The Very Reverend Protopresbyter Joseph Paliouras is a man of exceptionally fine voice, a distinguished lead chanter, a bearer and bestower of the Tradition of our Church. We have benefited from his lessons for many years, and we thank him warmly.
Through the organised lessons of the website ‘Byzantine Psalmist,’ he offers a comprehensive study program that conveys with great reverence the technical, theoretical and practical aspects of Byzantine Chant.
We hope that ‘Byzantine Psalmist’ will contribute to the education of many chanters by passing down the artistic inheritance of the Church. From the depth of our heart, we wish our beloved Father Joseph divine guidance in his work for the benefit of the Holy Church and the glory of the Holy Name of God, and we wish all the participants in this educational program a good and inspired apprenticeship.

Byzantine Psalmist is a very good set of courses for learning byzantine music. Thank you so much to Father Joseph and his team of teachers and to the Essex Monastery for providing the interactive bilingual website. The course is very suitable to study at one’s own pace, whenever you find the time, with no deadlines, once you enrol on the course you have access to the lessons at any time, at a very accessible price. To get a flavour of the courses, the free course with 10 lessons selected from different levels is very inspiring to make you want to learn more. The website allows you also to book private lessons with the teacher, and this is very helpful if you have particular or general questions about the course or specific lessons. The course has different levels in order to suit students of different abilities. As a beginner, I started with the first one: Melodic Exercises, and for each lesson, followed the advise from Father Josep: looked at the billingual PDF that gives explanation on the new symbols introduced by the lesson, watched the theory video, watched the paralagia video (exercise with explanation) multiple times in order to understand how the symbols work in practice then did the exercise without explanation to check my understanding. As one says that practice makes perfect, the lessons are made in such a way that if you take the time and practice it carefully at your own time the symbols will start to make sense and a new wonderful world opens up. I am particularly grateful for this course because it helped me understand the music notation, grasp a bit of the wonderful world that byzantine music is, and now can study with a bit more confidence the second course (Anastasimatarion) that looks at the tones and how they work. Music breaks language barriers and Byzantine music is much more, it’s sung prayers, and what a wonderful way to give glory and thanks to God. Thank you again for making the learning of Byzantine music accessible to everyone who wants to learn, that is a great and wonderful work, may God bless your work to help as many people as possible. Thank you!

The course, it is very straightforward. I was very worried that I will not understand because of Greek, but Fr Joseph explains it in English, right after Greek.

I was worried that it will be too fast or not clear, but the steps (explaining the notes, checking if I am on the right note against the instrument and then on the voice/note) are very helpful and I can replay it as many times as I need.

I can carry the PDF with me at work to practice in my breaks.

Glory to God! I feel that I can finally have a chance to learn.

Thank you so much, Father Joseph, for this wonderful opportunity to learn Byzantine music. I am grateful to have access to this beautifully constructed course which can be done at one’s own pace ! It is indeed a blessing.

«I am much enjoying the course, which is like entering a different world!»

Father Joseph, thank you for doing these courses. It is an amazing way to learn! I like both the Greek and English explanation. It’s perfect.

Thank you so much – what a blessing!!

Good job pater! Congratulation to you and to your colleagues! Very nice interface!

Very helpful format!! I could listen to instructions, listen to the chant, mute it and pause it to solidify it, and thus master the lessons! Thank you!!

I am very happy to have found this course. It is so helpful….Very nice demonstration of all the signs learned so far together!