A Salem Choir Master’s Gift to Tamil Churches: An App That Brings Every Hymn, Score and Tune Together for the First Time

Tell My Story

For decades, Tamil church choir singers across denominations have grappled with a simple but frustrating challenge: hymn books in one place, musical scores in another, tune references scattered elsewhere — and often no reliable way to hear the melody before singing it. Now, a quiet revolution from Salem is changing that.

J John Jeyakar, a seasoned choir master with 25 years of experience and 15 years of teaching music, has developed what could be the most comprehensive digital resource ever created for Tamil pamalais (hymns). His new app brings together the scores, lyrics, tunes, and even vocal parts — Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass — for hundreds of Tamil hymns, all in one seamlessly integrated platform.

A First-of-Its-Kind App for Tamil Hymns:

Called “Tamil Paamalai Singing Score”, the app features 637 tunes for 410 pamalais, meticulously organised and accessible at the tap of a finger. Users can:

Read the lyrics

View the complete musical score

Listen to the tune

Hear individual parts — soprano, alto, tenor or bass

“This is the first such attempt for Tamil hymns,” Jeyakar told tellmystory.in. “Earlier the lyrics were available somewhere, the score somewhere else. It was hard to sync everything. Now everything is in a single sheet. That’s a boon.”

For choirs preparing for Sunday services, weddings, funerals or competitions, this solves a long-standing gap: not knowing the tune until someone taught it. Now, they can simply listen and learn.

The Problem — and the Breakthrough:

Before this app, choir members often pieced together material from photocopies, old books, handwritten scores, or WhatsApp recordings.

Earlier we would not have all the versions under the score. The text would be somewhere, the score would be somewhere. Syncing was difficult,” Jeyakar recalls. “Many may not know the tune — now they can listen to it in one place.”

This app effectively collapses all of that into a single, clean ecosystem

A Heart-Rending Beginning:

What makes this project remarkable is not just its scale, but its emotional origin.

In February 2023, Jeyakar received a call from Mr. A J Jebarajan, a man from Surandai working in Delhi — a stranger who had come across one of his photocopies of hymn scores. A J Jebarajan requested that Jeyakar help prepare a proper singing score.

“We sat together and worked on it. I already had the score but had to modify it to suit the singing version. It took six months,” he says.

When Jebarajan finally saw the completed photocopy, he responded with immense satisfaction — and expressed his desire to print it. But the next day, he died of a massive heart attack. “It was devastating,” Jeyakar says. “I didn’t even know him personally. But he became the reason behind this idea.”

Left shaken yet inspired, Jeyakar decided that the work should not end with Jebarajan.

“A student’s father, Mr S. Selvakumar, who is a software developer, volunteered immediately. He built the app — worth several lakhs — entirely free of cost,” he says. “I was stunned by his generosity.”

The book containing all the scores Jeyakar had prepared was also published, carrying the same content.

A Lifetime of Music Behind the innovation:

Though a mechanical engineer by profession and the former Managing Director of the Anna Transport Corporation, music has been Jeyakar’s calling since childhood. Encouraged by church members and presbyters, he learned the organ and began teaching children early in life.

After retiring from government service, he decided to formally qualify in music.

“I used to send children for Trinity exams. Then I thought, why shouldn’t I qualify myself?” he says with a smile.

He cleared:

Grade VIII Music Theory

Grade V Piano

Grade III Violin

Today he teaches piano, violin and cello, besides tirelessly creating scores.