There has been a lot of debate around here recently about the merits or demerits of learning to read & write music, dots etc. ..... Well, how about this for a crazy idea?
This might just be a novel way of encouraging youngsters to learn the dots for ITM in a more fun way?
Now you see, they use boring old triangles, circles, squares etc. But how would it be if you had little instrument shapes in place of all those dull geometric shapes?
So at the end of each, instead of a square or triangle you had a wee Harp, or Banjo or Fiddle?
If the idea appeals to you, what instruments would you suggest be used for each note e.g. Banjo for b's, Concertina for c's, Fiddle for f's etc etc
I'm sure you get the idea.
Aye saint, I don't see why not, & then of course B could stand for Banjo, given that it's larger & is after all, recognized as a far more important instrument in the ITM world!
I'd like to see it work more like the penny whistle does in different keys.
Doe the deer can always be the same little icon, and the music can specify exactly what kind of mode/scale that particular tune is using... with sharps and flats added for clarification.
Or something like that, anyway.
Hmmmm? Is this an insidious way of introducing religion as well? Will we also be changing terminology, will 'session' become 'choir'? Should we start doing harmony and hymns too? Hey, we could also adopt some of the moves of the Shakers and do everything from a standing position?
Looks like you've found the Amercian Shape-note system, which is indeed used for religious music ('Sacred Harp', which refers to the title of a book and has nothing to do with harps) related to the Uk West Gallery tradition and based on traditional music rather than art music. The shape-note system makes sight singing very easy (I'm told!), and since Sacred Harp is unaccompanied, it is independant of key - singers are given the start note and sing relative to that, so it can be adjusted higher or lower than the written pitch if needed. This is a problem only for those with 'perfect pitch'.
People who already read music usually find the shapes a distraction, but beginners to music reading get on with it OK.
Although the idea of shape notes may be useful for those who haven't dealt with sheet music before and who aren't seriously into playing music, I think that anyone who plays frequently or with others should learn to read standard notation.
Hey ptarm, what about colour coding it too. You could do away with paper altogether and use one of those light show things they used to have for discos, like following the bouncing ball, only coloured and rhythmic? A side effect might be mezmerizing and setting everyone at ease, like hypnotism? Of course, if there were anyone colour blind in the group you'd get incidental harmony!
As long as the triangle was in tune I'd be grateful. A bloke with a didgeridoo came to a session I was at one night and hearts sank, naturally enough, as it became clear that he was going to play it. It was a relief to discover that he could provide a cracking good drone backing on the note D, perfectly in tune. Just the once was enough though.
I submit that we combine the use the B as a hybrid instrument of a Banjo and Bodhran... Bodhranjo...
As an American, I've never heard of this sort of notation... not even with multiple years of music school... I guess I'll have to go to the Bible belt and research it.
I sing with the London Sacred Harp Group, and we actually don't often use the shapes, although in the tradition they sing out the shapes first, then the words of the hymns. There is one example in the film "Cold Mountain". ( There's also a reference to it in that Johnny Cash biopic, by Maybelle Carter, but then they didn't sing any ! )
The difficulty is that some of us are musicians of some sort, and tend to look just at the stave. It's actually a struggle to go back to shape-note singing when you're used to the staves, but the system does work across all keys.
Pastrings, it isn't taught in music school except in esoteric music history classes covering early American hymnody. Shape note notation was used to teach congregational part-singing quickly to non music readers, and it does work. While it never completely died out in the south, it was quite popular in your neck of the woods in the 19th century. The 4-note system was supposedly invented in Philadelphia, and The Sacred Harp was published there in 1844.
ITM (and STM) connection: some of the tunes used for these hymns are or are related to traditional Irish and mostly Scottish tunes and songs. The conventional romanticised view is that the hymn writers and arrangers collected the tunes from illiterate Scotch-Irish settlers in the Appalachians. The more prosaic story is that the tunes were collected from printed collections of Burns and Thomas Moore songs on pianos in American parlors. The tune will be in the tenor, or next to last line, so in this example, Star of Columbia=Bonaparte Crossing the Rhine (Alps, Rocky Mountains, Peachtree Street Against the Light)
This version: http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/7 =
p. 1 http://www.ccel.org/ccel/walker/harmony/Page_260.html
p. 2 http://www.ccel.org/ccel/walker/harmony/Page_261.html
Bruce's Address (Soldiers of the Cross, arise) = Bruce's Address (Scots wha hae)
Singing School = The Blue Bells of Scotland
Plenary (Hark how the doleful tomb) = Auld Lang Syne (the familiar link hands and sway version)
Sawyer's Exit = Rosin the Bow
etc.
Naa pastrings, your thinking of a *BANJOHRAN* - looks like a Banjo alright, but everyone just takes turns beating the $hit out of it!
Nope Ceol, Ptarms don't rut .... we just Strut!
OK alright, I confess, it was a bit of a spoof, but I was also hoping to learn more about this unusual system, so thanks to c.g., Pete & Tracie ..... & to the rest of you for the nonsense, you know how much of a sucker I am for the weird posts!
.... & yes proinsiasrua, yer wee bird weren't tellin' ye no fibs. We did have a silver flautist join us one night, complete with music & stand! It does look completely out of place of course but it was surprising how the punters loved his slow song airs - he actually got a round of claps after each tune ... which is more than we got. But then of course he was performing, we weren't! Mind you our piper was pretty p*ssed off, having to trip over the feckin' stand, each time he headed for a Pint or a Pish!
But it does make me wonder about the sight of a music stand at a session & audience reaction to it!
I wonder are they impressed by the fact that he could actually *read* the music & more than likely totally oblivious to the fact that the rest of us had gone to all the bother of learning all our tunes by ear? e.g. I know lots of punters honestly believe that we just kind of busk along, making it up as we go! Or were they just glad to have a change of tempo, from diddly dee to tunes they could recognize? Ah well, who cares what's in their heads, after all, we all just ignore them anyway, don't we .....................
A gigging mate of mine learned to sing decades ago from a seven-shape hymnal and even now, when he's writing a song or arrangement, he writes it in shape notes.
I went to my first Sacred Harp singing in 1965, well before the modern revival, and there were still lots of old-timers singing in a positively spine-tingling style. My wife's family has been singing SH for umpteen generations.
Now somebody will ask how you can cover a seven note scale with just four shapes. Like this: fa sol la fa sol la mi (fa). Were I grew up, it's known as "fa-sol-la singing".
Hey, I got it, we could combine Shape Note and Semaphore. It could be a new fad. We could use nautical flags and have someone like a director up front waving them in sequence as we all play the shapes. Again, halellujah, no music stands, just some twit waving colourful flags. Just think of all the folks that would come out of the woodwork to check it out. There could be money in this, play by the shapes instead of the dots. Ptarmigan, you're a genius... ( ~ heh, heh, heh )
Tracie, it's perfect for Ptarm. I can see him wearing one now. Maybe for next Christmas? I'm sure he could sweet talk someone out of a set of nautical flags and I could cut some green willow poles for him...
Thanks for all the serious postings in between the nonsense !
Incidentally, the words of the Sacred Harp are often much older than the arrangements and tunes; Isaac Watts, who wrote many of the sets of words used lived in the 18th century, and is buried in the City of London, at Bunhill Row Fields ( along with a lot of other famous people including Daniel DeFoe, and William Blake ), and the London Group has taken to meeting and singing at his graveside on the nearest Sunday to the anniversary of his birth, which is in July. It's a very nice park to picnic and sing on a summer Sunday.
Nonsense, you forget to read between the nonsense, or verge on taking it all too seriously. I have sung with both types from the Sacred Harp book. I promise you, we didn't hang around long where they took it too seriously. With another group we injected the joy of belief in our singing, sang our hearts out, and often laughed when things went squiff. With the serious group it was always dour and if there was a mistake folks just looked sheepish, or the directed scanned the group to see who was the brightest red... Give me the joy in it anyday, but I have also sung and played music at gravesides, and shed my tears ~ but even there, in praise of having had some time with the deceased... You know I love and appreciate the history behind a thing too, the context of it, but minus the choking dust and the potential starch and fermaldahyde...
An American Sacred Harper said 'I'd travel 600 miles to take part but I wouldn't cross the road to listen'. So there's the connection - like sessions, Sacred Harp sings are about participating, not performing. (Was that me who used to be seen with V---- S---- performing Sacred Harp music in concert - surely not!)
I'm with you c.g. There's always those others, like with sea shanties or anything, who are just so deadly with their serious approach to things that it sucks the life and joy out of it...
For those that have wandered this far, please, read the opening introduction by dear ol' Ptarm, light of the North, hammers of ~ you know, him, yer man...
past-rings ~ you don't need to go to the Bible belt, I'm willing to bet there's a shape note group nearby. Where are you? If you follow those links that Tracie was so generous with you can drop them a line and ask for assistance. Even if you only go once ~ I promise you, the experience is worth collecting... Let me know if you do, or as they say, be sure to report back...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shape_note
"It was asserted by Andrew Law he was the inventor of shape notes. Little and Smith did not themselves claim credit for the invention[1], but said instead that the notes were invented around 1790 by John Connelly[2] of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They claimed that Connelly signed over the rights of his invention to them in 1798."
Keystone Sacred Harp Singing Convention ~
St. James United Church of Christ,
Havertown, Pennsylvania,
&
Arch Street Presbyterian Church,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
I remember back in the 70's a group from Vermont called the Word of Mouth Chorus came down to Georgia to a SH convention. They had learned lots of songs from the book and wanted to experience the real thing. Having no idea about the tradition of "singing the shapes" on the first time through each song, the Vermonters were dumbfounded when they heard it. They were nice folks, but (or "and") were very serious about the music. They approached it like singing madrigals - have fun, but be precise, enunciate, etc. They eventually recorded an album of Sacred Harp songs, which is pretty darn good in its own way (Herself and I like it quite a lot), but not at all like the old tradition.
There are other shape note books used in traditional singings - The Harp of Columbia, Southern Harmony, Christian Harmony...
You don't have to be religious to enjoy this stuff. Hymn singing and "gospel" music are deeply embedded in the folk music of The South.
There's controversy over whether I'm religious or not, but certain ways with hymns and gospel are definitely deeply embedded in me...but I find the spirit is also moved by the call of the muezzin... But hey, the sacred and the profance raises me up...
I did spend a really crazy but fun period with a friend digging the dance out of the melodies used for Shape Note singing. There are, as has already been suggested by dear Tracie, some great melodies woven in amongst it all...
""gospel" music are deeply embedded in the folk music of The South." - "Amhran na bhFiann sung by the Dublin Gospel Choir in Croke Park ....." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChtInLUFPaM
Oh sorry Ceol, when you said "the south", did you actually mean the southern states ..... not Eire!
At a tangent: I wonder if anyone on this board with its formidable collective intellectual prowess can produce, or invent, a satisfactory method of notating (the more meandering kind of) slow airs?
Shape - shifting!
Shape - shifting!
There has been a lot of debate around here recently about the merits or demerits of learning to read & write music, dots etc. ..... Well, how about this for a crazy idea?
This might just be a novel way of encouraging youngsters to learn the dots for ITM in a more fun way?
Check this page out & scroll down to the 'Seven-shape System':
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shape_note
Now you see, they use boring old triangles, circles, squares etc. But how would it be if you had little instrument shapes in place of all those dull geometric shapes?
So at the end of each, instead of a square or triangle you had a wee Harp, or Banjo or Fiddle?
If the idea appeals to you, what instruments would you suggest be used for each note e.g. Banjo for b's, Concertina for c's, Fiddle for f's etc etc
I'm sure you get the idea.
Remember, I thought of it first!
# Posted on March 28th 2007 by Ptarmigan
Re: Shape - shifting!
Can b stand for bodhran
# Posted on March 28th 2007 by Saint
Re: Shape - shifting!
Aye saint, I don't see why not, & then of course B could stand for Banjo, given that it's larger & is after all, recognized as a far more important instrument in the ITM world!
# Posted on March 28th 2007 by Ptarmigan
Re: Shape - shifting!
I'd like to see it work more like the penny whistle does in different keys.
Doe the deer can always be the same little icon, and the music can specify exactly what kind of mode/scale that particular tune is using... with sharps and flats added for clarification.
Or something like that, anyway.
# Posted on March 28th 2007 by morning star
Re: Shape - shifting!
ill settle for b.......
# Posted on March 28th 2007 by Saint
Re: Shape - shifting!
Their may be other views on the role of the letter B ( the clue is in the name )
# Posted on March 28th 2007 by bazouki dave
Re: Shape - shifting!
F should stand for harmonica. I base this on the number of times I've heard "Will you put that effin' harmonica down!"
# Posted on March 28th 2007 by Steve Shaw
Re: Shape - shifting!
Hmmmm? Is this an insidious way of introducing religion as well? Will we also be changing terminology, will 'session' become 'choir'? Should we start doing harmony and hymns too? Hey, we could also adopt some of the moves of the Shakers and do everything from a standing position?
# Posted on March 28th 2007 by ceolachan
Re: Shape - shifting!
Is it the rutting season Ptarm?
# Posted on March 28th 2007 by ceolachan
Re: Shape - shifting!
Looks like you've found the Amercian Shape-note system, which is indeed used for religious music ('Sacred Harp', which refers to the title of a book and has nothing to do with harps) related to the Uk West Gallery tradition and based on traditional music rather than art music. The shape-note system makes sight singing very easy (I'm told!), and since Sacred Harp is unaccompanied, it is independant of key - singers are given the start note and sing relative to that, so it can be adjusted higher or lower than the written pitch if needed. This is a problem only for those with 'perfect pitch'.
People who already read music usually find the shapes a distraction, but beginners to music reading get on with it OK.
# Posted on March 28th 2007 by c.g.
Re: Shape - shifting!
Wee bird tells me that there have been sheet music issues of recent in a north coast bar.
Not words that are often uttered in reference to a sess, but I heard that a music stand obstructed the pathway to the bar!
Yes, Ceolachán, the standing position is a fav of mine too!
# Posted on March 28th 2007 by proinsiasrua
Re: Shape - shifting!
Although the idea of shape notes may be useful for those who haven't dealt with sheet music before and who aren't seriously into playing music, I think that anyone who plays frequently or with others should learn to read standard notation.
# Posted on March 28th 2007 by Criostoir
Re: Shape - shifting!
Hey ptarm, what about colour coding it too. You could do away with paper altogether and use one of those light show things they used to have for discos, like following the bouncing ball, only coloured and rhythmic? A side effect might be mezmerizing and setting everyone at ease, like hypnotism? Of course, if there were anyone colour blind in the group you'd get incidental harmony!
# Posted on March 28th 2007 by ceolachan
Re: Shape - shifting!
That's it, no more music stands!!!
# Posted on March 28th 2007 by ceolachan
Re: Shape - shifting!
If anyone brought a triangle to my session, I'd circle round them then square up to them.
# Posted on March 28th 2007 by Alf Tupper
Re: Shape - shifting!
As long as the triangle was in tune I'd be grateful. A bloke with a didgeridoo came to a session I was at one night and hearts sank, naturally enough, as it became clear that he was going to play it. It was a relief to discover that he could provide a cracking good drone backing on the note D, perfectly in tune. Just the once was enough though.
# Posted on March 28th 2007 by Steve Shaw
Re: Shape - shifting!
I submit that we combine the use the B as a hybrid instrument of a Banjo and Bodhran... Bodhranjo...
As an American, I've never heard of this sort of notation... not even with multiple years of music school... I guess I'll have to go to the Bible belt and research it.
# Posted on March 28th 2007 by pastrings
Re: Shape - shifting!
I sing with the London Sacred Harp Group, and we actually don't often use the shapes, although in the tradition they sing out the shapes first, then the words of the hymns. There is one example in the film "Cold Mountain". ( There's also a reference to it in that Johnny Cash biopic, by Maybelle Carter, but then they didn't sing any ! )
The difficulty is that some of us are musicians of some sort, and tend to look just at the stave. It's actually a struggle to go back to shape-note singing when you're used to the staves, but the system does work across all keys.
# Posted on March 28th 2007 by Guernsey Pete
Re: Shape - shifting!
Pastrings, it isn't taught in music school except in esoteric music history classes covering early American hymnody. Shape note notation was used to teach congregational part-singing quickly to non music readers, and it does work. While it never completely died out in the south, it was quite popular in your neck of the woods in the 19th century. The 4-note system was supposedly invented in Philadelphia, and The Sacred Harp was published there in 1844.
ITM (and STM) connection: some of the tunes used for these hymns are or are related to traditional Irish and mostly Scottish tunes and songs. The conventional romanticised view is that the hymn writers and arrangers collected the tunes from illiterate Scotch-Irish settlers in the Appalachians. The more prosaic story is that the tunes were collected from printed collections of Burns and Thomas Moore songs on pianos in American parlors. The tune will be in the tenor, or next to last line, so in this example, Star of Columbia=Bonaparte Crossing the Rhine (Alps, Rocky Mountains, Peachtree Street Against the Light)
This version: http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/7 =
p. 1 http://www.ccel.org/ccel/walker/harmony/Page_260.html
p. 2 http://www.ccel.org/ccel/walker/harmony/Page_261.html
Bruce's Address (Soldiers of the Cross, arise) = Bruce's Address (Scots wha hae)
Singing School = The Blue Bells of Scotland
Plenary (Hark how the doleful tomb) = Auld Lang Syne (the familiar link hands and sway version)
Sawyer's Exit = Rosin the Bow
etc.
The mother-lode of information on shape note/sacred harp singing:
http://www.mcsr.olemiss.edu/~mudws/harp.html
# Posted on March 28th 2007 by Tracie
Re: Shape - shifting!
Naa pastrings, your thinking of a *BANJOHRAN* - looks like a Banjo alright, but everyone just takes turns beating the $hit out of it!
Nope Ceol, Ptarms don't rut .... we just Strut!
OK alright, I confess, it was a bit of a spoof, but I was also hoping to learn more about this unusual system, so thanks to c.g., Pete & Tracie ..... & to the rest of you for the nonsense, you know how much of a sucker I am for the weird posts!
.... & yes proinsiasrua, yer wee bird weren't tellin' ye no fibs. We did have a silver flautist join us one night, complete with music & stand! It does look completely out of place of course but it was surprising how the punters loved his slow song airs - he actually got a round of claps after each tune ... which is more than we got. But then of course he was performing, we weren't!
Mind you our piper was pretty p*ssed off, having to trip over the feckin' stand, each time he headed for a Pint or a Pish! 
But it does make me wonder about the sight of a music stand at a session & audience reaction to it!
I wonder are they impressed by the fact that he could actually *read* the music & more than likely totally oblivious to the fact that the rest of us had gone to all the bother of learning all our tunes by ear? e.g. I know lots of punters honestly believe that we just kind of busk along, making it up as we go! Or were they just glad to have a change of tempo, from diddly dee to tunes they could recognize? Ah well, who cares what's in their heads, after all, we all just ignore them anyway, don't we .....................
# Posted on March 28th 2007 by Ptarmigan
Re: Shape - shifting!
Bag pipes
Bones
Bass guitar
Beamish Glass and coin
all bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb
# Posted on March 28th 2007 by Saint
Re: Shape - shifting!
Och your just trying to be awkward Saint! I think we'll just go with the most musical one, OK? Right, so the Beamish Glass it is!
# Posted on March 28th 2007 by Ptarmigan
Re: Shape - shifting!
A gigging mate of mine learned to sing decades ago from a seven-shape hymnal and even now, when he's writing a song or arrangement, he writes it in shape notes.
I went to my first Sacred Harp singing in 1965, well before the modern revival, and there were still lots of old-timers singing in a positively spine-tingling style. My wife's family has been singing SH for umpteen generations.
Now somebody will ask how you can cover a seven note scale with just four shapes. Like this: fa sol la fa sol la mi (fa). Were I grew up, it's known as "fa-sol-la singing".
# Posted on March 28th 2007 by Bob himself
Re: Shape - shifting!
Who loves yuh Tracie, thanks for the memories...
Hey, I got it, we could combine Shape Note and Semaphore. It could be a new fad. We could use nautical flags and have someone like a director up front waving them in sequence as we all play the shapes. Again, halellujah, no music stands, just some twit waving colourful flags. Just think of all the folks that would come out of the woodwork to check it out. There could be money in this, play by the shapes instead of the dots. Ptarmigan, you're a genius... ( ~ heh, heh, heh
)
# Posted on March 28th 2007 by ceolachan
Re: Shape - shifting!
Ceol, what about combining shape note, semaphore and the chord hat of recent memory?!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bexIdm0awwo
We could also eliminate the music stand clutter by projecting the dots on a tv screen so *everyone* can see them.
Yeah, folks will come out of the woodwork ... just like cockroaches.
# Posted on March 28th 2007 by Tracie
Re: Shape - shifting!
B stands for Bodhran, I suppose....
# Posted on March 28th 2007 by I_Fel
Re: Shape - shifting!
I love it, I just don't think I have enough turkey basters. I'll have to go shopping this weekend...
# Posted on March 28th 2007 by ceolachan
Re: Shape - shifting!
Tracie, it's perfect for Ptarm. I can see him wearing one now. Maybe for next Christmas? I'm sure he could sweet talk someone out of a set of nautical flags and I could cut some green willow poles for him...
# Posted on March 28th 2007 by ceolachan
Re: Shape - shifting!
You lookin' for flags Ceol? Well how about this one, for starters:
http://www.superflag.com/pics99/flgdy99.jpg
What note was a star again?
# Posted on March 28th 2007 by Ptarmigan
Re: Shape - shifting!
I like Sacred Harp singing.Here are some mp3's.
http://www.mcsr.olemiss.edu/~mudws/sounds/Ballstown.mp3
# Posted on March 28th 2007 by dafydd
Re: Shape - shifting!
Sorry wrong link.
http://www.mcsr.olemiss.edu/~mudws/resource/chap04.html
# Posted on March 28th 2007 by dafydd
Re: Shape - shifting!
Sounds like some sessions I've been to dafydd...
See Ptarm, I told you flags would bring out the mob in folks, pourin' out of the woodwork they'd be...
# Posted on March 29th 2007 by ceolachan
Re: Shape - shifting!
Thanks for all the serious postings in between the nonsense !
Incidentally, the words of the Sacred Harp are often much older than the arrangements and tunes; Isaac Watts, who wrote many of the sets of words used lived in the 18th century, and is buried in the City of London, at Bunhill Row Fields ( along with a lot of other famous people including Daniel DeFoe, and William Blake ), and the London Group has taken to meeting and singing at his graveside on the nearest Sunday to the anniversary of his birth, which is in July. It's a very nice park to picnic and sing on a summer Sunday.
# Posted on March 29th 2007 by Guernsey Pete
Re: Shape - shifting!
Nonsense, you forget to read between the nonsense, or verge on taking it all too seriously. I have sung with both types from the Sacred Harp book. I promise you, we didn't hang around long where they took it too seriously. With another group we injected the joy of belief in our singing, sang our hearts out, and often laughed when things went squiff. With the serious group it was always dour and if there was a mistake folks just looked sheepish, or the directed scanned the group to see who was the brightest red... Give me the joy in it anyday, but I have also sung and played music at gravesides, and shed my tears ~ but even there, in praise of having had some time with the deceased... You know I love and appreciate the history behind a thing too, the context of it, but minus the choking dust and the potential starch and fermaldahyde...
# Posted on March 29th 2007 by ceolachan
"the directed scanned" ~ should have read ~ "the director scanned"
# Posted on March 29th 2007 by ceolachan
Re: Shape - shifting!
Now I'm worried ~ I just realized that previous post was the ol' GP... Peace! ~ Barbecue and song fest at Bunhill then Pete?
# Posted on March 29th 2007 by ceolachan
Re: Shape - shifting!
An American Sacred Harper said 'I'd travel 600 miles to take part but I wouldn't cross the road to listen'. So there's the connection - like sessions, Sacred Harp sings are about participating, not performing. (Was that me who used to be seen with V---- S---- performing Sacred Harp music in concert - surely not!)
# Posted on March 29th 2007 by c.g.
Re: Shape - shifting!
I'm with you c.g. There's always those others, like with sea shanties or anything, who are just so deadly with their serious approach to things that it sucks the life and joy out of it...
For those that have wandered this far, please, read the opening introduction by dear ol' Ptarm, light of the North, hammers of ~ you know, him, yer man...
# Posted on March 29th 2007 by ceolachan
Re: Shape - shifting!
Thanks for the info Tracie... I"m definitely going to WCU to ask for my money back...
# Posted on March 29th 2007 by pastrings
Re: Shape - shifting!
past-rings ~ you don't need to go to the Bible belt, I'm willing to bet there's a shape note group nearby. Where are you? If you follow those links that Tracie was so generous with you can drop them a line and ask for assistance. Even if you only go once ~ I promise you, the experience is worth collecting... Let me know if you do, or as they say, be sure to report back...
# Posted on March 29th 2007 by ceolachan
Re: Shape - shifting!
"Shape-Note Singing in the Shenandoah Valley"
http://www.mcsr.olemiss.edu/~mudws/shenandoah.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shape_note
"It was asserted by Andrew Law he was the inventor of shape notes. Little and Smith did not themselves claim credit for the invention[1], but said instead that the notes were invented around 1790 by John Connelly[2] of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They claimed that Connelly signed over the rights of his invention to them in 1798."
Keystone Sacred Harp Singing Convention ~
St. James United Church of Christ,
Havertown, Pennsylvania,
&
Arch Street Presbyterian Church,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
http://fasola.org/minutes/search/?n=1192
http://fasola.org/minutes/search/?n=1370
# Posted on March 29th 2007 by ceolachan
Re: Shape - shifting!
I remember back in the 70's a group from Vermont called the Word of Mouth Chorus came down to Georgia to a SH convention. They had learned lots of songs from the book and wanted to experience the real thing. Having no idea about the tradition of "singing the shapes" on the first time through each song, the Vermonters were dumbfounded when they heard it. They were nice folks, but (or "and") were very serious about the music. They approached it like singing madrigals - have fun, but be precise, enunciate, etc. They eventually recorded an album of Sacred Harp songs, which is pretty darn good in its own way (Herself and I like it quite a lot), but not at all like the old tradition.
There are other shape note books used in traditional singings - The Harp of Columbia, Southern Harmony, Christian Harmony...
You don't have to be religious to enjoy this stuff. Hymn singing and "gospel" music are deeply embedded in the folk music of The South.
# Posted on March 29th 2007 by Bob himself
Re: Shape - shifting!
There's controversy over whether I'm religious or not, but certain ways with hymns and gospel are definitely deeply embedded in me...but I find the spirit is also moved by the call of the muezzin... But hey, the sacred and the profance raises me up...
I did spend a really crazy but fun period with a friend digging the dance out of the melodies used for Shape Note singing. There are, as has already been suggested by dear Tracie, some great melodies woven in amongst it all...
# Posted on March 29th 2007 by ceolachan
Many of those melodies worked both sides of the track lyric wise, as well as for dance...
# Posted on March 29th 2007 by ceolachan
Re: Shape - shifting!
""gospel" music are deeply embedded in the folk music of The South." - "Amhran na bhFiann sung by the Dublin Gospel Choir in Croke Park ....."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChtInLUFPaM
Oh sorry Ceol, when you said "the south", did you actually mean the southern states ..... not Eire!
# Posted on March 30th 2007 by Ptarmigan
Re: Shape - shifting!
Who me?
Of course there's soul in the North as well... There too is God's country... 
# Posted on March 30th 2007 by ceolachan
Re: Shape - shifting!
At a tangent: I wonder if anyone on this board with its formidable collective intellectual prowess can produce, or invent, a satisfactory method of notating (the more meandering kind of) slow airs?
(I expect this one has come up before!)
# Posted on April 2nd 2007 by nicholas