I drop in here once every few months & so just saw this.

What Becky says. Tim Eriksen will be leading the Shape Note Singing at Old Songs in Altamont, NY June 26 & 27. It should be good.

Go Here for a lesson plan based on Shape Notes put together by the Smithsonian.

I've been singing 4 shape Sacred Harp music for >20 years & find it has really helped me be a better sight singer in other choral situations. Sometimes I even write the note syllables on normal staff to remind me of especially difficult intervals.

I'm pretty sure Neely Bruce, who was at Wesleyan U. in Middleton, Ct for many years used shapes to teach sight singing. You could check the Shape Note Bibliography for other info. The site seems to be down right now so I can't check it.

There were a lot of Gospel Song books published with a 7 shape system. I've been told that pianists who read shape notes can be really good at transposing to different keys on the fly.

Sacred Harp music is just really great to sing. I tell people who can already read music & are put off by trying to sing the shapes, that they should consider the shapes as several more letters of the alphabet to learn.