Singing Schools & Four Shapes
In 1801, the first shaped note tunebook, The Easy Instructor was published by William Little and William Smith as an educational supplement. This was a time where music was not a part of public education. Instead, most people learned to sing and read music through singing schools. Singing schools had been around since the 1700s, but now they had a new tool they could use - shaped notes. This provided a simpler and faster way of teaching music.

Shaped note music uses a form of solmization (putting syllables to scale degrees) and started with only four shapes - Fa, Sol, La, and Mi. The idea is that the shapes will help singers learn scale degrees, and be able to visualize the intervals between them. In short, the shaped notes act as a "visual solfege."

Many other singing masters followed suite, many publishing their own shaped-note tune books, using this four-shape system. For the first half of the 19th-Century, this is how many people were learning to sing.

In the singing schools, the "class" was most often set up in a "hollow square," with each side of the square belonging to a single voice part. 

Tenors sing the melody, which is written on the third line from the top, and mostly men. Today, anyone can sing the melody, it will most likely be the largest group, and have the greatest mix of singing voices. Tenors also have the responsibility of helping to lead the tune along with the leader. The Tenor part is also considered to be an "athletic" part - often going from the lowest to the highest parts of a singer's range in a single tune.

Trebles sing the top line, known as the high harmony. You will also see a mix of voices singing this part as well. This part tends to stay in higher voice registers.

Basses sing the lowest line, play a very important part in many fuguing tunes, and are considered the "foundation" of the tune. Most often, the Basses will be singing the root of a chord, which allows the higher parts to easily tune to them and each other.

Altos sing the second line. In the early days of shaped note tune books, there was often no alto part written. Many of the alto parts you see today were written in at a later date. You may still see some tunes with no alto parts written. In these cases, altos get to choose which other part they'd like to sing (most often the Bass part will fit the alto range the best.) This part is known for bringing color and character to the harmonies.

In this style, the Tenor and Treble parts are considered high voice parts, and the lower voice parts are the Alto and Bass ​parts. One fun thing to try, if you're finding a part too difficult or boring, is to switch to the other part in your voice range (Alto <=> Bass; Tenor <=> Treble) Doing this helps keep things fresh for longtime singers, helps improve sightreading skills by learning different parts, and helps new singers find the part most comfortable for their voice.

The song leader (most often the singing master) would stand in the middle of the square to lead tunes. The singers would sing through tunes using the syllables represented by the shapes, before singing the words. During longer singing schools, singers may spend hours or days singing the shapes before ever singing the words to a tune.

"Better Music" and the Rise of Seven Shapes
By the middle of the 1800s, the "Better Music" movement had begun. Starting in Boston, the people who championed this movement saw shaped-note singing as "primitive" and "inferior" music, and wanted it replaced with the more "civilized" European-styled music. This movement did achieve the goal of getting music into public school curriculum, but it also almost extinguished the colorful, exciting tradition of shaped-note singing.

However, some shaped-note traditions did survive this, and some singing masters started to turn to seven-shape systems, and using traditional solfege (do, re, mi, etc...) to still help teach in rural areas. However, unlike the four-shape standard, there many seven-shape systems that were developed.

Over time, however, the Aiken seven-shape system became the standard, and the majority of tune books published after 1850 and up through the 1950s were written with the Aiken shapes.

Shaped Note Music Today
Although shaped-note music was pushed out of the mainstream due to the Better Music movement, it still survives and is practiced today. Preserved mostly in southern, rural churches, shaped-note music experienced a revival during the Folk Revival of the 1960s & 70s. Today you can find many shaped-note singers all over the US, Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and parts of Asia. Singers will travel all over the world for a singing, and because it does not cost anything to sing, singers only need to worry about travel.

There are still several tunebooks and hymnals published in shape-note styles. In the four-shape tradition some recent publications include The Sacred Harp (Cooper Revision, 2012); The Shenandoah Harmony (2013); The Valley Pocket Harmonist (2024); and the upcoming 2025 revision of The Sacred Harp (Denson Revision.) In the seven-shape tradition you can find The Christian Harmony (2010); The Christian Harmony (Folklife Edition, 2015); and several hymnals from various Christian traditions in the US. There are still gospel publishers who publish a new songbook every year!

Today, shaped-note singing is just as much a social activity as it is a musical or religious one. Many singers travel to see friends, and many continue singing after singing all day! While the words of the songs are overtly religious, many people of different backgrounds, religions, and creeds gather to sing together. Not to mention, there is also food involved! Many of these traditions and groups still follow the traditional rules of the singing schools, except now people get to take turns leading songs, so everyone has a chance to be in the middle of the powerful sound.

Shape-Note Music in North Carolina
In North Carolina, you can find several distinct traditions of shape-note singing.

In the western part of the state, you can find "legacy" sings in Hendersonville and Dutch Cove that can trace their singings back to the original singing masters who taught them. Some of these singings have been continuing for 175+ years.

In the central part of the state, and much more recently, a group from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill started singing regularly from The Sacred Harp (Denson revision) around 1975. 

You can find out more about local North Carolina singings on the Join Us page!  And to learn more about how to start singing shape note music, check out the "For Newcomers" resources here.