Krsna Kirtana Songs
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Conclusion
Hare Krsna! At the end of
this guide, there are few points I would like to mention.
Melody is arguably more complex than rhythm. With
rhythm, a specific tala will remain as that tala. Of course, one will make their own style of a rhythm,
but kaherva tala will
remain kaherva tala, not dadra tala or anything else. With
melody, while renditions of a particular melody might be there, melodies can be
sung in eleven swars (in Western terminology, in the
key of eleven possible notes). Plus, while there are roughly three hundred
sixty rhythmic cycles existent, there are thousands of ragas, which yield a
rich treasure of melody that can always be fresh. With this truth, it becomes
very difficult to teach harmonium.
Therefore, I have never taught harmonium, as my
classes are primarily group based. Therefore, I began writing this guide in
July 2004. Constantly thinking of new ways to teach and present this material
on the web lead to enumerable changes in the syllabus. Finally, after having a
private independent student take instruction from me, I gained a better
perspective on what the guide really needed: practice. I could teach all the
theory that I wanted, however, if they cannot use that in the real setting,
then what is the use of what I taught? I limited the theory to whatever was
needed in order to be successful in harmonium. With this practical experience
of teaching, I’ve been able to redo the course and
present a practical approach to harmonium, three and a half years later.
Of course, I did not teach how to derive melodies.
That only comes through practice with understanding and recognizing the musical
scales, thāts, and musical modal forms, rāgas. Studying these and practicing these will allow
you to mature in your playing techniques. Good practice can be done through
looking through the fourteen songs presented here, and practice them in other swars for the Sa. In addition, the
KKSongs Notations for Vaisnava
Songs (http://www.kksongs.org/vsongs)
contain the Bhatkhande notation and style for many
more bhajans. Practice and accompanying when you have
the chance is the only way to succeed.
With best wishes in musical and spiritual endeavors,
Hari Bol!
Krsna Dhenu
Webmaster of KKSongs.org
January 2, 2008
UPDATED: June 18, 2009