by Jason

Ephesians 5:19

19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord,

The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), Eph 5:19.

What can help us address one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and make melody to the Lord with our hearts? If you look at the notes in our hymn book, you may notice the notes have different shapes. These shape notes help us to get a sense of the pitch each note should have. For example, in a hymn written in the C Major scale, the first and last note will be the “C” note. Each note in a musical scale has a special name, referred to as a scale degree. Each scale degree will have a different shape. The first (and last) note of any scale is referred to as the tonic note. The tonic note in the C Major scale is “C” and is in the shape of an equilateral triangle. Here are two examples of shape note singing from Encyclopedia Britannica. If you compare the note “fa” in the treble and bass clef in our hymn books, you will see the right triangle shape is flipped over in the bass clef. The full article on shape notes can be found here.

The hymns are arranged in four parts. The highest note, found in the treble clef is the soprano part. The second highest note in the treble clef is the alto. In the bass clef, the second note from the lowest is the tenor. The lowest note in the bass clef is the bass.

Addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and make melody to the Lord with our hearts involves the human voice, a cappella singing. Webster’s Dictionary defines a cappella as “without instrumental accompaniment.”

Sacred Songs of the Church

Psallo Publications

https://psallopublications.com

Includes the FREE booklet GOD AND MAN: HOW TO BE SAVED FROM SIN by Don & Marian Starks published by the Gospel Broadcasting Network.

Tonal Harmony

Textbook and Workbook by Stefan Kostka

Tonal Harmony has provided a comprehensive, yet accessible and highly practical, set of tools for understanding music. (Source: Amazon)

I recommend searching “Tonal Harmony” on Bing or Google if you are thinking of purchasing the textbook and workbook. It is available on Amazon, too.

The Acappella Company

Keith Lancaster, the founder of The Acappella Company has albums and videos of a cappella singing. I invite you to subscribe to Praise and Harmony TV.