How to Structure Your Yoga Playlist Like a Sequence (Mini Series Episode 1/3)

This week on Yoga Insider, I'm talking about one of my favourite forms of creativity - creating playlists for yoga classes!

More specifically, I'm talking about how to structure your playlists exactly the same way you would structure a well-sequenced class.

I'll walk you through how I think about music as something that truly helps shape the atmosphere of your class, and how to match music to different phases of the practice.

This episode is part 1 of a 3-part mini podcast series all about skillfully integrating music into your yoga classes.

Instagram: @alexandria.waycott

YouTube: @yogainsiderpodcast

Website: www.alexandriawaycottyoga.com

Send me an email! alexandriawaycottyoga@gmail.com

Music & Production by Kyler Pierce

Photography featured in cover art by Colton Muma

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Welcome back to Yoga Insider Podcast. I'm your host, Alex Wakott. If you're new here, I've been a yoga teacher for the past 14 years, and I've built a completely independent yoga business that doesn't rely on studio classes. I offer pre-registered yoga series in my community as well as continuing education for yoga teachers who want to refine their skills. Over the years, I've learned a lot about what it takes to build a sustainable business in the modern yoga industry. And part of my mission is to have conversations with real yoga teachers around the world about what working in the yoga industry actually looks like. And that is what Yoga Insider Podcast is here for. Grab yourself a cup of coffee and let's dive into today's episode. Now, if you know me in real life or if you've ever been to one of my yoga classes, you probably know that I'm a huge music appreciator. I find so much joy in crafting creative musical playlists for my yoga classes. And for me, it's definitely like a creative outlet and a form of expression. Now, this week on the podcast, I'm sharing part one of a three-part mini podcast series all about using music intentionally in your yoga classes. I've been creating yoga classes and playlists for yoga classes for a pretty long time now. And my playlists definitely weren't always suitable for the classes that I was teaching. Now, I only have access to about 10 years of my Spotify history. And I think prior to that, I was creating playlists on iTunes and then like putting them on my phone. And before that, I was like putting them on an iPod or an MP3 player. But when I look back at some of my old playlists, so think maybe like nine or 10 years ago, because I can still see some of those playlists, they probably didn't always hit um hit the way that I intended. So when I look back at some of these playlists, I see things like a really upbeat song with a pretty high BPM, like right off the bat at the beginning of class. I see things like popular music and like a lot of popular music that seems more like something that you would sing at karaoke or like, I don't know, listen to at a bar with your friends, um, rather than listen to in a yoga class. And of course, it's not that we can't play like fun music in yoga classes or popular music in yoga classes. Um, but there's an element where like it can actually get a little bit distracting for people if you're playing a ton of really popular songs, especially with lyrics that people like know the words to, and it can kind of pull people out of their experience of the class. So I kind of laugh when I see things like that on my old playlists. Um, there are also some playlists where I notice that I have really um abrupt jumps from like an upbeat modern pop song, for example, and then it moves like directly into devotional mantra, and there's no transition in between to kind of move from one type of music to another. Um, you know, in the learning process of like learning to teach yoga and learning to make playlists that feel cohesive and complementary to the class that I was teaching, um, you obviously have to make mistakes and you obviously have to, you know, do things that maybe once you're more experienced and you look back, you're like, oh, I would probably not ever do that again. And I remember one time I was even reprimanded by a studio owner for playing Kendrick Lamar in my yoga class. And to be fair, like it was an explicit song, and it's probably not a song I would ever play in a yoga class again. Um, you know, just to be mindful of like, yeah, the the people who are coming to class that that maybe there are certain themes that are kind of explicit that that don't necessarily uh lend towards like a the environment that you're trying to create in a public yoga class. Um, so, anyways, that's just kind of like a funny example. Um, but you know, my musical taste is very broad and I enjoy a lot of different things. I enjoy a lot of different types of music, but when we're creating playlists for yoga classes, when the energy of the playlist jumps around or the emotional tone of the playlist changes really suddenly, it definitely risks feeling a little bit disjointed or a little bit dysregulating for your students. And so the way that I've started building music playlists over the years is quite similar to the way that I build a class sequence. So the music playlist has an arc and it follows a natural progression. And that's what I want to walk you through today as part one of this mini-series on integrating music more skillfully into your classes. So when I'm building a playlist for my class, a lot of the times I'll actually have my class sequence in front of me, or I'll make sure to have it at the front of my mind as I'm creating this the playlist. And I'm essentially applying the same general principles that I would apply when creating a class that I do to creating a music playlist. So there are a ton of parallels here, and that's really like the broad framework that I like to use when I am putting together music that complements my classes. And the first song or the first couple of songs on your playlist are really going to help set the tone for your class. So, in the same way that you begin your class, usually with some sort of centering or stillness or meditation, your first song or two are going to help your students arrive in their practice. Now, in some cases, you might even start your class with silence and then choose to begin your playlist once your students start moving their bodies. But if you're choosing to begin with music right from the start, I would ask yourself: does this song invite people kind of gently into the room and into their experience? Or are they being thrown directly into stimulation? And so when I look back at some of my older playlists from like 10 years ago that I can still see, and I see playlists where it starts with like a really intense, fast, loud song right away, like that doesn't necessarily lend itself towards your students being able to arrive fully in their bodies. And in those first few minutes of class, people typically need a little bit of time for their minds and their bodies to catch up with each other. Most people aren't able to instantly disconnect from the happenings of their day. And we never know what people were kind of moving through in their day or what their journey to get to class was like. Maybe they were rushing, maybe something really upsetting happened, maybe they got caught in traffic. And so those initial few minutes of class, that's a space where there is often some really important processing and like downregulation that occurs. And we want our music to ideally support that process. So when you're picking your first song or two of your playlist, I always like to think about using some subtle instrumentation or some ambient music, um, maybe some kind of like a soft acoustic sound, but ideally it's something that invokes a sense of spaciousness. So the music isn't super loud, it's not fast, it's not in your face, it's just there, like in the background. I usually choose something that has a little bit of a lower BPM, and I try to avoid music that is emotionally intense. Now, when I talk about music being emotionally intense, of course, that is subjective. As yoga teachers, we never know. We have no way of knowing like which songs are gonna bring out big emotions in people and which ones aren't. So, like, we do our best, we use our discretion. Um, but when you're creating that first part of your playlist, you're doing so with your students' nervous system in mind, and you want the music to match those initial things that you're doing in the beginning of class. Then when you're adding on the layers to your playlist, you want to think about building the energy of the playlist really gradually. So this part of the playlist is going to show up as you're starting to do things like your warmups. And it's going to build gradually in a way that follows the arc of your class. A point that you want to keep in mind is that the music feels like it's building progressively as the sequence builds progressively rather than like jumping all over the place and feeling kind of random. So this is the point in your playlist where you might start to gradually increase the BPM of your songs. You might also start to layer in some percussion that supports the rhythm of your class. And this is something that I like to use really intentionally, especially when I'm teaching vinyasa yoga, where we are moving like with the rhythm of our breath. It's a little bit more upbeat. Um, having music with a percussive element rather than something that's really like floaty and airy can support the momentum that you're building with your sequence. Um, at this point in your sequence, I also like to stay aware of really abrupt genre changes. So depending on the overall vibe of your playlist, just ask yourself: does one song feel like it naturally leads into the next? Like, do these songs feel like they go together in some sort of way, or are they totally different? Um, I feel like this is one of the techniques that we can use to make music feel supportive to the overall bhavana or the overall mood of the class, so that it is not distracting us or our students, and so that it's not taking away from the practice itself. So think about your music as something that creates momentum. Um, and you can do this in the way that you're timing this particular like section of your playlist as well. So see if you can try to make your playlist match the way that your sequence gradually builds, like typically from the floor towards standing poses, from less effort towards more effort, so that the music doesn't peak or drop down into something really slow or down tempo too soon. And this is something that takes practice, right? Like, you know, as we teach for a longer period of time, we get better with our timing and with our pacing. We get better at creating playlists and like making the music match. And I'm sure that you know, you've taught a class where you've had to suddenly go change the music because you're like, oh my gosh, this song totally is not right for what we're doing right now, or like the music feels like it's still bumping, but people are like lying down and you're getting close to the end of class. Um, so just kind of keep that in mind, and like you know, that's something that I used to have to pay so much attention to um earlier in my teaching days, and I'm just sharing this to say that like with practice, it does become a lot more intuitive. And I feel like because I teach a lot and I make playlists a lot, I've gotten a lot better at like matching the timing of my playlist to the arc of my sequence and the class itself. So just play around with that and know that like it does get easier in time. Um, now again, what I'm talking about today like goes along with maybe more active yoga classes. So classes that do follow that kind of arc pattern. Whereas if you're teaching a class that you're just kind of maintaining the same energy throughout, like a restorative sequence, for example, the way that you create your playlist is probably gonna look a little bit different. But the peak of your sequence, if your sequence has some sort of a peak, is going to benefit from some kind of musical support. So this might be where you have a peak pose in your sequence, but it could also simply be the highest energetic point of your class or the part of your class where your students are exerting the most effort. So this is where your student, where your music rather can build to a point that is stronger, that's more rhythmic. Um, and we want to still try to do this without overpowering what's being taught. So I always feel like, you know, the contents of the class, the way that we're teaching, the way that we are delivering our cues and like connecting with our students, that is always number one. And music is secondary to that. So we never want to take away, we only want to support the overall environment. And if the music is too fast or too emotional, even in the peak of your class, it risks pulling your students out of their embodied experience. So we want the music to match the energy of what we're asking our students to do in that moment. And we want to keep in mind that music can be really motivating and really inspirational here as well. And it's something that can make the whole experience of the class feel really cohesive. The descent from the peak of your class. So as that arc of the class gradually starts to go back down the hill, that really deserves some of your attention. So typically after the peak of your sequence, you're gonna start to cool down the body gradually, and you might start to engage in some more kind of cooling, like lunar practices. So this is where you might be integrating things into your sequence like forward folds, some floor-based postures, some supported poses where you're using more props, things like gentle inversions. And the really, really key point here is that you don't want to abruptly drop the energy of your playlist. You want to try to soften the music gradually just to give your students' nervous systems some time and some space to transition with the music. So when I was giving examples of like my old playlist, that I probably wouldn't, you know, use those anymore, I could see in my playlist that like I wasn't always doing a good job with this transition. And it would go from a really upbeat song directly into like this really calm, devotional mantra, and there was just nothing in between to bridge the gap so it didn't feel abrupt. And so this is what we want to be mindful of as we kind of ease into the end of our class. Um, so this might look like gradually reducing percussion, but you don't have to eliminate it right away. It might just mean that you go with like a little bit of a slower, like a softer drum beat in the songs. Um, you might think about slowing down the BPM gradually in order to start to create like a feeling of more spaciousness. And this is where you might begin to move away from music with lyrics, if you were using any music with lyrics, um, towards some instrumentation that is a little bit more simple, where nobody's singing and it's just like the instruments in the background. So essentially the same principles that I apply at this point in a class when I'm teaching are also going to apply to my playlist. As I move closer to the end of my sequence, I try to talk less. I keep my cues simple, I give people space to have their own experience. And we want the music at this point in the practice to support that type of mood where, like, we're not filling the space with too much of our own voice as people settle into the end of their practice. We also don't want to overpower that kind of personal experience that students are having with music that is too loud or too intense. Usually, shavasana is going to represent like kind of the end of your playlist or the resolution of your playlist. And just like in the beginning of your class, you might choose not to have any music here. Um, and just allow your students to rest in silence. If you are choosing to play music in shavasana, ideally that music that you're playing during shivasana is going to support rest and integration. So we want to avoid really emotionally loaded songs during shavasana, songs with lyrics, um dramatic music, music that's really big and cinematic. Like this part of the practice is your students' opportunity to absorb their experience and hopefully, you know, with practice, like reside in their true nature, that part of them that is unchanging. So I'm always thinking what is going to support my students in their rest, and I don't want to distract from it or take away from it with the music at that point in the practice because Shivasana is so important. My suggestion to you is to try to think about your playlist as something that is part of teaching. So obviously, music when you're teaching yoga is completely optional. Um, some of you are gonna come from different traditions, like you know, I've practiced with Ayingar teachers, for example, who don't ever play music in their classes. It's always silent, and like that creates a really beautiful, focused mood that I really like and I really appreciate. And then I've also practiced with yoga teachers who maybe come from like an Anusara background or a katona background, where like sometimes there's really, I don't know, like unconventional music playing in the class, and that also can be really fun. Um, but if you're choosing to use music in your class, be really intentional about it. So you don't want your playlist to just be like a random collection of songs that you haven't really put any thought into, like how you're ordering the songs, how do they fit together, how do they support like what you're actually trying to teach in your Class, ideally, your music is part of your sequencing and it's part of the overall mood that you are trying to create. So this week, my challenge for you is this. I want you to go and listen to one of your yoga class playlists from the beginning to the end. And I want you to ask yourself does the energy of my playlist build intentionally? Does it follow the natural arc of a yoga practice that I might be teaching? Does the music soften gradually as I approach the kind of end half of the playlist? Does the music leave space for rest and integration at the end of class? And is there any part of the playlist that I would change? Because maybe you have the bones there. Maybe you have a playlist that just needs a couple little tweaks. It might even look like simply reordering some of the songs, and maybe you don't even need to add anything else to it. Your students are going to remember how your classes make them feel, and music can play a really impactful role in shaping their experience. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of Yoga Insider. Next week on the podcast, I will be sharing part two of this three-part mini series on integrating music more skillfully into your classes. If you enjoyed today's episode, please share it with another yoga teacher and leave a rating or a review wherever you're listening. I'll see you next time.