Bets and I visited Mamz at one of her Shape Note singing conventions last Sunday. Since I'm still pretty new to Shape Note singing, I requested that Mamz be a guest blogger and fill you in on her experience with this fairly unknown practice, its roots, and why she's been such a supporter of it for the last 18 years.

Take it away Mamz!

"Hi! This is Mamz – aka Janice Bridges, Mamsie, Betsy’s mom.

"Duncan and Betsy have asked me to provide guest commentary for the post about Sacred Harp Singing. These two delightful persons came to sing with us Sunday afternoon at the end of our annual two-day Sacred Harp Convention in Seattle.

"It’s always a little hard to explain because people ask the “wrong” questions – or that’s what I used to think until I decided I was providing the “wrong” information!

"Sacred Harp music is also called “Shape Note” singing. People try to tell you that Jazz is the only true indigenous American musical form, but Sacred Harp/Shape Note singers will argue that. During the colonial period, American churches became more and more opposed to singing Anglican hymns and also were suffering from a lack of decent singing. Unschooled, self-taught musicians developed singing-schools supported by tune books intended to teach colonists to read and sing better. One of the methods to promote sight-singing was the idea of “Shaped Notes”. That is, the note heads are not all little ovals. Depending on the scale degree (Fa, Sol, La, Mi), they have different shapes. This is actually a good method for some people – and just confusing for others, depending on your learning style! Fa is a triangle, Sol is round, La is a rectangle and Mi is a diamond.

"Sacred Harp tunes are in the four-shape system, although there are seven-shape methods.

"The music developed and thrived in the colonies, but was later pushed out by the “Better Church Music” movement. It was pushed south and goes on as a living tradition today – particularly in Primitive Baptist Churches.

"We sing from a tune book called “The Sacred Harp”.  The texts are religious, and many deal with death. The music is sung at full voice, full volume and is very energetic and loud.

"Earlier I said that people ask the wrong questions. What I mean is that people tend to ask, “Do you have a performance today?” – Sacred Harp is not a performance art; it’s a participatory experience. We do not sing for an audience – although people are welcome to sit back and listen. We sing for each other and (if you so believe) the creator – the universe. Each person is able to lead a song during the day – the singers are seated in a “hollow square”, the four sections facing each other, and the leader chooses a song, stands in the middle and beats time. Then it’s on the next leader. It is not uncommon to sing 80 songs in a full day of singing.

"So. I have been doing this weird thing for about 18 years now. I had heard a snippet of it on NPR probably 25 years ago, and was riveted by the sound – Sacred Harp music is missing a vital component of the usual church music chord structure so it sounds haunting and primitive. Most western church music is built on traditional chords that are stacked up on the musical staff like a three-scoop ice-cream cone. Shape note music is missing the middle “scoop” most of the time (the “third"). This creates a very different quality. Additionally, three of the parts (tenor, treble and a little bass) are sung by both men and women, and the melody is generally in the tenor. All of these things, combined with the full-voiced energy and very rhythmic pace make it the unique thing it is.

"After hearing that snippet, I didn’t give it another thought until a Sunday morning about 18 years ago. I was looking at the “Events” section of the Sunday paper and saw “Pacific Northwest Sacred Harp Singing Convention” – I jumped in the car and drove up to Seattle and have been singing ever since!

"It tends to be a love-it or hate-it thing. Most singers do not listen to CDs of Sacred Harp music except for practice purposes – as I said, it is a participatory endeavor. I heard one southern singer say, “I would drive a thousand miles to sing Sacred Harp, but I wouldn’t walk across the street to listen to it!”

"Another component of the tradition is that during all-day singings (and these happen every weekend all over the country) there is a noontime “Dinner on the Ground”. Local singers bring dishes to share, and everyone has a good meal and visit for an hour, and then the singing resumes. In the south, there is a real competition still as to who brought the best fried pies, barbeque or coconut cake. I was in the food line about to get a slice of coconut cake and a southern lady next to me said, “Oh honey, you don’t want that one; you want Ms Lorraine’s over here.”

"For me, the draw is primarily the music – it is haunting and cathartic to sing, and I never feel like it’s been a full-experience singing unless I get teary at least once! It reminds me of all the things I liked about church – music and food and fellowship! The folks we sing with are Baptists and Methodists and Mormons and Seventh-Day Adventists and Mennonites and Wiccans and Atheists and Agnostics and Buddhists and Catholics and everything in between and beyond. It is a rare forum where all sorts of folks can come together and do something wonderful and community-building as they do at a Sacred Harp Singing.

"I have included some links – The first is the national site for Sacred Harp Singing. If you look under monthly and all-day singings you can find out where they are near you!

"Wikipedia is pretty good on this topic as singers and a singing scholar have made most of the contributions.

"There is also a link to a video and you can see more if you look around YouTube."

So there you have it. I feel like there has been a definite uprising in the most unlikely of places: us (as in Duncan and Betsy-types). Young urbanites have become the fastest growing demographic in shape note singing, and due to the concentration of young professionals in cities, places like Seattle, San Francisco and Atlanta have seen a steep rise in Sacred Harp gatherings over the past decade.

A man at the Seattle convention said this to me: "This music pulls you in; before you know it you're buying your own copy of the Sacred Harp song book, and shortly after that you find yourself flying to Alabama to attend a convention!" Though I've only attended two of the local conventions with Mamz in the last two years, I'm positive I'll be ready for more Sacred Harp singing in no time.