Mimi Seton has a passion for Nada Yoga (the yoga of sound or chant) which she studied in France with master yogi, Sri Hanuman of Bombay — a brilliant singer in the Hindustani style, tabla player, and classical Spanish guitarist.  

Hanuman invited Mimi to become one of his ‘disciples’, encouraging her to teach his approach, combined with her own voice work, in the U.S.A.  Mimi is honored to be starting that mission now by offering classes in The Basics of Nada Yoga.

Hanuman’s is a very slow, relaxed and yet disciplined approach; imagine Hatha Yoga translated into vocalizing.  We sing the basic that (scales, or modes), in a prescribed pattern on the sargam (the Indian/Sanskrit solfege) and then on the traditional vowel series.  We then practice the alap (vocalizing increasingly challenging musical motifs on vowel sounds to increase our familiarity with all possible intervals in the that). After that we do some call-and-response improvising on short musical motifs that include ornamentations such as slides through the micro-tones between pitches, step-laddering, shadowing and so on. We end class by singing some simple devotional chants together.   

There are many beneficial effects of Nada Yoga, including developing your listening skill or ‘musical ear’ ~ your ability to hear and sing pitches (including micro-tones) accurately in every intervallic relationship; deep relaxation and centering; release of tension; invigorating your energy; and even ‘reconnection with the Self’ (as a Hindu might put it) ~ increasing your sense of connection with the Divine.

Whatever the reason, Nada Yoga feels good!  Perhaps we should leave it to future acoustic analysts or mystics to explain why this should be so.  For our purposes, it doesn’t matter why.  It’s a beautiful musical-spiritual practice that must be experienced; then you can decide if it ‘sings’ to you.