new trend in live yoga classes?

[Kathryn]

Loud music and shouting instructors seems very 'unyogalike' to me.

[Loretta S.]

Most of the yoga classes I go to have no music playing.

[Orlita]

In my last couple of Pure Barre classes, the volume was cranked so high I could not hear the instruction. I told the instructor and she apologized but said she has been told that she has to crank it up.

Mind you, it was already loud, but tolerably loud. Fun loud (imho). I would hate to be a beginning Pure Barre student now. I would not know anything about technique. I'd be just looking around trying to figure it out.

I won't take with this teacher again. And if the other teachers crank it similarly loud, I will not be buying any more class passes and I may ask them to refund the rest that I already bought. This is not the Pure Barre volume that I paid for. It has changed suddenly. And it just occurred to me, someone there told me that Carrie was coming here in August. I have a feeling this volume edict comes from her. I am miffed.

If this were yoga, I'd be doubly miffed.

As for the teacher mentioned here who just plugged in her iPod on shuffle, that is a teacher who shouldn't have creds. There's a thing called *preparation.* That's disrespectful to her students. Good grief.

[sheepla]

It really makes me sad that it appears to be a trend in the yoga studio I've been going to for years. I'm tempted to take the owner aside and mention it to her but obviously she must know and approve. Seems like I'm going to be doing some "studio shopping" soon as it really detracts from the yoga experience for me.

[JessieMarie]

Wow, that is really sad to hear about the music being too loud. The studio I was at was very respectful about making sure you could hear the instructor above all else. You could even ask them to turn it down or move if it got to be too much. We're moving soon and now I'm dreading looking for a new studio if I have to take this into consideration.

[SharonNYC]

I don't go to studios that use music.

[eam531]

Live kundalini yoga classes have music; it's an intrinsic part. It is not loud or jarring.

The Ashtanga (as opposed to 'power yoga') and Bikram classes I've attended do not use music during the class.

Aside from kundalini classes, I would not enjoy a class that had music.

[KathAL79]

The teacher at the Zumba class I go to blasts the music. One woman actually puts in earplugs - and I've seen him see her do it - and I've considered doing the same after one class where my ears were ringing. One of the main reasons I never returned to another instructor's spin class was the too loud music.
The instructor I really like, whose Pilates and spin classes I take, has the music somewhat muted for Pilates and loud but never "I need to shout to be heard over this" level of loud for spin, which is fine by me.

I've never been to a yoga class that blasted the music or where the instructor had to shout to be heard. I'd find that very difficult to deal with. The yoga classes at my gym play instrumentals (you know, Dynamix yoga mix #23 type of CDs) at a low level.

I went to a kundalini workshop with a pair of popular instructors who turned the music on and off, sometimes mid-song. Having never experienced that before and not spending a lot of time in yoga studios, I found it somewhat distracting, although there were a lot of other intermittent noises (someone with an armful of bangle bracelets, the host instructor loudly scribbling notes and turning pages in his notebook, flushing and running toilet) that I may have just allowed myself to get worked up over.