Growing as a Chant Leader: Start Simple and Build
Every chant leader starts in the same place: one chant, one melody, a few words. This Guide maps a path from that simple beginning to a fuller way of playing, one step at a time. You don’t need every step to lead a chant well. The simplest way is complete in itself, and each new skill is something you can add when the one before it feels natural.
One habit helps from the very first day: memorize the chant. Learn the words and melody by heart as early as you can. It frees your attention for everything that follows, and it makes the last step on this path much easier. For words you meet along the way, see the Glossary of Musical Terms.
1. Learn the Melody, the Words, and the Form
The least complex way to play a chant is also the foundation for everything else: learn the melody and the words, and play the Song Form as written. Play the melody line on the harmonium, sing along, and follow the lettered lines from top to bottom, with each x2 sung twice. That’s it. A chant played this way, with the melody alone, is a full and devotional offering.
Begin with an easy chant. The Chants page gives each chant a difficulty from 1 to 5, and level 1 chants such as Door of My Heart, At Thy Feet, and Polestar of My Life are a good place to start. The Learning a New Chant Guide gives a simple routine for any chant page, and Harmonium for Beginners covers sitting at the instrument and making a steady sound. To read the map on each chant page, see How to Read a Song Form.
2. Repeat Sections for Emphasis
Once the standard form is comfortable, you can begin to shape it. Repeating a line or section a few extra times lets you dwell on words that move you, and lets the group go deeper into them. It is often natural to repeat in sets of two, so the shape of the form still feels steady.
Many chant pages suggest good places to do this in their Notes. In Dawn Chant, after the full form has been sung several times, you might loop the last two lines for a while. In O Thou Blue Sky, looping B and C works well. When you repeat more than the form calls for, lift your voice a little or play a little louder, so people notice you are doing something different and can follow. How to Read a Song Form explains sub-form loops, and Learning a New Chant has more on making a change clear.
3. Use Changes in Tempo and Dynamics
Next, let the chant breathe through tempo (how fast) and dynamics (how loud). Some chants invite a gradual speed-up to build energy, then a gentle slow-down. The pages for Who Is in My Temple and Om Kali both describe this. Getting quieter, while keeping the intensity and the tempo, can draw everyone inward, and it is a lovely way to end a chant.
On the harmonium, volume comes from the bellows, so practice pumping more and less air while you keep the melody steady. Make your changes gradual and clear, so others chanting with you can follow. If you lead with a kirtan group, practice the changes you plan to make. See Harmonium & Vocal Aptitudes for Leading Kirtan and the ending section of Learning a New Chant.
4. Add a Drone Note
A drone is a single note held steadily under the melody. Holding one drone note while your other fingers play the melody gives the chant a warm, grounded sound, and it is a natural first step beyond the melody alone.
The drone has to fit the chant and the key it’s played in. It is usually the home note of the key, or the note a fifth above it. The Tamboura Key on each chant page, such as “Em (E, B),” lists the notes that fit when the chant is played in its written key. On Door of My Heart, the Chants page notes that using B as the main drone note makes the chant feel like E minor. If you move a chant to a different key, move the drone by the same amount. Listen as you play: if the drone clashes with part of the melody, try the other listed note, or simply let the drone rest there.
The videos on Satchidananda Guru and Jai Guru, Jai Ma show the melody played with drones. For keys and transposing, see Choosing a Key for a Chant and Key Signatures & Major Scales.
5. Add Three-Note Chords
When the drone feels easy, you can try three-note chords under the melody. This takes more skill, because a chord has to fit both the key and the melody notes it sits under, and the right chord can change from one part of a line to the next.
Start slowly, with the chords that come up most often in the chant, and keep them quiet so the melody stays clear. On the harmonium, the melody and the chord share the right hand, so choose chords that fit under one hand, and move between them smoothly, without lifting the hand. The Choosing Chords for Harmonium Guide shows how. Several chant pages have videos marked “melody then chords,” such as Door of My Heart and Dawn Chant. These play the melody alone first and then add chords, so you can hear the difference. Near the end of a chant, a chord that feels at rest makes a good final sound, as Learning a New Chant explains. Use chords with taste: the Harmonium & Vocal Aptitudes for Leading Kirtan Guide asks leaders to understand the chords they use so they support the chant.
6. Add Thumb Tapping
The next step brings rhythm into the harmonium itself. In thumb tapping (or drone-note tapping), the thumb re-strikes a drone note in a steady pattern while the fingers play the melody. The taps can fall in the spaces between melody notes, as counter-rhythms, so the chant feels more rhythmic and alive.
Keep the taps in time and light, so they support the melody rather than compete with it. If percussion is playing, keep your pattern simple so the group locks together. You can see tapping on the videos for Radha Krishna Govinda, Jai Guru, Jai Ma, Satchidananda Guru, and Om Kali. For counting and feel, see Reading Rhythm and Meter and Feel for Kirtan Players.
7. Grow Your Repertoire
As your skills grow, you can take on more difficult chants. Harder chants may have chromatic notes, a wide vocal range, changes of time signature, long forms with many lines to memorize, or free-time sections. Light the Lamp of Thy Love is rated 4 on the Chants page, and They Have Heard Thy Name and What Lightning Flash are rated 5.
Add new chants gradually, and keep playing the ones you know well. The How to Develop a Kirtan Repertoire Guide suggests starting with a small set of chants you know thoroughly and expanding slowly from there. For chants that change meter, Meter and Feel for Kirtan Players can help.
8. Play Without Looking at the Keys
The last step is adeptness: playing the chant without looking down at the keys, so your gaze can stay fixed at the spiritual eye. This is where memorizing from the beginning pays off. When the words, melody, and form are in your heart and under your hands, your attention is free for the feeling behind the chant.
Practice in small pieces. Play a line you know well with your eyes lifted, glance down only when you need to, and let the stretches without looking grow longer over time. The Harmonium & Vocal Aptitudes for Leading Kirtan Guide describes this kind of mastery: knowing a chant so well that most of your attention can rest on its meaning and devotion.
Start Where You Are
You don’t have to master these steps in strict order, or use all of them in every chant. A leader at any stage can lead a chant beautifully. The melody alone, sung with devotion, is always a complete way to chant. When you chant on your own, all of this is flexible: shape it to suit your own devotion. Begin with the simple way, and build from there.