A Short Course in Psalmody

It's 6:23 PM on Monday evening as I start writing this entry. I'm in a state of nervous semi-amazement. Am I really getting close to recording and uploading my first psalm chant? Maybe by the end of the month. Yesterday evening I installed a budget USB podcasting microphone on my desktop. Wednesday night I will see if I can figure out how to record a simple audio track in FL Studio. Then maybe on Thursday night I will be ready to try recording Psalm 5.

I've listened to several different types of music since publishing Psalm 4 back on 21 July 2025, so the idea of listening to nothing but the psalms in sequence until I've made it all the way through the psalter has come and gone. At least this time around. Still, I will do my best to work my way methodically through the psalter on Monday and Thursday nights, taking my encounter with each new psalm as a discrete next step on my psalmody learning journey. 

During the rest of tonight's session, I will listen for a second time in two weeks to Chanting the Psalms: A Crash Course in Psalmody by Pastor Joshua Schooping. This time I will sit at my desktop computer and take notes. Last time I was lying in bed. Hopefully I will have just enough time to decide what kind of chant I want to train for moving forward.

The first 20 minutes and 10 seconds of this course is mostly about the "why" of psalmody. Then the "how" of psalmody begins. 

The "how" section starts off with an important 9 and a half-minute teaching on monotonal chanting. 

My first note is a transcription of the quote from Isaac of Syria (starting around 7 minutes 25 seconds): 

Understand this also with discernment. In the verses of your psalmody, do not be like a man who borrows words from another, lest you imagine that you are diligently increasing your work of meditation, when in fact you are left utterly devoid of the compunction and joy to be found in psalmody. Rather recite the words of psalmody as your very own, that you may utter the words of your supplication with insight, and with discriminating compunction, like a man who truly understands his work.

My second note is one of interest in the possibility of combining psalmody and prostration for exercise (starting around 15 minutes 40 seconds).

My third note is one of concern that the Sign of the Cross (which I presently do sometimes) might only be something the baptized are supposed to do (I am not yet baptized). Whew. Google Gemini says the unbaptized can make the Sign of the Cross, too. 

Alright, that's it for tonight's class with Pastor Joshua Schooping. I will be revisiting this Short Course in Psalmody in the future, God willing, when I am ready to tackle melodic chanting. 

It looks like there are three main types of Christian psalmody I need to be aware of:

• Chanting
• Metrical Psalmody
• Contemporary Psalm Songs

Within the area of chanting, there is a distinction between monotonal chanting and melodic chanting (cf. Benefits and Neuroscience of Ek-Sruti Mantra Chanting). 

Melodic chanting can be syllabic (one note per syllable), neumatic (small groups of notes per syllables), or melismatic (many notes per syllable).