23/08/2026
Most adults have not used their voice like that in years.
There is a kind of singing the body does before the throat knows about it. A room is humming, and your own voice slides into it without you deciding to. By the time you notice, you have been singing for thirty seconds.
What it does is physiological before anything else. Chanting makes the out-breath longer than the in-breath, which is the most reliable way there is of telling the body it is safe. Sing in a room with other people and your breathing synchronises with theirs without anyone intending it.
There is something else, harder to measure. You cannot chant and hold a conversation with yourself at the same time. The part that narrates and rehearses has nowhere to go.
September has four doorways, and only two ask anything of your voice.
Friday 11 September, 7 to 9pm. Elise and Charlie Premanjali bring their Voices of Peace kirtan concert to our room. Handpan, guitar, voice. Sliding scale, £15 to £25, at premanjali.co.uk/events.
Friday 18 September, 7pm. Tim’s monthly Kirtan, with David on percussion. Martin is away this month. The two of them have been playing together for years. Everybody sings the same words at the same time, one wall of sound. Nobody is listening to you, which is the point. £20.
Tim taught me harmonium. I had been teaching yoga for years by the time I found Kirtan, and it went straight into the middle of what I was already doing. I went to every one of his monthly sessions for years, and I still sing some of his mantras in my classes.
Those two you take part in. The next two you receive.
Every Friday, 8.00am. Breath and Bhajans. You lie down, the breathing settles you, and live music and mantra hold the room while you keep breathing. Nothing is asked of you. Out by half past nine.
Mondays 9.00am and Wednesdays 11.00am. Prana Kriya Yoga. The mantra arrives through the second half, supporting you as we deepen the breath, after the capacity is already open.
If you would rather be carried than take part, start with one of those last two.
Link in bio to book.
With warmth,
Joe
Kirtan Mantra Chanting DevotionalMusic
