This morning Vrajadhama spent some time producing the first part of the Basic Kirtans booklet. There are 13 tracks on the CD, and Vraj has partially annotated the first 6 Tracks. At the moment the basic chords are there so you can play along with bass, guitar, harmonium, accordion, or whatever. Eventually we’ll put the melody notes in as well (they go on the bottom line, under the mantra).

I originally devised this system to be used with the sa-ga-re-ma (sargam) Indian system of musical notation, because it’s key agnostic, which means that with one song sheet you can do the kirtan in any key. However, in the interests of a shallower learning curve we’ve released this one using the Western C-D-E type system of notation.

These kirtans are simple three chord melodies ala Harer Nama Volume 1 by Sri Prahlad et al.

Here are the tracks from the Basic Kirtans 1 CD:

Track 1: Tuning notes
Track 2: Intro 1
Track 3: Mantra 1
Track 4: Mantra 2
Track 5: Mantra 3
Track 6: Mantra 4
Track 7: Mantra 5
Track 8: Mantra 6 (double time)
Track 9: Mantra 7 (double time)
Track 10: Mantra 8
Track 11: Intro 2
Track 12: Mantra 9
Track 13: Mantra 10

And here is the accompanying booklet, in .xls form:

Basic Kirtans 1 Tracks 1-6

You’ll also want these chord diagrams for harmonium:

Chord Diagrams

Enjoy!