“Shape note” singing is an American cultural creation, a distinctly democratic way to engage an entire community in song. Singers don’t need to know how to read traditional musical notation, but instead identify notes by shapes associated with tones and know what to sing based upon the relationship of the notes to one another, resulting in a glorious — and often quite complicated — four-part harmony. The approach, sometimes called “sacred harp singing” because of the “Sacred Harp” songbooks most singers use, originated in church communities in New England in the 18th and early 19th centuries and spread widely around the United States, particularly to the South. (Spoiler alert: this week we try it in class.)
We are revising the AllAroundThisWorld.com site — the information you’re seeking may still be here, but a lot of links are broken and details may be out of date. We are currently using a new (better!) site — ExploreEverywhere.com — to tell you all about our class offerings, our “pen pal” program and how to become one of our teachers, and will eventually be moving all the goodies from here over to there. So, GO TO THE NEW SITE!
