Certainly, one way to make a self-practice more doable is to play music while you’re doing yoga. Personally, I pretty much always play music while doing a self-practice, even though I do sometimes enjoy going to classes where no music is played. A “quiet” class allows you to do a more meditative practice and to really focus on each and every movement and breath. Any intensity or emotion that arises during a music-free practice will necessarily come from within. Music, in some ways, is an external and artificial way of injecting some juice into the practice. I’d eventually like to be able to practice on my own without playing any music, but right now, as I’m just getting started with this self-practice thing, I find music to be a very useful crutch.
In fact, music has become such an important part of my self-practice that I now spend quite a bit of time compiling various yoga mixes on my iTunes. (This week, I’ve been listening to a lot of Sia and M83. If you are unaware of either Sia or M83, I highly recommend that you check them out.) One suggestion that I have for making yoga mixes is to not have music playing continuously. You can program in silence between songs, like 30 seconds to even a few minutes, so that you don’t have music blaring in your ear for the entire practice. I find the silence a nice way to experience moments of “quiet” yoga during my self-practice. Also, when a song does start playing, it sounds just that much sweeter when it is contrasted on either side by complete silence.
Om Shanti: A Yoga Blog 