PRAYER REQUESTS: “ . . . The prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up; . . . Pray for one another that you may be healed.” — James 5:15-16.

Sing songs from your heart to Christ.  Sing praises over everything, any excuse for a song to God the Father in the name of our Master, Jesus Christ .  ~  Ephesians 5:19-20, Msg.

SHAPED NOTES. Oh, I know, all notes have a shape, round. True? Not. There are triangles, squares, etc. to match specific notes on a scale in some pieces of music. Quite prominent in decades past. What little history I’ve stumbled upon indicates the roots of this tradition reach to

southern music: jazz and spirituals often sung a cappella.

My wife attended the Stamps School of Music five decades ago, and the piano instruction, as well as the singing, was from books published with shaped

notes. The visual image was easier to recognize, the response time improved.

I attended a memorial service in a church last week that has traditionally done their singing without

the aid of musical instruments. I picked up the thick hymnal, browsing through it. All shaped notes. Or, as we have come to say, “Shape notes.”  Most people probably wonder why.  Now you know. Well,  at least  “in part, through a glass darkly.”     ~JDM