. It is the highest nectar, a tonic that fully
nourishes our inner being . Chanting opens the heart
and makes loves flow within us. It releases such intoxicating
inner bliss and enthusiastic splendor, that simply through
the nectar it generates, we can enter the abode of the
Self.”
Swami Muktananda
Chanting the sounds affects more of
body than just listening
Repetition helps the mind to be tamed. The mind immerses
itself in sound and relaxes
Intention creates different dimensions
of devotion
The intention makes a chant into a prayer, invocation,
mantra, or medicine
MANTRA
The seed syllable is also a MANTRA
The Seed Syllable leads Sound into Consciousness and
Consciousness melts into Sound.
From the Rig Veda:
“The master of revelation (Brahman) recites
the mantra in which all the deities have made their
home”.
“May the mantras taught by the wise protect us”.
Mantra
Implies repetition, we repeat to remember, we repeat
to forget what we need or want, we repeat to resonate
and to connect with the nature of mind – pure
clear space with no obscurations – the space of
no-ego grasping or attachments.
Recommended Reading: The Mystery of Mantra
By Muz Murray
Mantra involves rhythmic periodicity by creating a
groove in the mind that guides and leads the mind into
a more extended sense of inner- self and consciousness,
it protects us from our own negative emotions and frees
us from the pollution of our thoughts. This periodic
order of beats entrains the brain inducing trance-states.
Mantra also means word. There is a difference between
the word and the thing, and the word and its effect,
or how it affects consciousness. That protective and
magnetic effect is what we called mantric.
Mantras generate a sense of ecstatic intensity what
makes their practice different from the contemplative
mental energy of the vocal meditation, transforming
energy, and creating a circular sense of motion.
MANTRA creates is a flow, a current of energy, a loop,
we can’t stop chanting the mantra. You are riding
on your own prana, life-force, while clearing it, and
strengthening its power. Mantra practitioners cultivate
long life.
Mantra as a musical form is part of every music, in
every culture, and in every tradition of vocal transformation.
THE FUNCTION of MANTRA
The mantra will protect the mind from obscuration cause
by: passions, anger, greed, delusion, jealousy, pride,
malice,
MAN means the mind that is confined
TRA means cutting through beyond any
condition or control of the mind that thinks.
Mantra has to groove in the mind and body
Mantra “gets you” through its magic, mystic
power of repetition
Mantra illuminates and protects us.
Benefits from Mantra
Shuddhi natural, purification
of mind and body
Bhudhi awakening mind, intelligence
Shutti magic powers, liberation
The PURIFICATION and CLEANLINESS
of mental impurities towards the attainment of inner
serenity. This intention involves a cause of transformation
and in many cases of healing, this is the reason why
all these three forms use of sound can be considered
“Shamanic” in nature.
MANTRA ASSIGMENT:
---- Try to practice the same mantra for a long time,
for a minimum of 21 min if possible each time, until
it becomes familiar.
VOCAL MEDITATION
The intention is to dwell, abide, and vibrate. We move
slowly and with a gentle dance with sound. Drone becomes
our home. Slowly we are discovering the art and emotional
power of melody, a melodic movement that unfolds naturally
and effortlessly. Is the melody in music what delivers
the spirit. Vocal meditation becomes the threshold between
sonorous yogas and melodious yogas. It prepares ones
and our musical imagination to be receptive to receive
and remember divine melodies.
“Every tone is an event. A tone contains limitless
possibilities. Musical tones are conveyers of forces.
Hearing music means hearing an action of forces.”
Zuckerkandl
The practice of vocal meditation consists in singing
with a drone (a continuous sound, which contains myriads
of harmonics and overtone). The voice moves in a very
slow pace allowing for a sensitive connection between
feeling and the vitality within toning. It is like the
experience of tuning an instrument, and it is based
on the art of scales and raga singing. RAGA: is an ancient
tonal arrangement of ascending and descending patterns
and micro-tonal ornaments that evokes the color of the
mind.
We explore “meending,” the space in between
notes. In North Indian music, meend is the art of connecting
notes. We visualize our voice as a string, and we approach
each note as a complete piece of music in itself, sliding
into and out of it. In Western music, meend is referred
to as “portamento.” We also refer this practice
as microtonal singing. The slow glissando, “buttery”,
and wavering motion of the voice approaching one note
from the other conveys deep emotion, giving rise to
feelings that often are not associated with anything
in particular. It helps to release the emotion that
needed to be expressed.
“ Meend vivifies melodies, making them sanguine
and glossy and velvety by turns, saturating them with
feeling. Even a small dose of this practice can significantly
change the way you listen to music, specially sung music,
by opening up the deep world that lies underneath the
surface” . —W. A. Mathieu, Harmonic Experience.
CHANTING.
birdsong brings relief
to my longing
I am just as ecstatic as they are,
but with nothing to say!
please, universal soul, practice
some song, or something, through me!
RUMI
Chanting is a form of vocal meditation based on simple
melody lines which allow variations on rhythm, harmonies
and expressions. It creates a contagious sense of unity,
and well-being. Chanting is a devotional practice that
had been preserved for centuries, and can be found in
all cultures, sharing similar attributes.
To mention some examples; the Hebrew’s davennen,
the kirtans and mantras from India, the Tibetan ritual
prayers, the zhikrs from the Sufis, the Heart Sutras
from the Zen Buddhism, and the African and Amazonian
chants. Robert Gass defines chanting as “discovering
spirit in sound”, understanding “discovering
“ as awakening.
Musically chanting includes mantras, invocations, prayers,
as well as the sustained vocalization of a sacred seed
syllables such as AUM or OM. The rhythm is repetitive,
with subtle alterations of tempo, pace, and pulse, according
to the intensity of the collective experience. The sacred
meaning of the words or syllables adds to the magnetic
and ecstatic effect enhanced by the group sound, as
well as the particular kind of ”intoning “,
breathing in and out sound. In some occasions, the meaning
of the chant is understood at a higher cognitive level,
as a spiritual transmission, and it is translated simultaneously
in the dimension of sound healing and spiritual resonance.
In chanting the voice connects with the transpersonal
dimension of the self, facilitating non-ordinary states
of consciousness. As a healing modality, chanting charges
the brain cells, lowers the blood pressure, and balance
the heart rhythm, inducing relaxation, and elevating
the mood. The healing power of chanting resides also
in its capacity to open us to go beyond our ego-boundaries
to access transcendent states of consciousness and subtle
manifestations of wholeness. Page 8
According to the French physician and ear specialist
Dr. Alfred Tomatis, chanting is nothing less than our
“royal route “ to the divine. It is also
a kind of vocal art that we all can do well. Dr. Tomatis
affirms that Gregorian chants are a fantastic food for
the brain. All the monasteries that closed down are
the ones where the monks didn’t chant. Greogorian
chants contain all the frequencies of the voice spectrum,
roughly from 70 cycles per second up to 9,000 cycles
per second, but with a very different envelop curve
from that of the normal speech. These timbres, rich
in overtones, charge our brain, revitalizing our main
functions and providing a benefit to whoever listens
to it. Gregorian chants are an awakening of the field
of expanded consciousness, inducing concentration and
sharpening the capacity for self-awareness.
In a music therapy session or sound healing session,
the introduction of chanting becomes a way to induce
positive transference in the therapeutic relationship,
and to generate a safe musical container. It is a preliminary
practice, which has the ability to elevate the mood
and to activate deep emotional connections and memories.
The therapist can accompany her /himself ‘with
a drone, any instrument, or a’capella. The steady
and energetic pulse of the chant, can harmonize the
timing of our thoughts, our movements, breathing cycle,
regulating the nervous system, and inducing a sense
of vitality and hope.
Chants are specially indicated to help to bridge the
transition between life and death, with terminally ill
patients.
The therapeutic value of using chanting in music therapy
will depend upon the selected cross-ethnic repertoire,
which will also can include chants that are improvised
and created on the spot, these are relevant to the particular
clinical technique; clinical chant improvisation.
“Chanting is a significant and mysterious
practice. It is the highest nectar, a tonic that fully
nourishes our inner being. Chanting opens the heart
and makes loves flow within us. It releases such intoxicating
inner bliss and enthusiastic splendor, that simply through
the nectar it generates, we can enter the abode of the
Self.” Swami Muktananda
Chanting is defined as the continuous recitation of
a specific phrase or phrases. It is used in meditation
and religious or ritual ceremonies. Some use chanting
as a method of altering consciousness and raising psychic
power or energy. Others claim it connects them with
the Divine.
Various chants in Hinduism and Buddhism use Om,
which represent the Brahman.
Followers of Islam chant the ninety-nine names of Allah
called "the Beautiful Names."
Diadochus of Photice recommended the chanting of the
name of Jesus in prayer for Christians
during the fifth century. Included in Christian chants
are four Western forms - Gregorian, Gallican, Mozarabic,
and Ambrosian; three Eastern forms - Byzantine, Syrian,
and Armenian; and the Coptic and Ethiopian chants of
northern Africa.
Jewish chants are composed of Biblical
texts.
Sound-Remedies has included this section because we
believe that chant is a wonderful psychoacoustic process
for creating relaxation.Through the process of auditory
pattern recognition, mental habituation takes place
in listening to repeating patterns. Habituation leads
to passive hearing which contributes to a relaxation
response.
Per Dr. Alfred Tomatis, Gregorian chant is actually
a wonderful soundtrack for focused attention and accelerated
learning. Un-intented, Gregorian chant contains all
the sound ingredients necessary for the ideal state
known as 'Mind alert/Body relaxed."
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