The Sacred Harp tradition developed out of the singing school movement which began in New England in the late 1700's, then spread to the rural South and finally to Texas. This custom remains a distinct aspect of Sacred Harp singing, which takes its name from one of the most popular shaped-note song books. Monthly singings, which were once held in nearly every community in East and Central Texas, have faded into the past, but several annual singings are still in existence. The East Texas Sacred Harp Singing Convention was organized in 1868, and is the second oldest continuos singing convention in the United States. The singers sit in a hollow square with space in the middle for the leader.
Tenors face altos, and basses face the trebles.
The goal is to build a sound and spirit for the singers to enjoy. The songs are old songs, some 200 and 300 years old. The music has its beginning by oral preservation of singing techniques, rhythms, and melodies from other lands and other times, as well as from the American eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This oral heritage includes 18th-century revival spirituals, ballads, and dance tunes of colonial America by way of England. The tune names of the songs are another source of historical interest.