Kirtan Leader Blog

Holy smokes, my old friend and tabla wizard Jim Feist is just crushing it on this video. 

Jim is hilarious, and an incredible tabla-ist and tabla teacher. I am grateful for all I learned playing regularly with Jim from 2007-15.

I love working with my voice teacher. In private lessons we spend about 80-90% of our time in loops of practice, observing (listening, sensing, feeling, watching) and feedback. Frequently she demonstrates what she is trying to elic...

The great Indian Saint Shirdi Sai Baba always said, “Shradda and Saburi.” This was interpreted to mean, “faith and patience.” My guru, Swami Kaleshwar interpreted this as “practice and patience.” To me, this means that in order to ...

What is learning? Much of our culture commonly defines learning as what I call “information flinging”. The teacher flings information at the students. If they can fling it back learning is declared to have happened.

Somatics offer...

What is Kirtan? 

Great question. Here are a few answers...

1. Kirtan is call and response chanting which utilizes sacred names of the Divine. 

2. Kirtan is the central practice of Bhakti Yoga, or the Yoga of the Heart, or Devoti...

A Kirtan and Bhajan are closely related. Both are sung, with musical instruments, use Divine Names or Scriptures, and are oriented towards creating connection with the Divine. 

I like to think of Kirtan as a short phrase (like a s...

Here's an excerpt on Mantra from my 30 page booklet titled Bhakti & Beyond. 

In Kirtan, we chant Sanskrit phrases of praise to the Divine called mantras. Mantra is a Sanskrit term with multiple meanings. Author Stephen Rosen trans...

Years ago I started referring to myself as a Kirtan Leader.

While others in the field called themselves Kirtan artists, Kirtan singers or Kirtan Wallah's, I wanted to highlight the importance of leadership when sharing this ancien...

In these times of Covid, experts say singing together is quite risky.

I've received lots of questions about how to practice Kirtan in the face of these risks.

Short answer... while chanting together at distance (at least 6 feet) ...