by Guru Singh: Yogi Bhajan had, what we musicians referred to as, an “interesting” singing voice.
You know what that word “interesting” means in this context. When you ask someone, “What do you think?” . . . and they answer, “Well . . . it’s interesting” . . . you know there’s a lot of critical information being withheld. One day, a highly trained opera singer joined our ranks; she wasn’t about to let this go by unspoken. She walked straight up to Yogi Bhajan and said, “You know sir, you sing off key.”
He responded, “No.” We all thought he meant, “No, I didn’t know that . . . but thank you for telling me.” Not at all what he meant — as we discovered — he continued, “I sing my key; you sing your key. It’s up to you to find the harmony in the differences between our keys.” How like life . . . it’s up to each of us to find the harmony in all of our differences . . . it makes total inspirational sense.
Gregorian chanting was popular at a time when culture restricted, what was considered harmonious, to only what was exactly the same . . . unison and octaves. It took hundreds of years to reintroduce the harmonic third and fifth — intervals that Pythagoras and Plato taught as healing harmonies. It took nearly a thousand years to reintroduce intervals that create harmonic tension, such as the fourth, the seventh, and the ninth. What it takes to be truly you . . . finding the authority to be whatever harmonic interval you need to be . . . singing your own key always, regardless of the reaction.
Hear the harmony where there is none. See the similarity where there appears to be none. Be a peace-maker where there are none. Give yourself the authority to free your voice, and you give your life the freedom of self-authority and being ‘you’. You’re only held back when you question your authority to be your own key. Because, let’s face it, the only difference between a person who can sing, and a person who can’t, is a belief . . . every voice is unique.
Our prayer is that you sing a lot . . . in your own key; find harmony in awkwardness, and believe in it; allow others to sing their own key and expand your sense of the harmonious to include the whole “choir” . . . angels will be grateful.
