A room full of voices.
Now, your turn.
Rhythm, melody, harmony and blues — taught through Konnakol, swaras, singing, clapping and a room willing to try. Two weeks of homework. No grades. Just keep the music alive.
From the workshop at
Richmond Park Library
Jason Zachariah
Before anything
The whole universe of music, on three axes.
I drew this on the board: a 3D graph straight out of maths class. The idea is simple: musicians spend their whole life shaping only three things — when something happens, how high or low it is, and how loud or soft it feels.
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X
TimeRhythm. The pulse. The handshake of music. Always forward — we can't pause time like superheroes.
-
Y
PitchHigh notes, low notes. Melody is what you hum. Harmony is the magic underneath.
-
Z
VolumeLoud, soft, whisper, shout. The most ignored axis. Use it more.
Chapter One · X-axis
Rhythm — the handshake of music.
Rhythm is how a musician shakes hands with a room of strangers. If people clap with you and keep going when you stop, you have already done one musician's job. The fancy notes and chord changes can come later.
Konnakol — South India's drum language
Konnakol is how we sing the mridangam — the way South Indian drummers vocalise rhythm. Tap a card to start a loop. The syllables light up in time with the drum. Tap again to stop.
The Rhythm Grid
Solve it: find all the ways to add up to the number. Tap any row to hear it loop.
Compulsory · Rhythm
- The 10-Song Pulse Hunt. Take 10 songs you enjoy — you will be hearing them anyway. As you listen, do a little more than an average listener: find the pulse, move your head, and notice how the beat divides. Is it dividing by 2, like Michael Jackson (Billie Jean, Beat It)? Or by 3, like many Indian folk and film songs? Send your findings for at least 5 songs — voice note, video, or written, whatever works for you.
- Clap — or play — all four ? = 4 patterns. Go through 2+2, 3+1, 1+1+1+1, and 1+1+2. Say the Konnakol syllables out loud as you go — Tha · Tha-Ka · Tha-Ki-Ta · Tha-Ka-Dhi-Mi. You can clap, or hold your hands together to simulate the piano, the violin, the guitar — whatever you play. Send your homework to the group: by writing, by singing, by recording a video, by playing it on your instrument — by whatever you want.
Extra Credit · Rhythm
- Indian folk triplets hunt. Pick a Punjabi, Rajasthani, Gujarati, or any Indian folk song. Listen carefully and identify whether it divides by 3 (triplets) or by 2 (even). Send a short voice note — or play along on your instrument — explaining how you figured it out.
Chapter Two · Y-axis
Melody — when my hand moved, you sang.
I held up my hand. Moved it up — you went higher. Moved it down — you went lower. That's the whole secret of melody, drawn in the air. One tradition says Do-Re-Mi. In class, we used Sa-Re-Ga-Ma-Pa. Different names — same staircase.
The Pitch Plane — positive Y · negative Y
Sa sits at the origin. Going UP (positive Y), we sing the aroh — Sa Re Ga Ma Pa. Going DOWN (negative Y), we sing the avroh — Sa Ni Dha Pa Ma.
Aroh / Ascending — Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni Sa(key signature updates when you change Sa above)
Avroh / Descending — Sa Ni Dha Pa Ma Ga Re Sa
Tap each note to hear it. Tap AROH or AVROH below to hear the full run looped.
Swara Workouts · loop until effortless
Six small drills on the first five swaras. Change the meter, tap a card, and each pattern respaces itself into one complete looping bar.
Happy Birthday, in swaras
A song you already know, in our language. Notice — it doesn't start on Sa. Sneaky.
"Happy Birthday to You"
Pa · Pa · Dha · Pa · Sá · Ni
"Happy Birthday to You"
Pa · Pa · Dha · Pa · Ré · Sá
"Happy Birthday dear ___"
Pa · Pa · Pá · Gá · Sá · Ni · Dha
"Happy Birthday to You"
Má · Má · Gá · Sá · Ré · Sá
3/4 time · 2-eighth pickup · Á = upper octave
More songs you already know — now in swaras
Every song you've ever sung has a swara name. Tap ▶ to hear it, then hum along.
Twinkle Twinkle
Sa Sa Pa Pa Dha Dha Pa
Ma Ma Ga Ga Re Re Sa
The whole scale, hiding in a nursery rhyme.
Ode to Joy
Ga Ga Ma Pa · Pa Ma Ga Re
Sa Sa Re Ga · Ga. Re Re~ (repeat resolves to Sa)
Beethoven. Five notes. Two hundred years. Still works.
Over the Rainbow
Sa → Sá (the leap)
Ni Pa Dha Ni Sá · Sá Dha Pa
Dha Ma Ga · Sa Re Ga Ma · Re Ni Sa Re Ga Sa
The first two notes are a full octave. The verse then keeps answering that leap.
Joy to the World
Sá Ni. Dha · Pa. Ma · Ga Re · Sa~
That opening line IS the descending swara scale. You've been singing it your whole life.
Call & Response · live
Sing it back.
Tap Start. The piano sings a swara phrase, you sing it back. Every swara you hit on pitch lights up green and adds to your score. No timing — just match the notes. See how high you can score.
Jason will record a continuous take soon — when it lands, the piano call swaps for his voice. The scoring logic stays the same.
Compulsory · Melody
- Sing back over my swara recording. I'll post the call-and-response audio (the one from the end of class) in the WhatsApp group. Sing back the swara patterns on time. Use C major here if you want the piano map to match, or move Sa to a key that suits your voice. Then add one minute of your own free improvisation using only Sa, Re, and Ga. Send the recording.
- Lock Sa-Re-Ga first. Just those three. Sing them up and down, slow, every day for one week. Record 30 seconds. Solid intervals first — everything else is built on this.
Extra Credit · Melody
- Transpose Sa Re Ga Ma Pa from C major to a Sa that suits your own voice. Record one minute of melodic improvisation over Natalie's accompaniment style.
- Translate a song. Take any nursery rhyme — Twinkle Twinkle, Vande Mataram, Old MacDonald — and write the first line in swaras. Send a photo of your notebook.
Chapter Three · stacked Y
Harmony — two notes, holding hands.
Harmony begins when one note meets another. One note can be useful; two notes can make tension, resolution, mystery, joy. We did this with Toto's Africa. The point was not just to sing the tune — it was to hear how each voice changes the meaning of the others.
"I bless the rains down in Africa"
Three voices, stacked. Each dot is a syllable; long bars = 2-beat held notes. Plotted on real pitch — A major, soprano on top.
4/4 · "I bless the rains down in Africa" · transposable to all keys
The Rule
The building blocks of music are not notes. They are intervals — the distance between two notes. That distance is what makes you feel something. The second note is where the story begins.
Compulsory · Harmony
- All three parts of "I bless the rains down in Africa". Learn and record soprano, alto, and tenor separately — so you can hear how each line sits inside the harmony. Just as we discussed: in this choir, we all learn every part.
Extra Credit · Harmony
- The Africa alaap. Record a 30-second improvised alaap in the gap between "Africa" and the next line. Stay within the F♯ minor scale (F♯, G♯, A, B, C♯, D, E) as I suggested.
- Find one harmony in the wild. Listen to any song this week. Spot the harmony — the voice under or above the main melody. Tell me which song.
Chapter Four · the genre
The Blues — groove on the 2 and the 4.
So much of the music we love — Hendrix, Coldplay, soul, rock, R&B — carries the blues somewhere inside it. We split the room into bass and lyrics and did Sweet Home Chicago. Twelve bars. The secret is in the snap: two and four, not one and three. One and three is military. Two and four is dance.
Split the room — bass + lyrics
Bum bum bum bum
Steady, low, never stops. You are the floor.
Back to that same old place,
sweet home Chicago.
Lazy, swung, talky. You are the story.
The Snap Track — tap to loop
Snap your fingers only on the 2 and the 4. That's the whole groove.
Compulsory · Blues
- Sing "Sweet Home Chicago" both ways. First the walking bass line (bum-bum-bum-bum), snapping on beats 2 and 4. Then the melody — "Come on baby don't you want to go / Back to that same old place, Sweet Home Chicago" — over six bars. Record both, send both.
Extra Credit · Blues
- The 2-and-4 walk. Put on any blues / soul / R&B song. Snap on 2 and 4 while you walk around the room. Five minutes. Video.
- Write your own blues line. Replace "Chicago" with your favourite place: "Sweet home Koramangala. Sweet home Kerala. Sweet home Richmond Park."
Interlude · transcript-grounded notes
Things Worth Remembering.
"You're not playing by ear — you're playing by mind."
Swaras give your mind a language for what your ear is already hearing.
"If you play a sport like badminton, you want to win. That's the joy."
Music asks for the same kind of ownership: learn songs, jam with people, prepare even for a small room.
"The work you put in is the same."
Ten people or ten thousand, the preparation still matters. Show up to the small room with the same seriousness.
"Rhythm is the easiest way to talk to people."
Before theory, before speed, before fancy notes: can you make the room move with you?
A musician listens a little differently. Find the pulse, move your head, and notice how the beat divides. That is not homework for homework's sake — it is how songs start opening up.
"Sa can be anything."
Choose the Sa that suits your voice. The syllables stay the same; the starting pitch can move.
Many traditions went deep with fewer materials: one string, one drum, one voice, one flute. The limitation became the language. Listen for how much rhythm and melody can live inside a small setup.
"The building blocks of music are not notes. They are intervals."
The distance between two notes is what gives you feeling: pleasant, tense, strange, resolved.
Start with three: Sa, Re, Ga. Lock those intervals until they feel obvious. Once the first three are solid, the rest of the scale has somewhere to attach.
Chapter Five
The Listening Library.
Every song below came up in class — either someone named it, I played it, or it became the example for a musical idea. This is not a playlist to consume passively. Listen with your ears and your head: find the pulse, count the beats, spot the harmony, and notice what the song is teaching you.
Chapter Six
Sending it back.
The homework is meant to help you enjoy music by doing it. I'll personally listen to submissions for two weeks and reply on the group. You don't need to be polished. You need to stay with the music and send.
How to submit · WhatsApp group · 2-week window
Any format works: writing, singing, video, notebook photo, piano, guitar, anything.
"The homework goes in a stepwise manner. Make sure you do the homework."
A weekly checklist
If you want a simple plan, follow this. It moves from pulse to swaras to harmony to blues without mixing everything at once.
Week One — Foundations
- Konnakol — say Tha · Tha-Ka · Tha-Ki-Ta · Tha-Ka-Dhi-Mi daily
- Begin the 10-song pulse hunt · find the pulse on at least 5 songs
- Sing Sa-Re-Ga locked & solid · record 30 sec
- Learn the soprano of "I bless the rains down in Africa"
- Send at least one recording to the group
Week Two — Stretching Out
- Clap — or play on your instrument — all four ? = 4 patterns with the Konnakol syllables · record and send to group
- Submit the Sa Re Ga Ma Pa call-and-response with 1 min Sa-Re-Ga improv
- Add the alto and tenor of Africa · sing all three lines
- Sing Sweet Home Chicago bass line and the melody · both recorded
- Optional: try one extra-credit goal
Thank you for the workshop.
Hopefully this is a start: listen better, sing a little, sweat it out with a few songs, and send something back. The work you put in is the same, even in a small room. See you on the group.
Jason Zac
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