The Sacred Harp Cheat Sheet

The rudiments are terrific, but when someone new sits down for the first time at a regular singing, it can all be overwhelming.

For our local group I developed a page to paste into the inside front cover or our tunebooks. I print it on a fill sheet of sticker paper, trim it down and carefully stick it in the book.

Some groups just print them out on a sheet of paper to hand out to new singers.

Features

• “Good Tunes to Call” 23 songs that the class in general should be familiar with, ensuring a hearty sing for the new persons call.
• “The Shape Notes” very brief introduction to the 4 shape notes used in The Sacred Harp.
• “The Hollow Square” – a brief introduction to the seating arrangement common to our tradition.
• “The Four Parts of the Tune” – simple graphic detailing the “placement of the voices in a shape-note tune.
• “Helpful Links” – Four sites we suggest singers can find more information about shape note singing. Our originals (pictured) listed our own groups website in the top spot, but the one I’m providing here is more universal.

I would like to develop more of these for different tunebooks.