Shape-note singing

Our family's gospel group, a generation before mine, didn't rely on standard musical notation but on the seven-note (or sometimes four-note) "shape"

system common in the American South, which grew out of the Sacred Harp tradition. The above is from the Broadman hymnal. "Singing schools" (many of which my father taught) attracted a large number of people wherever they were held across Appalachia , and many hymnals used this notation. It tends to sound strange to modern ears at first. Here's an example.