Have you ever taken a yoga class without music? When I first started practicing, my teacher didn’t use music of any kind during our practice.  Since I hadn’t practiced yoga before, I didn’t know any difference and actually, since I was just learning and focusing completely on the teacher, it might have been a good thing.  Then, I started practicing at studios and the instructors DID use music and I found it to be a wonderful enhancement to the practice. 

I have always loved and appreciated music in my life.  It was part of my upbringing.

Now, as a yoga instructor, I find that integrating music into my teaching is another way for me to be creative and express myself (scroll down to see artist & song suggestions for you!). It allows me to share part of myself and my love of music with my students. I often have students comment on the playlists, or ask for the name of a song or an artist from a particular playlist.  It’s very rewarding to receive positive feedback and to know that students appreciate the effort you spent putting together the playlist and enjoyed it themselves.

Here are some tips on creating your playlists:

I use the Spotify app for the creation of all my playlists.  There are other apps and ways of creating and accessing playlists of course.  Pandora, Amazon, Apple Music, YouTube, etc. are all options. I am most familiar with Spotify and that’s what I’ll talk about here. 

Spotify allows you to easily:

• search for artists, songs, genres, even themes (think full moon or holiday) and simply add my selections to a playlist
• create, save, and access the playlist under the Your Library menu.  What I love about this is that at the bottom of the playlist they offer other suggested songs and will begin playing some when your playlist ends.  I’ve been introduced to so many artists and songs this way!
• have the option of using one of their pre-made playlists. There is also Spotify radio which creates stations based on your listening history.  Pretty cool. 
• share your playlists.  I have followers in my Spotify account who can access my playlists and use them and I follow other users as well – mostly yoga instructors whose playlists I’ve admired in classes.

You can click here to learn more about using Spotify and their plans which range from free to Premium.  You can access your account on different devices as well, such as on a tablet, in your car, or on your Alexa or Google Home devices. 

Most studios have a speaker system of some sort in place for you to connect to via Bluetooth. Since there’s always the possibility of that speaker being out of commission when you arrive or your smartphone or tablet not connecting properly, you may wish to bring your own. If you’re teaching in a setting other than a studio, then you’ll need to have a speaker for sure.

So how should you build your yoga class playlists?  This took some experimenting for me and therefore my playlists have evolved over the past couple of years.  In the beginning, I played pretty chill music that students didn’t have to think much about – just background music basically.  Then I became a little bolder and started including music I liked from the 70s (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Fleetwood Mac, Cat Stevens, Led Zeppelin)!  This invoked various reactions from my students which was great feedback that I took into consideration. The music is for the students – not the instructor.  But, with that said, it IS OKAY TO SHARE MUSIC YOU LIKE with your students. Getting to know you is part of making a personal connection with them. I also asked my twenty-something daughter for suggestions.  This opened me up to a whole new world of music. She shared some playlists with me, and I began to pick and choose what I liked.

Obviously you’ll want to build a playlist that will flow with your class from beginning to end. 

If you’re teaching a Vinyasa flow class you will want to start with something soft and slow and maybe instrumental only to allow students to relax and become centered.  You may also wish to wait to start your music until you’ve finished your intention setting (theme, pranayama, centering) or whatever you choose to do at the beginning of your class to set the tone. This way, students will be focused on your voice instead of the music.  Then, start slow and build up to the songs with a faster tempo so that it will match the movement of the flow:

Recommendations for playlists for other styles of yoga (which call for different structures):

Restorative: meditative yoga music without lyrics or with Sanskrit lyrics (such as Ong Namo, Devi Prayer) through entire practice

Yin: meditative, nature sounds, mostly without lyrics (through entire practice)

Gentle: slower tempo (build up to lyrics after intention setting; meditative without lyrics for savasana)

Chair: slower tempo (build up to lyrics after intention setting; meditative without lyrics for savasana)

The volume of the music is a consideration as well.  You don’t want your music to be so loud that students in the back of the room can’t hear you and you don’t want your voice to compete with the volume of the music.  If you choose to play music during your intention setting, consider lowering the volume here while you’re speaking, then maybe go a little louder as you all begin moving and lower the volume again as you move into savasana.

Whichever app you choose to use and no matter how you choose to build your playlists,

BELOW IS A SAMPLING OF SOME OF MY FAVORITE ARTISTS & SONGS  – somewhat matched by category and tempo.  Warm-up and Cool Down are interchangeable; some Centering & Savasana (Yin & Restorative) can be interchangeable as well. FOR A MORE COMPREHENSIVE LIST OF SONGS & ARTIST RECOMMENDATIONS CLICK HERE.

It was so difficult for me to end EVEN THE COMPREHENSIVE LIST because I love so many songs and artists.  Based on this list however, you can get a general idea and build on it – or not. Maybe your style is totally different. There are many pop songs that come and go within my playlists.  If they fit the mood or theme I might add them, and then later remove them.

On a final note, use caution to know which songs include explicit content so that you can be sensitive to your population of students.  We certainly don’t want to offend anyone. Spotify signifies this with an E at the beginning of the song title. There is also a setting that allows you to exclude these songs completely from your playlists.  I’ve played songs that included explicit content only to realize it in class. Oops. Too late.

I truly hope these recommendations help you start building an enjoyable music playlist library, for you and your students for years to come.