Music
No musical ability or knowledge is required to begin singing sacred harp. Below is Amazing Grace, a song familiar to many, as it appears in The Sacred Harp.
Four part harmony: Sacred harp music is written in four part harmony: treble, alto, tenor, and bass with the melody in the tenor line, the third line from the top. The verses are printed one or two per staff and the syllables may not line up exactly with their notes.
Tune name: The title at the top, "New Britain" in this case, is the name of the tune, not the lyrics. The name rarely reflects the words of the song, as the words tend to be used with several tunes.
Key: The key signature, in this case C major, appears in the top left corner. The printed key rarely corresponds to the key in which the tune is sung. The singing key is selected by a designated person known as a keyer.
Meter: The meter, in this case CM, appears after the name of the tune. This is the meter of the poetry that will fit this tune. CM stands for common meter which means four lines of 8 syllables, 6 syllables, 8 syllables, 6 syllables.
Source: The source of the words, for example John Newton, is printed in the upper left corner. The source of the tune is printed in the upper right corner. This is either a composer's name or, as in this case, a tunebook.
Time Signature: The time signature appears at the beginning of each staff. For this tune, 3/4 refers to three beats per measure with the quarter note getting the beat. Singers are encouraged to beat time with their hands as they sing.
Repeat: The four vertical dots near the end of each staff of this tune are a repeat referring singers to go back to the four vertical dots near the middle of this tune and sing that section again.
Shapes: Unlike other written music where all of the notes appear as ovals, here different shapes are used to distinguish different intervals of the scale. On the first time through a tune, singers sing the names of the shapes rather than the lyrics. See below for a more detailed explanation.
The Shapes
