A Spiritual Connection to Your Instrument

Last year I took an experimental music healing class in which we worked with various meditation techniques to open our creativity.

The one exercise that really stood out to me was meditating to the sound of the Chakras using Bija mantras. What???

Well to me it was an alignment of the Chakras as well as alignment to the instrument I might be playing or songwriting with. A kind of musical focus and connection.

The simplest explanation would be that Bija Mantras are one syllable sounds corresponding to each Chakra and a note on scale. When you intone the Bija Mantra you activate its associated Chakra. Each Chakra is associated with a part of the body, and as you go up through these energy centers you are clearing, healing, and amplifying your system.

I like to think of it as tuning to yourself AND the instrument, allowing focused work.

Here is an easy chart to begin and experiment with your own musical meditation.

The first thing to do is make sure you are relaxed with little distraction and begin some easy breathing exercises. There are a ton of these online. In all honesty, I just try focus on my own breathing and not have any expectations.

You can either pick the Chakra you would like to work on, and repeat the Bija sound or you can go through the entire system.

I particularly like to work with the Throat Chakra because I love to sing, and communication and creativity is key for me.

So here is where your guitar comes in for the full meditation:

You start playing a C note, and repeat “Lam” on C vocally until you are ready to move on.

You then play D, and repeat “Vam” until you are ready to keep moving on.

You can visualize light entering the parts of the body as you climb up. When you are about to reach the Octave or the higher C, then you can just have silence and focus above the head, visualizing a balanced system. When you feel you have completed the meditation you can then ease into your practicing in a relaxed way.

Try it, and see what kind of practice or songwriting session comes out of it!