{"id":162,"date":"2026-04-28T20:45:05","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T00:45:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fasolamichigan.org\/?page_id=162"},"modified":"2026-04-28T20:46:52","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T00:46:52","slug":"the-four-shape-system","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/fasolamichigan.org\/?page_id=162","title":{"rendered":"The four-shape system"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"427\" src=\"http:\/\/fasolamichigan.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Screenshot-2025-08-17-135845-1024x427.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-126\" srcset=\"https:\/\/fasolamichigan.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Screenshot-2025-08-17-135845-1024x427.png 1024w, https:\/\/fasolamichigan.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Screenshot-2025-08-17-135845-300x125.png 300w, https:\/\/fasolamichigan.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Screenshot-2025-08-17-135845-768x320.png 768w, https:\/\/fasolamichigan.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Screenshot-2025-08-17-135845-1536x640.png 1536w, https:\/\/fasolamichigan.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Screenshot-2025-08-17-135845-2048x853.png 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The Sacred Harp four-shape system is similar to the do-re-me system seen in <em>The Sound of Music,<\/em> but it replaces the first three notes of do re mi\u00a0with\u00a0fa sol la,\u00a0and\u00a0mi\u00a0replaces\u00a0ti. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We sing for fun, not performance, and there is no choir director\u2014all the singers take turns leading the group.  <br><br>Since the four-shape system allows for songs to be sight-read quickly, the leader selects a song and the verses to be sung, sets the tempo, and then leads the song, singing the shapes once through before we sing the song.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Join Mid-Michigan singers on&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/fasolamichigan\/\">Facebook<\/a>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An example two-part shape note hymn from the&nbsp;<em>American Church Harp (1856)<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"628\" height=\"1024\" src=\"http:\/\/fasolamichigan.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ACH-7-628x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-164\" srcset=\"https:\/\/fasolamichigan.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ACH-7-628x1024.jpg 628w, https:\/\/fasolamichigan.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ACH-7-184x300.jpg 184w, https:\/\/fasolamichigan.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ACH-7.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 628px) 100vw, 628px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Sacred Harp four-shape system is similar to the do-re-me system seen in The Sound of Music, but it replaces the first three notes of do re mi\u00a0with\u00a0fa sol la,\u00a0and\u00a0mi\u00a0replaces\u00a0ti. We sing for fun, not performance, and there is no choir director\u2014all the singers take turns leading the group. Since the four-shape system allows for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":6,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-162","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fasolamichigan.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fasolamichigan.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fasolamichigan.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fasolamichigan.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fasolamichigan.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=162"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/fasolamichigan.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":454,"href":"https:\/\/fasolamichigan.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/162\/revisions\/454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fasolamichigan.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}