Best Practice

In mrdanga playing power is good, endurance is great, but precision is king.

If you have power and endurance people will notice you. If you have precision you can become invisible - the kirtan will rock so hard that people will forget you're there.

And that's the goal.

To develop precision you need to practice with a metronome. It's a form of hasta-sadhana ("finger practice") that involves subordinating yourself to Krishna in His form of time (kalo 'smi). It can be hard on the mind, but that's what it's all about - conquering the mind and becoming a faithful and useful servant of the kirtan.

After I shot this video I had a realisation about muscle fibres. You see, I've been practicing with a metronome for 30 - 60 minutes a day, and my precision is pretty high. However, I've been noticing that while my power and endurance have been going up with my new physical training program, my precision has been disappearing.

Here's my theory as to why: the precision is not simply in the brain, it's also in the muscle fibres. High speed mrdanga playing uses reflex actions. These reflexes are stored in the muscle memory. As you add new muscle you need to retrain it to make it precise in mrdanga playing. So it's back to the metronome and hasta-sadhana for me, otherwise all this power and endurance is just for show.

Vrajadhama in form on the mrdanga in a kirtan at Atma one evening.

This is a video that I shot of Gaura Hari das, mentioned in H.H. Indradyumna Swami's recent diary entry, while he was here performing with Maharaja and his spiritual circus.

This is a good solid style of playing that is quite representative of modern ISKCON kirtan.

As for the ladies dancing in the background - have you noticed how all the computer-based media players (such as WinAmp, Kaffeine, MPlayer, etc.) got "visualizations" a few years ago?

People just get bored listening - they have to see something too. So this is the transcendental equivalent of the visualizations. Personally I always turn those things off, but I can appreciate by their existence that there must be demand for them.

If those ladies weren't dancing there then the audience would tire of the chanting much quicker than they do. They program is expert, actually, in how it balances these different factors.

See what all the fuss is about - H.H. Indradyumna Swami's dancing white elephants. Does sex attraction bring people to Krishna? Clearly yes. (I don't know how many of the young men who come, come because of an attractive young lady they met on sankirtan. Honestly, I've lost count.)

O good soul, does not a thing, applied therapeutically, cure a disease which was caused by that very same thing?

- Srimad Bhagavatam 1.5.33

I've introduced a new category in the Kirtan section "Hardware". This is where we will cover all the hardware aspects of maintaining instruments, sound reinforcement systems, and harinam paraphenalia.

Tri yuga prabhu blogged about his awesome Roland Street Cube mod.

There he mentions that "(we) opted to upgrade the cheap headset mic to a professional Shure PG30 model".

I took that cheaper headset mic, an Ashton AWM200, away with me.

We already have a wireless headset set up here in Brisbane, but it's not the kind of thing that I can lend out, because no can afford to replace it if they break it. With this one I'm comfortable about people being able to replace it if they need to, so I can let it go out for Ratha Yatra etc.

However, when I got it back to Brisbane and put together a modded Roland Street Cube setup I discovered that the headset included with the Ashton AWM200 is omnidirectional.

Microphones: Omnidirectional and Unidirectional

A word of advice. There are broadly speaking two types of microphones: omnidirectional and unidirectional.

Omnidirectional (Latin omni = "all") mics pick up sound equally in all directions. They will pick up cartals, especially if the singer is playing them, and will pick up the speaker output and cause feedback. Omnidirectional mics are no good for sound reinforcement in kirtan. They are best suited for recording when you want to pick up the whole room and feed it into a recorder, not an amplifier.

Here is a diagram showing the omnidirectional pickup pattern:

You can see that it picks up sound equally in all 360 degrees of direction.

Unidirectional (Latin uni = "one") microphones pick up sound coming from one general direction only. They are subdivided into cardioid and super-cardioid. Cardioid mics have a wider range of pickup than the narrower-focused super-cardioid.

Here is the cardioid pickup pattern:

You can see that it picks up sound from one direction only.

Here is the super-cardioid pattern:

Notice that it's narrower than the cardioid pickup pattern. It doesn't pick up as much sound from the sides. This allows you to turn it up louder before you get feedback, and stops cartals leaking in, but demands better technique on the part of the user.

You can get a feel for a microphone's pickup pattern by holding it in front of your mouth and speaking or singing as you turn it. If it's unidirectional you'll hear it drop off as you move around to the sides, quicker if it's super cardioid. You can also move it closer and further from your mouth to get a feel for how pickup drops off according to the inverse square law.

Because sound travels out from your mouth in an ever expanding sphere, like a balloon being blown up, the surface area of the sphere increases exponentially. What this means is that sound drops off quickly as you move further away.

For kirtan vocals, without a doubt, you need one of the unidirectional mics. A super-cardioid will have greater gain before feedback - in other words, it will go louder before it starts picking up its own signal from the speakers and starts making a squealing sound. Because it has a narrower field of pickup it is not going to pick up so much of the cartals either.

Here is a good comparison of the three:

Top to bottom: Omnidirectional, Cardiod, and Super-Cardioid

Further Reading: Microphone Directional Characteristics at mediacollege.com.

A digressionary rant on Microphone Technique

With super cardioid the singer needs to use the proper technique, otherwise they'll go: "Why isn't this thing working?", when what is happening is that they're just not singing in the right direction at the right distance.

Cardioid mics are more tolerant of bad technique, but with some important trade-offs. Most mics I've seen in use are cardioid. I've noticed that a lot of kirtan leaders don't know how to use mics very well, and will sometimes put their mouth and the cartals at equal distance from the mic, not wanting to be too loud. This isn't humble, it's just bad technique that leaves everyone hearing amplified cartals, and causes feedback. You don't need to amplify cartals. In every kirtan, without fail, you need to reduce cartal volume, because people can't hear the mantra.

When your voice and the cartals are equally distant from the mic which one do you think it picks up? Both.

The singer will be too far from the mic. We'll have to turn up the gain to get some amplification happening. Since the singer's voice is so faint to the mic, the mic starts to pick up the sound coming from the speakers. The result is feedback. The solution is not to grimace and step away from the mic, it's to step into the mic and put your mouth two inches away from it directly facing into it. This will make the whole system work properly. Don't want your voice amplified, don't lead kirtan. It's a service and you have to do it properly.

Back to the Story

Anyway, I was pretty upset about the omnidirectional headset situation, thinking I had wasted Krishna's laxmi, until I remembered our Shure WH20, a wired cardioid headset that we bought back in mid-2005, but which hadn't had much use, because it's not wireless, and wires on harinam bite.

Inspired by Tri Yuga's "can-do" attitude and practical skills, I used my newly acquired soldering iron (which I needed to make the Roland Street Cube mod) to frankenstein the Ashton wireless connector onto the Shure headset. The operation was successful, and that cheap wireless setup just got a major quality upgrade and has become a valued member of the team.

I would never have been able to do these things without Tri Yuga's association. It's amazing what you can pick up in a moment's association. Take a look at my 2005 Ashton amp modification to get an idea of my previous level of skill.

Now we have two wireless, battery powered sound reinforcement setups, ergo we can have two simultaneous harinam parties.

As Yadavendra prabhu wrote me, in Srila Prabhupada's world-conquering bhava: "Anything successful - double it!"

This is a collection of some of my favorite kirtans on the net.

As I mentioned in my preface to The Art and Science of Harinam Sankirtan Yajna, for the second edition I read everything that Srila Prabhupada had written or spoken about kirtan that was recorded in the Vedabase. I summarized this, and also included a section on Srila Prabhupada's instructions on kirtan as I had heard them from my guru, his disciple.

That section was lost when my laptop was taken. H.H. Bhaktivikasa Swami has published a pdf on kirtan which contains this very material. I consider my humble contribution to be a footnote to this work of his. Please download it and enjoy the nectar of Prabhupada-vani on kirtan.

• H.H. Bhaktivikasa Swami on Kirtan (pdf)

From the Bikram Yoga class dialog this morning:

"Your body - my mind".

The Bikram teachers speak continuously throughout the class. The effect is to replace the internal mental dialog of the student with Bikram's dialog. The teacher repeats exactly what Bikram has told them. There are stylistic variations by teacher, but the essential dialog is the same.

I have a double CD of Bikram himself giving class that I sometimes listen to.

In teaching yoga and attending yoga classes I've seen how the mind of the student gives out before their body does. By getting everyone to work together and having this dialog Bikram Yoga is very effective in controlling the minds of the students.

Similarly, in your preaching programs you need to have a seamless flow of presentation to keep the crowd.

I did the Sunday Feast program in Melbourne while I was there. Aniruddha prabhu knows what to say to inspire me. He said: "It's a real challenge". He and Tri Yuga explained that it is a very distracted environment with people walking in and out all the time.

I had back-up - Aniruddha arranged for the brahmacaris to come to the program and I lead the 4.30pm arati with a harmonium. Under normal circumstances harmoniums are not appropriate in arati kirtans, but for a Sunday Feast afternoon opening it can be nice to engage the people.

After we had some enthusiastic chanting and dancing we had momentum from the opening. People were expectant. Would the rest of the program build on this momentum, or had it peaked?

Normally the devotees would put the Vyasasana in the middle of the temple, and the speaker would then sit there and take some time to get ready to speak.

Three problems with this. Number one: you just forced everyone to physically move, and to redirect their attention to another place - where nothing is happening. Number two: it takes time to set up, and people's attention wanders. Number three: it takes your guy time to warm up, so you're basically starting all over again.

Imagine it like this: you're watching TV (you don't watch TV - and if you do you shouldn't :-) ), and suddenly it goes to static for five minutes. What do you do? You change channels of course. As a television station you know that technical difficulties will kill your ratings.

Instead I told the devotees to forget the Vyasasana and I stayed where I was. I had selected a control point on the room. It's a physical point from which you can control the entire room. You don't need to turn your body to see everyone. I was in the front right corner, near the Deities.

Then I started talking.

From the past few days in Melbourne I had some idea of what the people were into. Stories. Hey, everyone loves stories. Here's the magic formula for a successful Sunday Feast, home program or a megachurch: Good music, good speaker (and good food - but we've got that down). This is something that I've learned from studying things.

I spoke for twenty minutes or so, then I went to kirtan. I made one mistake here. I didn't ask for questions, because I wanted to keep the momentum, but when someone interjected with a request to ask a question, I let them do it. What I should have done is said: "You can speak with me after this in person".

Then I got a classic Sunday Feast crowd question loaded with political controversy. That's when I said: "I can answer that, but it will take some time. Please see me afterwards", and we went to kirtan.

Later on I lead the Gaura arati and the local Indian boys went off. Those guys can dance and they are extremely enthusiastic in the chanting. They wouldn't let us stop and we went for two hours. It was total nectar.

So you can learn something from the Bikram method. You are trying to displace the internal mental dialog of the audience. Don't give them a chance to think: "I wonder what's on the other channel?" Don't give them a chance to ask: "Should we go somewhere else?" Make the program shorter and more concentrated. Leave 'em wanting more and keep them fully captivated for the duration.

Focus on good music, good speaker (short and sweet is best), and good food.

It's a winning combination.

Check out my free e-book on Sunday Feast preaching: Preach on Purpose.

One of the benefits of H.H. Indradyumna Swami's festival program in Poland that is spilling out over the borders of Poland is the increasing number of devotees who are trained in doing harinam "Polish Festival" Style.

It's an organized festive style that evokes memories of Srila Tamal Krishna Goswami's organized harinam teams with the yellow turtlenecks and brown sweaters that Srila Prabhupada appreciated so much.

At the beginning of this year Maha-mantra das organized a flash harinam in Byron Bay, NSW, Australia during the New Govardhana festival. There were six devotees who had been to the Polish festival, and we were able to organize the harinam according to those principles. I had an accordion and played the same melodies that Sri Prahlad popularized on his Harer Nama - Volume One album. In this way we engaged the public with a pleasant festive harinam.

Personally I don't agree with people who say that Harinam can not be effective preaching in the modern western environment. I might agree that many current manifestations could be improved. It's all down to how you do it, and ultimately getting the Holy Name out there is better than not getting it out there. History will be our judge, not the small minds of persons trapped in a flickering moment of time.

The video of the harinam was shot and edited by Vrajadhama das - aka DJ Vraj. Visit the Google Video page to download a version to your computer that you can play offline. Enjoy!

This is a mrdanga demonstration by Vijay Prabhu, who played mrdanga in the kirtans that we did on the recent visit to Melbourne's Mahaprabhu Mandir. The sound is ok, but the frame is clipped, and it's dropping frames. Somehow the camera got set to 640x480, 30 fps, which is wrong for youtube. I'll try uploading it to Google and see what happens there.