Demystifing the Harmonium workbook A-Z: Harmonium workbook

Love this workbook. It is all in one. It covers easy to follow concepts and exercises in order to master the harmonium for kirtan. I love that it has around 30 kirtan chants that I can learn and expand on.It's great to know that you can come to this book with no music experience or knowledge and learn everything that one would need in order to learn how to play and master the harmonium to play and sing for kirtan.This is a treasure trove for the budding kirtan wallah. It's definitely the one stop shop for learning how to play the harmonium. I was impressed and extremely happy with this book on many levels.This book was originally $55 prior to being sold on Amazon. I have tons of friends that have this book. It came highly recommended to me from a lot of people and artists within the kirtan and bhakti community.

It's like the author had a notebook to scribble down ideas for his book, and he scribbled until it was full, then published it.The English is poor -- he spells "too" as "to" for example. He can't keep straight when he has introduced an Indian term, and he has no glossary, so you have to make your own. The content is grouped into "chapters," but the chapters contain random stuff. For example, the page that starts:"What do I do now? How to Start? For beginners. Here are some tips on how to start off the right way while enjoying the journey" — is page 138.The author’s "special thanks" list is on page 136 (the book ends at 150).And the page about figuring out what key you sing in, which calls itself "The MOST important thing you need to know before venturing off on your musical journey" — is page 118.The graphics are photocopied from other sources, so they are bitmappy. For songs, it uses a simplified notation system with notes but no rhythm, so you can only learn them from a recording, which is not provided (although there is a link to a Facebook page that might have recordings – I don’t do Facebook).There are many paragraphs of warning, I guess to inspire the reader to practice. Page 15, for example, following a section of vocal scale exercises, says this (and I'm keeping in the typos):"This last section is very important if you want to seriously train your ear and voice. ... I beg of you to practice these exercises just 5-10 minutes a day. Over time you will see, hear and reap the benefits of these exercises. These exercises have been used for centuries. Every great musician has used these. … I can not over-emphasize the IMPORTANCE of what I have given you on these prior pages. You want the secrets to success? You want to play like a pro on the harmonium, then these prior pages from this section are the answer! ..."All that said, the book does have a lot of helpful content, and I will hang in with it. It has many basic chants from familiar popular Kirtan artists, with the lyrics in Sanskrit and translation, and tips on pronunciation. It has many singing exercises, and scales, chord charts and progressions for practicing keyboard. It really does set out to be a complete teaching tool. It just needed an editor.

Be warned, this is not for total beginners. It assumed a ton of knowledge from the beginning that I just do not have. In the very first lessons it just throws a bunch of terminology at you that it does not explain. I am completely new to the Harmonium and did not find it useful to get started.I'm sure its good for those who have some more knowledge, but then the title should have been something else. I remain mystified...

Whether you are a beginner or seasoned kirtan enthusiast this book will continue to provide material to keep your practice andLearning fun. It is like manual that can be referred to many times over.