Sound Yoga with Ann Dyer

Course Description

Ancient Hindu scriptures and contemporary scientists agree: the universe is composed of sound vibration.  That includes us.  For this reason,  yogis across the centuries have harnessed the power of sound to fuel their yoga practice.  Traditionally chanting and deep listening held a central role in yogic practice in India.  When yoga migrated to the west the physical practice of asana was emphasized and the place of nada anusandhana (yogic sound practice) faded into the background. In recent years, however,  there has been a resurgence in yogic chant in studios across the country for its reputation as the  simple, quick, easy yogic path.  As powerful as ever, the yogic sound practices of invocation, mantra, devotional chant and deep listening are being re-discovered for their ability to help us cope with the challenges of our live today.
In this course, Ann Dyer shows how the ancient practices of chant and deep listening can be used to address our contemporary concerns while unlocking its transformational power. Explore how to use yogic chant to quickly and easily lighten the heart, clear the mind, and create community.

Curriculum

• Lesson 1: INTRODUCTION / Welcome to the study of Sound Yoga
• Lesson 2: PERSPECTIVE / Studying sound in a visual culture
• Lesson 3: PRACTICE / Moksha: Finding Freedom thru Practice
• Lesson 4:  BODY / Our Corporeal Experience of Sound
• Lesson 5: BREATH / The Bridge Between
• Lesson 6: ENERGY / Sensing Sound
• Lesson 7: THOUGHT / Mantra: Instrument of the Mind
• Lesson 8: EMOTION / Music and Bhav: Love Songs to the Divine
• Lesson 9: KNOWLEDGE /  Jnana: Insight Thru Chant
• Lesson 10: AWARENESS / Naada: Listening for Shiva

Instructor Bio

Ann Dyer has explored sound and music for over thirty years as a concert and recording artist, yoga practitioner, student of Hindustani vocalization and teacher of sound within the yoga tradition.

Dyer has performed extensively throughout the U.S., India, Brazil, Mexico, and Canada and has released three critically-acclaimed CDs, Ann Dyer & No Good Time Fairies, When I Close My Eyes, and Revolver: A New Spin, which received recognition as one of the Top Ten Recordings of the year by the Village Voice. Her music has been acclaimed for its originality and a subtle use of sound that “grabs you in the gut while it messes with your mind” (The Metro).  She has composed and performed soundtracks for two Rodney Yee DVDs released on the Gaiam label, AM Yoga and Five-Day Ashtanga.

Ann’s teaching of the yoga of sound encourages philosophical understanding, skillful practice and experiential knowledge.  Her teachings reveal the effects of sound on the material body, physiology, emotion, intellect and the realization of spirit. Topics covered include sanskrit, Vedic mantra, tanrtric mantra, bhakti yoga, naada yoga, the mystical foundations of classical Indian music and the incorporation of sound into one’s personal practice and yoga classes.

Ann is director of Mountain Yoga in Oakland, CA and is on the faculty of Piedmont Yoga Studio’s Deep Yoga Program. Her current musical project VAK: Song of Becoming is a full-length, multi-disciplinary concert built on the sound principles and practices of yoga, commissioned by the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco for performance in September of 2013.