Reading music

Do you remember the song books with shape notes? What are the best methods, books to teach folks to read music? Not to become professionals but enable them to know what to expect and or follow along. I can read a little but mostly hear or get a sense of what is next.

 

We still use song books with shape notes. The shapes are a great mnemonic device (aid for remembering something). This was a very popular method of teaching used in singing schools in the past, and is the best way to learn to sight read songs. It seems to me that professionals have been resistance to the idea, perhaps for their own protection? Most church folks don't intend to become professional musicians.

I believe this is the best method for sight reading music in church. I learned it in singing schools as a child. Some of the "Rudiments of Music" used in those days are still used and still in print. Might be a place to start.

One of the down sides of this is that a lot of church do not use song books with shape notes.

 

BTW, for anyone who has access, Kyme's journal article "An Experiment in Teaching Children To Read Music with Shape Notes" can be found HERE. Unfortunately for those of us who do not have institutional access, it is behind a paywall.

 

Thanks for both post.
Great info.
I miss the congregational singing and the singing at gatherings outside the church building.
Some good singing to be had.

 

Books like Rudiments of Music by Marty Phillips were popular in singing schools in our area. (We more often used Vaughan's Up-To-Date Rudiments and Music Reader and Showalter's Practical Rudiments and Music Reader, but I am not sure these are still available.) Rod and Staff, a Mennonite publishing concern, has developed a program for schools also.

 

Well I wish I could read music but I can't but I try to sing anyway... Led songs with my Dad as a young man and took the lead when he died and we sang acapella... Each trying to praise God with their own voice, not professional by any music teacher standards but we did make a joyful noise to the Lord... Are we singing for the benefit of one another or are we singing to Lord?... I'd rather sing to the Lord, as he is not judging my singing as others sometime do... I heard someone say to another one you know, you could sing better, to which the one singing replied... I wasn't singing to YOU!... Thought you all might enjoy this and I believe this may be the same Archie Campbell that was on Hee-Haw... Brother Glen:)

• 
  Trouble in the Amen Corner
  • 
    by Archie Campbell
    
    
  It was a stylish congregation: you could see they’d been around,
  And they had the biggest pipe organ of any church in town.
  But over in the amen-corner of that church sat Brother Eyer,
  and he insisted every Sunday on singing in the choir.
  His voice was cracked and broken; age had touched his vocal chords,
  And nearly every Sunday he’d get behind and miss the words.
  Well, the choir got so flustered the church was told in fine
  that Brother Eyer must stop singing or the choir was gonna resign.
  
  So the pastor appointed a committee, I think it was three or four,
  and they got in their big fine car and drove up to Eyer’s door.
  They found the choir’s great trouble sitting there in an old arm-chair,
  The summer’s golden sunbeams lay upon his snow-white hair.
  
  Said one, “We’re here dear Brother, with the vestry’s approbation
  to discuss a little matter that affects the congregation.
  Now, it seems that your voice is interfering with the choir,
  So, if you’ll just lay out, or...Are you listening, Brother Eyer..?”
  
  The old man raised his head, a sign that he did hear;
  and on his furrowed cheek they caught the glitter of a tear.
  His feeble hands pushed back the locks as white as silky snow,
  and he answered the committee in a voice both soft and low:
  
  “I wonder if beyond the tide that’s breaking at my feet,
  in that far-off heavenly temple where my Master and I shall meet:
  Yes, I wonder if, when I try to sing the songs of God up higher
  I wonder if they’ll kick me out of singing in Heaven’s choir?”
  
  A silence filled the little room, the old man bowed his head;
  The committee went on back to town, but Brother Eyer was dead.
  A few church-goers watched the door, but the old man entered not.
  The choir missed him for a while, but he was soon forgot.
  
  Far away his voice is sweet, and he sings his heart’s desires
  Where there are no church committees and no fashionable choirs.
  
  
  
  

 

I've been in acapella gatherings where the singing was so pronounced that I couldn't hear my own voice though singing at the top of my lungs.

Those have been grand times indeed, and not just because they were able to drown me out. :Wink