Sacred Harp Singing is four part a cappella harmony singing. The tunes are notated in four different 'shape notes'- Fa (a triangle), Sol (an oval), La (a rectangle) and Mi (a diamond)- designed to aid sight-reading. Anyone is welcome to come along, whether you have experience or not, whether you think you can sing or read music or not, and whatever you believe in- The Sacred Harp is a hymn book, but the singers here are 'of any faith and none'.
We are an informal group of all ages and backgrounds, and no regular commitment is needed. You can come and go to a singing as you please, and come along as often or as little as you like- though singing the shapes becomes easier the more you do it. Sacred Harp is social singing- it is not performance music and there are no rehearsals. We sing together for ourselves in the moment, more akin to a folk session than a choir.
Everyone has the chance to choose and lead a song if they want to, and there are more experienced singers who can help if needed. You will notice many shape note singers move their arms to beat time- this looks pretty strange at first but makes sense when you see how it keeps everyone together!
If you're curious how it sounds we recommend coming along to hear it for yourself. The style is loud and unrestrained, the harmonies are unusual. Here are a wealth of recordings from the southern US from the last few years, and we have a Bandcamp page here.
We have been singing this music in Brighton since May 2013. We are volunteer-run and cover room hire costs with small donations that are very welcome but not compulsory. We sing from The Sacred Harp 1991 Denson edition. Books are available to borrow if you don't have your own, so just come along wanting to sing. If you want to bring something to sing from a different shape note source, please do! We need at least 8 copies which can then be shared if need be.
Feel free to email us if you have any other questions, or sign up here if you'd like to receive email reminders about the singings and other occasional local shape note events.
Image from Woodseats singing 2012 by Rae Egglestone-Evans
We are an informal group of all ages and backgrounds, and no regular commitment is needed. You can come and go to a singing as you please, and come along as often or as little as you like- though singing the shapes becomes easier the more you do it. Sacred Harp is social singing- it is not performance music and there are no rehearsals. We sing together for ourselves in the moment, more akin to a folk session than a choir.
Everyone has the chance to choose and lead a song if they want to, and there are more experienced singers who can help if needed. You will notice many shape note singers move their arms to beat time- this looks pretty strange at first but makes sense when you see how it keeps everyone together!
If you're curious how it sounds we recommend coming along to hear it for yourself. The style is loud and unrestrained, the harmonies are unusual. Here are a wealth of recordings from the southern US from the last few years, and we have a Bandcamp page here.
We have been singing this music in Brighton since May 2013. We are volunteer-run and cover room hire costs with small donations that are very welcome but not compulsory. We sing from The Sacred Harp 1991 Denson edition. Books are available to borrow if you don't have your own, so just come along wanting to sing. If you want to bring something to sing from a different shape note source, please do! We need at least 8 copies which can then be shared if need be.
Feel free to email us if you have any other questions, or sign up here if you'd like to receive email reminders about the singings and other occasional local shape note events.
Image from Woodseats singing 2012 by Rae Egglestone-Evans