Singing school

O, tell me young friends, while the morning's fair and cool,
O where, tell me where, shall I find your singing school.
You'll find it under the tall oak where the leaves do shake and blow,
You'll find a half hundred a-singing faw, sol, [law].

A singing school is a school in which students are taught to sightread vocal music. Singing schools are a long-standing cultural institution in the Southern United States. While some singing schools are offered for credit, most are informal programs.

Historically, singing schools have been strongly affiliated with Protestant Christianity. Some are held under the auspices of particular Protestant denominations that maintain a tradition of a cappella singing, such as the Church of Christ and the Primitive Baptists. Others are associated with Sacred Harp, Southern Gospel, and similar singing traditions, whose music is religious in character but sung outside the context of church services.

Often the music taught in singing schools uses shape note or "buckwheat" notation, in which the notes are assigned particular shapes to indicate their pitch. There are two main varieties; the four-note, or fasola, system used in Sacred Harp music and the seven-note system used in southern gospel music. Some churches, including some Baptist churches (though fewer and fewer), use hymnals printed in shape notes.

The first American singing schools began in New England in the early 1700s as an effort to spread the use of written music in congregational singing. In some denominations, controversies existed on whether congregations should sing audibly, and whether singing should be limited to the Psalms of David. This New England controversy centered around "regular singing" versus the "usual way". The "usual way" consisted of the entire congregation singing in unison tunes passed on by oral tradition, often by lining out. "Regular singing" consisted of singing by note or rule. Though intended for the entire congregation, "regular singing" sometimes divided the congregation into singers and non-singers. Massachusetts ministers John Tufts and Thomas Walter were among the leaders in this "reform movement". Tufts' An Introduction to the Singing of Psalm Tunes is generally considered the first singing school manual. By the middle of the 18th century, the arguments for "regular singing" had generally won the day.

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