Chords for Sacred Harp Singing
Tempo:
89.3 bpm
Chords used:
Eb
E
Db
Em
Ab
Tuning:Standard Tuning (EADGBE)Capo:+0fret
Start Jamming...
[C]
[N]
These people [Db] shake walls.
No microphones, no amplifiers, but you can hear them sing
a half a mile away.
[Eb] Sacred harp, arguably the [Bbm] oldest form of truly [F] American music, is
a once vibrant tradition that almost [Db] died out during the last few decades, despite the
efforts of a handful of aging rural churches.
[Eb] But it's finally having a revival in America.
[D] And [Eb] some of the new energy is coming from an unlikely place, young urbanites.
[C] Many of
these [Cm] fans aren't religious at [Eb] all, but they're drawn to the tradition's lack of commercialism.
[Cm] It's a truly [Eb] indie art form.
Named after an [Em] 1844 hymn songbook published by the New York
Times, and written by B [E].F. White and E.J. King, Sacred Harp is a form of shape note
singing, sung [Em] completely a cappella, using just one instrument, the human voice.
In this
method, there are four syllables, [E] fa, sol, la, and mi, each corresponding with a different
shape, a triangle, oval, square, or diamond.
[Dbm] The singers sit in four pew sections facing
each other, [B] tenor, alto, treble, and bass.
At the beginning of a song, participants [Eb] run
through the tune once, [G] pronouncing only the syllables.
It sounds like [B] gibberish at first,
but it's helpful to practice the melody without having to worry about the words.
When it's
time for the lyrics, everyone remembers his or her own part.
The [Em] strange sound couldn't
survive out of context.
Most of these voices would get booed off [E] of American Idol in a
second.
[Abm]
Sacred Harp music was initially used in colonial New England singing schools as
a way to teach students to sight read.
[Ab] Sacred Harp singing kind of disappeared from maybe
you could say a historical radar, just in part because of the people, the types of people
who used to sing.
And even still, that's true I think to some degree.
It's not something
[Abm] that was done in the bigger churches.
It's not something that tended to be done in cities.
And it's not something that was really popular in a [Ab] large scale throughout the country.
It was
brought down to the south and to the west where people didn't have as many instruments and where
people were more interested in this kind of older style of singing and the older style of harmonies.
[Eb] [Em]
[B] [G] The Western Massachusetts Sacred Harp Convention, held at the Northampton Center for the Arts,
currently [C] attracts more singers than any other convention in the world.
They had more than [Eb] 400
registered singers just this year.
[Em] [Eb] [E] Perhaps Sacred Harp is catching on quickly in the north because
although the tradition disappeared for a time, that's where the style of singing was formed in
the first place.
[Dbm] Sacred Harp music has received more attention in the last few years than it has
in the last half [E] century.
It [Dbm] had its biggest moment in the spotlight in 2003 when the music
appeared in the Civil War movie Cold Mountain.
Then in 2006, filmmaker Matt Hinton released a
documentary about Sacred Harp called Awake My [D] Soul.
I think I was around [B] six when I led my
first song.
It was Rocky [Eb] Road, 294.
[G] It [E] felt like it always feels just [Eb] overwhelming, just very powerful.
[G] And you know [E] when I think when you step to the to the [Eb] Hall of Square and call [Em] your song and they give
the key that [E] you know even all these years after leading I can still get goosebumps when that [Eb] key
is given and that class starts in singing.
[Gbm] The film now has an [Db] accompanying soundtrack [E] packaged
alongside a new [Gb] compilation called Help Me To [A] Sing.
It features [B] modern interpretations of [Dbm] Sacred
Harp songs by artists like Tim Erickson, Led [E] Zeppelin's John Paul Jones, The Innocence Mission,
Elvis Perkins and Jim [Dbm] Lauderdale.
Hinton [E] recently started a bi-weekly [Gb] singing at St.
[Am] Paul's
Presbyterian Church in Atlanta.
[E] Each meeting draws at [Db] least 30 singers, many of whom are students
and [A] young professionals [E] new to the tradition.
There just wasn't anything like this in [Ab] the city
of Atlanta.
Lots of [A] singings all over the place throughout throughout Georgia, but actually in
the city itself there just wasn't anything like this and particularly for younger people.
[Eb] Not all
young singers are newcomers though.
Many children and grandchildren of [D] lifelong singers participate
in the [Db] tradition, especially [Eb] in the South.
My dad's a singer, my grandfather was, his father and my
children sing and even on my mom's side my great-great-grandfather wrote three tunes that
are in one of the Sacred Harp books.
So I just really feel blessed to you [N] know be in a family
where this has [Eb] been an important part of our lives.
David Ivey runs a camp for Sacred Harp
singing called Camp Fa Sol La.
The camp attracts hundreds of people each year.
At our camp we have
folks really come from all over the country and even different countries.
I guess [Ab] last year we
had about 30 states [Gb] represented and some folks [Eb] from also from England here.
We have a really
good mix of folks of kids who are traditional, who've come from traditional singing or have
grown [Abm] up around the singing [Db] and young folks who [Ab]
really just [Fm] maybe heard about it a couple of
years [Ab] ago or just starting out.
Eight-year-old Holly Mixon attended camp for the first time last
[E] year.
She recently led [Eb] a song at the Georgia State Sacred Harp singing [Ab] convention.
Like many
singers [C] Holly is attracted not [Eb] only by the music but also by the people she meets.
I don't think
[Db] I've ever met anyone who's mean [Abm] or ugly [G] in Sacred Harp so you know I act [Eb] ugly.
[B]
[Eb] Some learn how to sing from their
grandparents, some stumble upon Sacred [E] Harp through their best friend or favorite band, and some hear
about it in a music history class [Bb] but everyone's learning from the [Fm] same book.
[Eb] This [Em] diverse new
generation of singers has one thing in [E] common, it's up to them to keep the [G] tradition alive.
[N]
[N]
These people [Db] shake walls.
No microphones, no amplifiers, but you can hear them sing
a half a mile away.
[Eb] Sacred harp, arguably the [Bbm] oldest form of truly [F] American music, is
a once vibrant tradition that almost [Db] died out during the last few decades, despite the
efforts of a handful of aging rural churches.
[Eb] But it's finally having a revival in America.
[D] And [Eb] some of the new energy is coming from an unlikely place, young urbanites.
[C] Many of
these [Cm] fans aren't religious at [Eb] all, but they're drawn to the tradition's lack of commercialism.
[Cm] It's a truly [Eb] indie art form.
Named after an [Em] 1844 hymn songbook published by the New York
Times, and written by B [E].F. White and E.J. King, Sacred Harp is a form of shape note
singing, sung [Em] completely a cappella, using just one instrument, the human voice.
In this
method, there are four syllables, [E] fa, sol, la, and mi, each corresponding with a different
shape, a triangle, oval, square, or diamond.
[Dbm] The singers sit in four pew sections facing
each other, [B] tenor, alto, treble, and bass.
At the beginning of a song, participants [Eb] run
through the tune once, [G] pronouncing only the syllables.
It sounds like [B] gibberish at first,
but it's helpful to practice the melody without having to worry about the words.
When it's
time for the lyrics, everyone remembers his or her own part.
The [Em] strange sound couldn't
survive out of context.
Most of these voices would get booed off [E] of American Idol in a
second.
[Abm]
Sacred Harp music was initially used in colonial New England singing schools as
a way to teach students to sight read.
[Ab] Sacred Harp singing kind of disappeared from maybe
you could say a historical radar, just in part because of the people, the types of people
who used to sing.
And even still, that's true I think to some degree.
It's not something
[Abm] that was done in the bigger churches.
It's not something that tended to be done in cities.
And it's not something that was really popular in a [Ab] large scale throughout the country.
It was
brought down to the south and to the west where people didn't have as many instruments and where
people were more interested in this kind of older style of singing and the older style of harmonies.
[Eb] [Em]
[B] [G] The Western Massachusetts Sacred Harp Convention, held at the Northampton Center for the Arts,
currently [C] attracts more singers than any other convention in the world.
They had more than [Eb] 400
registered singers just this year.
[Em] [Eb] [E] Perhaps Sacred Harp is catching on quickly in the north because
although the tradition disappeared for a time, that's where the style of singing was formed in
the first place.
[Dbm] Sacred Harp music has received more attention in the last few years than it has
in the last half [E] century.
It [Dbm] had its biggest moment in the spotlight in 2003 when the music
appeared in the Civil War movie Cold Mountain.
Then in 2006, filmmaker Matt Hinton released a
documentary about Sacred Harp called Awake My [D] Soul.
I think I was around [B] six when I led my
first song.
It was Rocky [Eb] Road, 294.
[G] It [E] felt like it always feels just [Eb] overwhelming, just very powerful.
[G] And you know [E] when I think when you step to the to the [Eb] Hall of Square and call [Em] your song and they give
the key that [E] you know even all these years after leading I can still get goosebumps when that [Eb] key
is given and that class starts in singing.
[Gbm] The film now has an [Db] accompanying soundtrack [E] packaged
alongside a new [Gb] compilation called Help Me To [A] Sing.
It features [B] modern interpretations of [Dbm] Sacred
Harp songs by artists like Tim Erickson, Led [E] Zeppelin's John Paul Jones, The Innocence Mission,
Elvis Perkins and Jim [Dbm] Lauderdale.
Hinton [E] recently started a bi-weekly [Gb] singing at St.
[Am] Paul's
Presbyterian Church in Atlanta.
[E] Each meeting draws at [Db] least 30 singers, many of whom are students
and [A] young professionals [E] new to the tradition.
There just wasn't anything like this in [Ab] the city
of Atlanta.
Lots of [A] singings all over the place throughout throughout Georgia, but actually in
the city itself there just wasn't anything like this and particularly for younger people.
[Eb] Not all
young singers are newcomers though.
Many children and grandchildren of [D] lifelong singers participate
in the [Db] tradition, especially [Eb] in the South.
My dad's a singer, my grandfather was, his father and my
children sing and even on my mom's side my great-great-grandfather wrote three tunes that
are in one of the Sacred Harp books.
So I just really feel blessed to you [N] know be in a family
where this has [Eb] been an important part of our lives.
David Ivey runs a camp for Sacred Harp
singing called Camp Fa Sol La.
The camp attracts hundreds of people each year.
At our camp we have
folks really come from all over the country and even different countries.
I guess [Ab] last year we
had about 30 states [Gb] represented and some folks [Eb] from also from England here.
We have a really
good mix of folks of kids who are traditional, who've come from traditional singing or have
grown [Abm] up around the singing [Db] and young folks who [Ab]
really just [Fm] maybe heard about it a couple of
years [Ab] ago or just starting out.
Eight-year-old Holly Mixon attended camp for the first time last
[E] year.
She recently led [Eb] a song at the Georgia State Sacred Harp singing [Ab] convention.
Like many
singers [C] Holly is attracted not [Eb] only by the music but also by the people she meets.
I don't think
[Db] I've ever met anyone who's mean [Abm] or ugly [G] in Sacred Harp so you know I act [Eb] ugly.
[B]
[Eb] Some learn how to sing from their
grandparents, some stumble upon Sacred [E] Harp through their best friend or favorite band, and some hear
about it in a music history class [Bb] but everyone's learning from the [Fm] same book.
[Eb] This [Em] diverse new
generation of singers has one thing in [E] common, it's up to them to keep the [G] tradition alive.
[N]
Key:
Eb
E
Db
Em
Ab
Eb
E
Db
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [N] _ _ _ _
These people [Db] shake walls.
No microphones, no amplifiers, but you can hear them sing
a half a mile away.
_ [Eb] Sacred harp, arguably the [Bbm] oldest form of truly [F] American music, is
a once vibrant tradition that almost [Db] died out during the last few decades, despite the
efforts of a handful of aging rural churches.
[Eb] But it's finally having a revival in America. _ _ _
_ _ [D] And [Eb] some of the new energy is coming from an unlikely place, young urbanites. _ _ _ _
[C] Many of
these [Cm] fans aren't religious at [Eb] all, but they're drawn to the tradition's lack of commercialism.
[Cm] It's a truly [Eb] indie art form. _ _ _ _
Named after an [Em] 1844 hymn songbook published by the New York
Times, and written by B [E].F. White and E.J. King, Sacred Harp is a form of shape note
singing, sung [Em] completely a cappella, using just one instrument, the human voice.
In this
method, there are four syllables, [E] fa, sol, la, and mi, each corresponding with a different
shape, a triangle, oval, square, or diamond.
[Dbm] The singers sit in four pew sections facing
each other, [B] tenor, alto, treble, and bass.
At the beginning of a song, participants [Eb] run
through the tune once, [G] pronouncing only the syllables.
It sounds like [B] gibberish at first,
but it's helpful to practice the melody without having to worry about the words.
When it's
time for the lyrics, everyone remembers his or her own part.
The [Em] strange sound couldn't
survive out of context.
Most of these voices would get booed off [E] of American Idol in a
second.
[Abm] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
Sacred Harp music was initially used in colonial New England singing schools as
a way to teach students to sight read.
[Ab] Sacred Harp singing kind of disappeared from maybe
you could say a historical radar, just in part because of the people, the types of people
who used to sing.
And even still, that's true I think to some degree.
It's not something
[Abm] that was done in the bigger churches.
It's not something that tended to be done in cities.
And it's not something that was really popular in a [Ab] large scale throughout the country.
It was
brought down to the south and to the west where people didn't have as many instruments and where
people were more interested in this kind of older style of singing and the older style of harmonies.
_ [Eb] _ _ [Em] _ _ _
[B] _ _ _ [G] The Western Massachusetts Sacred Harp Convention, held at the Northampton Center for the Arts,
currently [C] attracts more singers than any other convention in the world.
They had more than [Eb] 400
registered singers just this year.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[Em] _ _ [Eb] _ [E] Perhaps Sacred Harp is catching on quickly in the north because
although the tradition disappeared for a time, that's where the style of singing was formed in
the first place. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [Dbm] Sacred Harp music has received more attention in the last few years than it has
in the last half [E] century.
It [Dbm] had its biggest moment in the spotlight in 2003 when the music
appeared in the Civil War movie Cold Mountain.
Then in 2006, filmmaker Matt Hinton released a
documentary about Sacred Harp called Awake My [D] Soul.
I think I was around [B] six when I led my
first song.
It was Rocky [Eb] Road, 294.
_ [G] _ It [E] felt like it always feels just _ [Eb] overwhelming, just very powerful. _ _
[G] And you know [E] when I think when you step to the to the [Eb] Hall of Square and call [Em] your song and they give
the key that [E] you know even all these years after leading I can still get goosebumps when that [Eb] key
is given and that class starts in singing. _ _
[Gbm] The film now has an [Db] accompanying soundtrack [E] packaged
alongside a new [Gb] compilation called Help Me To [A] Sing.
It features [B] modern interpretations of [Dbm] Sacred
Harp songs by artists like Tim Erickson, Led [E] Zeppelin's John Paul Jones, The Innocence Mission,
Elvis Perkins and Jim [Dbm] Lauderdale.
Hinton [E] recently started a bi-weekly [Gb] singing at St.
[Am] Paul's
Presbyterian Church in Atlanta.
[E] Each meeting draws at [Db] least 30 singers, many of whom are students
and [A] young professionals [E] new to the tradition.
There just wasn't anything like this in [Ab] the city
of Atlanta.
Lots of [A] singings all over the place throughout throughout Georgia, but actually in
the city itself there just wasn't anything like this and particularly for younger people.
[Eb] Not all
young singers are newcomers though.
Many children and grandchildren of [D] lifelong singers participate
in the [Db] tradition, especially [Eb] in the South.
My dad's a singer, my grandfather was, his father and my
children sing and even on my mom's side my great-great-grandfather wrote three tunes that
are in one of the Sacred Harp books.
So I just really feel blessed to you [N] know be in a family
where this has [Eb] been an important part of our lives.
David Ivey runs a camp for Sacred Harp
singing called Camp Fa Sol La.
The camp attracts hundreds of people each year.
At our camp we have
folks really come from all over the country and even different countries.
I guess [Ab] last year we
had about 30 states [Gb] represented and some folks [Eb] from also from England here.
We have a really
good mix of folks of kids who are traditional, who've come from traditional singing or have
grown [Abm] up around the singing [Db] and young folks who [Ab] _
really just [Fm] maybe heard about it a couple of
years [Ab] ago or just starting out. _ _
_ _ _ _ Eight-year-old Holly Mixon attended camp for the first time last
[E] year.
She recently led [Eb] a song at the Georgia State Sacred Harp singing [Ab] convention.
_ _ _ Like many
singers [C] Holly is attracted not [Eb] only by the music but also by the people she meets.
I don't think
[Db] I've ever met anyone who's mean [Abm] or ugly [G] in Sacred Harp so you know I act [Eb] ugly.
_ _ [B] _ _
_ _ [Eb] _ _ Some learn how to sing from their
grandparents, some stumble upon Sacred [E] Harp through their best friend or favorite band, and some hear
about it in a music history class [Bb] but everyone's learning from the [Fm] same book. _ _
[Eb] _ _ _ This [Em] diverse new
generation of singers has one thing in [E] common, it's up to them to keep the [G] tradition alive.
[N] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [N] _ _ _ _
These people [Db] shake walls.
No microphones, no amplifiers, but you can hear them sing
a half a mile away.
_ [Eb] Sacred harp, arguably the [Bbm] oldest form of truly [F] American music, is
a once vibrant tradition that almost [Db] died out during the last few decades, despite the
efforts of a handful of aging rural churches.
[Eb] But it's finally having a revival in America. _ _ _
_ _ [D] And [Eb] some of the new energy is coming from an unlikely place, young urbanites. _ _ _ _
[C] Many of
these [Cm] fans aren't religious at [Eb] all, but they're drawn to the tradition's lack of commercialism.
[Cm] It's a truly [Eb] indie art form. _ _ _ _
Named after an [Em] 1844 hymn songbook published by the New York
Times, and written by B [E].F. White and E.J. King, Sacred Harp is a form of shape note
singing, sung [Em] completely a cappella, using just one instrument, the human voice.
In this
method, there are four syllables, [E] fa, sol, la, and mi, each corresponding with a different
shape, a triangle, oval, square, or diamond.
[Dbm] The singers sit in four pew sections facing
each other, [B] tenor, alto, treble, and bass.
At the beginning of a song, participants [Eb] run
through the tune once, [G] pronouncing only the syllables.
It sounds like [B] gibberish at first,
but it's helpful to practice the melody without having to worry about the words.
When it's
time for the lyrics, everyone remembers his or her own part.
The [Em] strange sound couldn't
survive out of context.
Most of these voices would get booed off [E] of American Idol in a
second.
[Abm] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
Sacred Harp music was initially used in colonial New England singing schools as
a way to teach students to sight read.
[Ab] Sacred Harp singing kind of disappeared from maybe
you could say a historical radar, just in part because of the people, the types of people
who used to sing.
And even still, that's true I think to some degree.
It's not something
[Abm] that was done in the bigger churches.
It's not something that tended to be done in cities.
And it's not something that was really popular in a [Ab] large scale throughout the country.
It was
brought down to the south and to the west where people didn't have as many instruments and where
people were more interested in this kind of older style of singing and the older style of harmonies.
_ [Eb] _ _ [Em] _ _ _
[B] _ _ _ [G] The Western Massachusetts Sacred Harp Convention, held at the Northampton Center for the Arts,
currently [C] attracts more singers than any other convention in the world.
They had more than [Eb] 400
registered singers just this year.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[Em] _ _ [Eb] _ [E] Perhaps Sacred Harp is catching on quickly in the north because
although the tradition disappeared for a time, that's where the style of singing was formed in
the first place. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [Dbm] Sacred Harp music has received more attention in the last few years than it has
in the last half [E] century.
It [Dbm] had its biggest moment in the spotlight in 2003 when the music
appeared in the Civil War movie Cold Mountain.
Then in 2006, filmmaker Matt Hinton released a
documentary about Sacred Harp called Awake My [D] Soul.
I think I was around [B] six when I led my
first song.
It was Rocky [Eb] Road, 294.
_ [G] _ It [E] felt like it always feels just _ [Eb] overwhelming, just very powerful. _ _
[G] And you know [E] when I think when you step to the to the [Eb] Hall of Square and call [Em] your song and they give
the key that [E] you know even all these years after leading I can still get goosebumps when that [Eb] key
is given and that class starts in singing. _ _
[Gbm] The film now has an [Db] accompanying soundtrack [E] packaged
alongside a new [Gb] compilation called Help Me To [A] Sing.
It features [B] modern interpretations of [Dbm] Sacred
Harp songs by artists like Tim Erickson, Led [E] Zeppelin's John Paul Jones, The Innocence Mission,
Elvis Perkins and Jim [Dbm] Lauderdale.
Hinton [E] recently started a bi-weekly [Gb] singing at St.
[Am] Paul's
Presbyterian Church in Atlanta.
[E] Each meeting draws at [Db] least 30 singers, many of whom are students
and [A] young professionals [E] new to the tradition.
There just wasn't anything like this in [Ab] the city
of Atlanta.
Lots of [A] singings all over the place throughout throughout Georgia, but actually in
the city itself there just wasn't anything like this and particularly for younger people.
[Eb] Not all
young singers are newcomers though.
Many children and grandchildren of [D] lifelong singers participate
in the [Db] tradition, especially [Eb] in the South.
My dad's a singer, my grandfather was, his father and my
children sing and even on my mom's side my great-great-grandfather wrote three tunes that
are in one of the Sacred Harp books.
So I just really feel blessed to you [N] know be in a family
where this has [Eb] been an important part of our lives.
David Ivey runs a camp for Sacred Harp
singing called Camp Fa Sol La.
The camp attracts hundreds of people each year.
At our camp we have
folks really come from all over the country and even different countries.
I guess [Ab] last year we
had about 30 states [Gb] represented and some folks [Eb] from also from England here.
We have a really
good mix of folks of kids who are traditional, who've come from traditional singing or have
grown [Abm] up around the singing [Db] and young folks who [Ab] _
really just [Fm] maybe heard about it a couple of
years [Ab] ago or just starting out. _ _
_ _ _ _ Eight-year-old Holly Mixon attended camp for the first time last
[E] year.
She recently led [Eb] a song at the Georgia State Sacred Harp singing [Ab] convention.
_ _ _ Like many
singers [C] Holly is attracted not [Eb] only by the music but also by the people she meets.
I don't think
[Db] I've ever met anyone who's mean [Abm] or ugly [G] in Sacred Harp so you know I act [Eb] ugly.
_ _ [B] _ _
_ _ [Eb] _ _ Some learn how to sing from their
grandparents, some stumble upon Sacred [E] Harp through their best friend or favorite band, and some hear
about it in a music history class [Bb] but everyone's learning from the [Fm] same book. _ _
[Eb] _ _ _ This [Em] diverse new
generation of singers has one thing in [E] common, it's up to them to keep the [G] tradition alive.
[N] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _