Shape Note Music, what is it?
Shape Notes are a way to teach one to sight sing in all the different keys. In modern notation, the student must learn to recognize and reproduce up to 13 different scales; but by using shape notes, only one scale is learned. The only thing that changes when using shape notes is the shape of the note head.
There are two major systems. The older system is Sacred Harp. It uses a four note notation, always without instruments. Sacred Harp music came to America in the mid 1700s. The name comes from the name of an early song book. There is no known history of Sacred Harp Singing in Union County.
By the middle of the 19th century, the four note system had acquired a major rival, namely the Seven Note, “do , re , mi , fa , so , la , ti ” notation. This congregational singing became popular primarily in the South. Shape Note Singing Schools and Conventions are still widely held in the South, including Georgia.
An equally important part of Shape Note Singing is that it is polyphonic, “many voiced.” It is sung in two or more parts, usually four, each having a melody of its own; contrapuntal. Each melodic line (treble, alto, tenor, and bass) is of equal importance. This gives a depth to the singing not normally found in modern church music.
Addendum:
In 1990, at the Paisley Abbey complex in Scotland, (now a Kirk of Scotland), two fragments of slate were found in an old sewer. These slates with music marked on them are believed to the oldest example of polyphonic music found in Scotland. Not only that but the notes on the slates are shape notes. The “fa”  and “la”  are visible. These slates date to circa 1450 A.D.
Archaeologists believe that one slate could be the top part (treble) of a polyphonic composition, while the second could be one part of a polyphonic piece. These slates were used as a method of teaching music.
So the tradition of Shape Note Singing Schools stretches from the Fifteenth Century in Scotland, U. K. to the Twenty-First Century in southern America.
