Welcome to the Denver Meditation Group's
Class on "How to Play Master's Chants on the Harmonium"
Welcome to the Denver Meditation Group chant tutorial program! This is a self-paced program whose purpose is to help devotees learn how to play Paramahansa Yogananda's Cosmic Chants on the harmonium. The Cosmic Chant book is published by Self-Realization Fellowship.
To begin, simply select the chant you would like to learn how to play on the harmonium from the list below. The first video to play will be the Sing Along, where you will learn the words and melody by ear. The phrase-by-phrase videos will automatically play next, where you will follow the fingering for the chant displayed on the videos while you play the chant on your harmonium at home one phrase at a time. Next, the slow, medium, and recommended tempo videos will play followed by the full chant, and harmony video (if available). Feel free to skip ahead or replay a given video at your own discretion; this learning is self-paced - you are the boss. Also feel free to use a different fingering than that used in the video, what ever feels comfortable to you. The most important goal when playing a chant should be to maintain the correct melody (fingering) and tempo.
Note: Not all of the Cosmic Chants are available just yet. Additional chants will be made available as they are recorded.
OVERVIEW OF THE YAMAHA METHOD OF LEARNING
The Chant Tutorial system is based on the ”Yamaha” method of learning, which teaches devotees how to play the harmonium both visually and audibly. Everyone learns a little differently and at different rates. Feedback received to date from other SRF devotees who have used this Yamaha learning method (i.e., learning by ear and sight, not reading music) indicates that this Chant Tutorial program easily accommodates this variability. Following is a brief overview of the Yamaha method.
An essential requirement in learning to play a chant on the harmonium is to memorize, memorize, memorize. The first step in this regard is to listen to an audio recording of the chant at the recommended tempo with singing (called a Sing-Along in this program). Take time here to familiarize yourself with the words and the melody of each chant. Becoming familiar with the words, and understanding their meaning, makes it easier for you to learn how to play the chant on the harmonium. Once you become familiar with the chant in the Sing-Along then you can move on to the phrase-by-phrase videos.
The phrase-by-phrase videos teach you small phrases at a time at a slow tempo with singing to help you master the fingering. The videos show the highlighted keys and the correct bellows movement. Each video adds on to the previous phrase until you’ve learned all the phrases of the chant. Once you know all the phrases try playing the chant at various tempos.
The various tempo videos help you learn to transition your fingers more smoothly as you move up to playing the chant at the recommended tempo (i.e., as written in Cosmic Chants). To use the tempo videos, first select the tempo. Then choose the video that best suits your preferred way of learning.
Once you’ve mastered the fingering while playing at the recommended tempo you will be able to play the full chant while singing. The full chant video shows the chant being played at the recommended tempo, with the entire harmonium visible including the bellows, and without the highlighted keys and words illustrated. If you can play the full chant at the recommended tempo along with this tutorial you should feel good that you’ve successfully learned how to play the chant. Congratulations!
Some devotees feel that using harmony enhances ones devotion and enriches the sound of some chants. There are many ways to use drones and harmony in playing the Cosmic Chants. Although the adding of harmony is not compatible with all the Cosmic Chants, a separate video has been created for selected chants using an example method.
SELECT THE COSMIC CHANT THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO LEARN
ADDITIONAL SRF CHANTS AND BHAJANS NOT INCLUDED IN THE COSMIC CHANTS BOOK