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The annual all-day North Carolina Shape-Note Singing Convention will return to Pullen Memorial Baptist Church on Saturday, March 8, 2025.Singers who meet monthly to sing in Raleigh and Durham will host the event. Singers attend from across NC as well as from several other states.
This event is free of charge. Registration will open at 9:30 a.m., and singing will commence at 10:00 a.m. We will pause for a potluck lunch around noon, and then continue until about 3:30 pm or until our voices give out, whichever happens first!
Extra copies of the tune books, The Sacred Harp (1991) and The Shenandoah Harmony, will be available to borrow. Anyone is welcome to sing or to listen, and to stay for a little while or all day.
Parking Info
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* Cox Avenue: parallel parking available
* Cox Building: behind the Church on Cox Ave. has a lot available for us.
* We can park in the YMCA’s gravel lot, about a block south of the church on Cox Avenue.
* Businesses on Hillsborough Street that are closed on Saturday have parking; for example, banks.
* The North Lot at the Pullen Arts Center is available (lot is marked "C", see map here: https://cityofraleigh0drupal.blob.core.usgovcloudapi.net/drupal-prod/COR24/Pullen-Arts-Center-Exterior-Map.pdf). Avoid the Gregg Museum parking because the museum is open 10 am to 5 pm on Saturdays and nonvisitors may be towed.
* The property across Cox Avenue from the church is being redeveloped into a luxury apartment tower. The construction footprint takes up the entire block, so no parking is available there or on the east side of Cox Ave.
New to Shape Note Singing?
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Shape-note music is participatory, not a performance, and formal music training is not required. Singers sit in a hollow square, one voice part per side (treble, alto, tenor/lead, bass), and anyone can sing any part. Many people take turns requesting tunes and leading them. The term “shape note” derives from the shaped note heads in the music: rather than all round notes, there are triangles, circles, squares, and diamonds. To help singers learn or remember the tune, the participants “sing the shapes” (fa, sol, la, mi) the first time through before moving on to the
text.
We hope you can join us for any part of the day!
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Pullen Memorial Baptist Church, 106 Cox Ave, Raleigh, NC 27605-1817, United States,Raleigh, North Carolina
