Jesse B. Aikin

Who was Jesse B. Aikin?

Jesse Bowman Aikin was a shape note "singing master", and compiler of the shape note tunebook The Christian Minstrel. He was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania and lived on a farm in Hatfield, Pennsylvania. Aikin, a member of the Church of the Brethren, was the first to successfully produce a song book with a seven-shape note system, in 1846. He vigorously defended his "invention" and his patent, which included the elimination of bass and treble clefs and the simplification of time signatures. After the influential Ruebush & Kieffer Publishing Company began using his notehead shapes around 1876, the Aikin shapes eventually became the prevailing standard in shape note and gospel music publication, although few other compilers adopted his other innovations.

Aikin's names for the notes were originally written: Doe Ray Mee Faw Sole Law See. All the note stems pointed downwards, and the stems for Doe, Ray, and See were placed centrally on the shape, rather than to the side. These conventions were discarded by later users of his system, so as not to deviate so much from standard notation. The name See was also changed to Ti, so as not to be confused with a sharpened Sol.