A sing at our regular location, June 2009

Beginners are welcome.

Next local sings:
(note special locations):

Sunday February 19

Our group has been shape note singing in the Kaw Valley (northeast Kansas) since 1991. Shape note singing is a very community-oriented, inclusive form of singing. No experience is necessary, and we charge no admission fee or dues. While most of the tunes in the book we sing from (which dates back to the 1840's) are hymns and anthems, we are a cultural, not religion-based organization. Come see what it is about at one of our upcoming events listed below! On the web, you can visit the Sacred Harp Page or the Fasola Home Page to learn more about shape note singing in general.

For more information about our group, or to get on our mailing list or email list you can e-mail or call (785) 749-1356.

Our Upcoming Singing Events

We sing monthly, usually on the third or fourth Sunday of the month, with occasional adjustment due to holidays and special events. Our usual location is Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Lawrence, but it sometimes varies. Check back here for details on our next sings!

Directions to our regular location: Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
The church is located at 2211 Inverness Drive in Lawrence. Inverness is between Kasold and Wakarusa off of Clinton Parkway (23rd St), 3 lights west of Kasold or 1 light east of Wakarusa. The church is less than one block north of Clinton Parkway. We usually enter through the office entrance, to the left of the main entrance.

If you are coming in to Lawrence from the east on K-10, stay on 23rd Street until you reach Inverness, then turn right.

If you are coming in on I-70, get off at the West Lawrence exit (US-59). Go south to Clinton Parkway (23rd Street) and turn right. Go west on Clinton Parkway to Inverness, and turn right again.

Either way, the church will be on the left hand side as you proceed north on Inverness.

Questions about our sings? phone Brad at 785-749-1356.

Regular Shape-Note Singing Nearby:

What It Sounds Like

To those used to the tight harmonies and polished dynamics of modern and commercial music, shape note singing will sound quite different. It is typically sung full voice (no or very few written dynamics), and tends to have more open harmonies. It is done for the joy of singing, not as a rehearsed performance. Traditionally the first time through a song, we "sing the shapes", singing the fa, sol, la, and mi syllables that go with the four shapes of notes (triangle, oval, rectangle, and diamond) printed in shape note music. (So if we were singing the shapes of the four notes in our logo, we would sing sol fa la mi.) The advantage to singing the shapes the first time through is not needing to look back and forth between the words and the music - the shape of the musical note tells you what to sing.

The following mp3 file from one of our sings in 1998 was chosen not for its quality, but as representative of the tunes and process of shape note singing. It starts with one person giving pitching the tune, since shape note tunes are pitched wherever convenient for the range of those present at a sing. Next, the tune is sung once through singing the shapes, and then it is sung through with the words. As you can hear, a few people started with the words by accident, but quickly corrected themselves. Mistakes happen - we accept them. But we also enjoy when a tune falls into place particularly well. Since we are sitting in a square, with one part singing on each of the sides, it can be very powerful when you hear all four parts coming together full force in harmony.

Here is Africa, #178 in the Sacred Harp, sung at one of our sings, in MP3 format.

You can also listen to #217, Ballstown, recorded at our Feb 4, 2012 sing, on YouTube.

What We Typically Sing

There is a tradition of keeping minutes of what is sung at shape note / Sacred Harp gatherings. We don't always get around to it. But you can look here at some of the minutes we have kept to get a feel for which songs we sing frequently.

Tunes sung Feb 2009-Jan 2012, ordered by number of times sung:

Some older minutes:
2003: January | February | March
2002: September | October | November

Some non-shapenote Lawrence music and dance events of interest...

West Side Folk - Folk Concert Series in the Lawrence, KS area.

Lawrence Barn Dance Association - Contra Dancing in the Lawrence, KS area.

International Folk Dance - in Lawrence, Kansas

For more music and dance in Kansas...

Visit other parts of the Kansas Folk Music and Dance Resource Center at www.kansasfolk.org for information on other Kansas folk and acoustic music, dance, and heritage.