Shape-Note Method and Solfege

Jesse Aikin popularized the seven-shape notation system now commonly called “shape notes” in his 1846 songbook The Christian Minstrel. Aikin’s notation system was based on a four-shape system originated by John Tufts in the early 18th century. Popular early American songbooks like the Sacred Harp and Southern Harmony had employed Tufts’ system.

After the Civil War, the influential Ruebush-Kieffer Company initially promoted a competing seven-shape system devised by Aldine Kieffer’s grandfather Joseph Funk, a noted publisher in the mid-1800s. Seeing the advantage of standardizing the shapes, Ruebush-Kieffer switched over to Aikin’s system in 1876. Other publishers soon followed Ruebush-Kieffer’s example and made Aikin’s note head shapes the standard.

Singing schools were popular social events in the following years. Groups were trained to both sing and teach Aikin's shape-note method. By following the shapes, amateurs could learn to sing in any key. Ruebush-Kieffer and other companies in the late 1800s hired instructors to sell their songbooks, setting the stage for the Vaughan and Stamps-Baxter groups later.

Shape notes are mostly found in gospel songbooks, but the corresponding syllables (do, re, mi, fa, so, la, and ti with variants for sharps and flats) are more widespread. The practice of assigning syllables to notes of the scale is called “solfege” and was invented by Guido of Arezzo (995-1050), a Benedictine monk who also created the music staff. Examples of solfege in pop culture include “Do-Re-Mi” from the 1965 film The Sound Of Music starring Julie Andrews and “Scales And Arpeggios” from the Walt Disney Productions 1970 animated film The Aristocats.

Modern quartets sometimes delight crowds by singing solfege syllables on convention style songs to create a unique counterpoint effect.