Cartals

ISKCON Cartal Overload refers to the widespread tendency of ISKCON kirtans to have excessive cartals in them. This means both in number and (both consequently and independently) in volume.

Unfortunately this has become a cultural norm. What people accept as a "normal kirtan" actually has too much cartal in it. When you listen to recordings it becomes clearer - turn the volume down and the chanting disappears, while a huge wash of cartals remains.

I'm thinking that the ISKCON cartal overload can be dealt with by close miking everything and the liberal but sensible use of compression.

I've been thinking about it, and my motto for kirtan recording is:

"Better than being there"

The cartals are too loud in most kirtan recordings because the cartals are too loud in most kirtans. In the kirtans at my place we have trained cartal players who used tuned cartals that are appropriate for the space and the tone of the kirtan, and play appropriately for the level of the kirtan.

Unfortunately, such trained cartal players are few and far between. Cartals are superficially the easiest instrument to pick up and play, so there are a lot of "enthusiastic amateurs" - who can totally destroy a kirtan recording - not only this, but they are detracting from the experience of the kirtan for many people and can even cause physical damage to hearing.

Through education, policing, and the use of appropriate technological counter-measures when these two fail, the goal is to produce kirtans that sound at least as good as being there, and in most cases better.

I'll get together with some good cartal players and post some videos of their technique.

A video podcast lesson on playing daadra taal beats on mrdanga, as per a request on an earlier lesson posted to YouTube.com.

Here are the mantras:

Daadra taal cartal beat:
dheiya da da dheiya

Mrdanga beats:

Dhei da dhei ta kheta kheta
Thei ta thei ta kheta kheta

While I'm singing Hari haraye namah krishna, I think I also change to:

Dhei da dhei tak da dhena kheta
Thei ta thei tak ta dhena (thena) kheta

The dhena and thena in the second line of the above mantra are interchangable. Do either one or the other, not both.

Here is the breakdown beat:

That top end is used for the other beats that I demonstrate. I'll get the images for those beats to you later on.

Here's the "Babalu madness beat" :-) :

da guru gur da dhei da guru gur da dhei da guru gur da dhei ta kheta kheta
ta khur khur ta thei ta khur khur ta thei ta khur khur ta thei ta kheta kheta

For those who are listening really carefully, the last mantra that I'm playing after this in the final "Nitai Gaura Haribol" at the end is:

dhei ta tak take ta tak take ta tak ghida ghida

So simple a five-year old can do it... :-)

Part One of Cartal Technique for Kirtan.

Sita-pati and Prahlad demonstrate how to play cartals for the 3/4 version of Damodarastakam.

The count for 3/4 is "1-2-3-1-2-3-1-2-3".

The cartals are sounded on beat 1 and 3, so it's: "1-2-3-1-2-3"

Just so you don't end up as a bedroom kirtan acarya (that's one of those guys who sound great until they try to play with other people), here is the mrdanga beat along with the cartals and some singing to help you know when to start and how to fit the mrdanga beat to the song.

On the 27th of October the month of Damodara begins. This month is the time of the festival of Kartika, and Vaisnavas sing the song Damodarastakam each day, along with offering a lamp to baby Krishna.

Dama means "bound" and udara means "abdomen". Together they form Damodara, and this is a name of Krishna that refers to his pastime of being bound by his mother Yasoda to prevent his running away after having been naughty and threatened with punishment. It refers to the ties of the devotees' love that bind the Lord to them.

The word astakam refers to a poetic form with eight stanzas or verses (from asta - "eight"). The Damodarastakam is spoken by Satyavrata Muni in the Padma Purana.

This prayer is sung to the accompaniment of musical instruments such as harmonium, mrdanga, cartals and guitar. There are two main melodies that are used to sing it - one is in 3/4 time ("waltz"-time), also known colloquially in ISKCON as "2-beat", and the other is in 4/4 time - known colloquially and misleadingly as "3-beat".

I have been requested by a number of devotees to provide them with guidance on the musical accompaniment for this song, so in the days leading up to Kartika I will post videos here showing how to play the mrdanga and cartals for these two different melodies and time signatures, and also a number of different chords that can accompany these melodies on harmonium and guitar.

If Krishna Dharma prabhu publishes an english rendition before then I will endeavour to record a version of that for the pleasure of the Vaisnavas.

I'll start soon so that you have time to practise before Kartika arrives.