There are two shape note systems (see also this NMB article) you may find in old hymnals (the Baptist church I attended as a child had them): the four-shape (mi-fa-sol-la) system used in Sacred Harp and Southern Harmony, and the seven-shape system of Jesse B. Aikin (1808-1900) and the Christian Minstrel. I use the latter for my microtonal notation, especially 72-tone.
These two systems were proposed to ease the sight reading of hymns, especially in Protestant churches. Each of the shapes can only be placed on particular notes; in the seven shape system, the 'do' shape is always a C, 're' a D, and so on. (The 'sol' shape in both systems is the regular oval used in standard staff notation.)
However, for my microtonal notation, the shapes can be used with any note. In 72-tone, the 'sol' shape indicates a note unchanged from conventional equal temperament. A 're' shape lowers the note by 50 cents; the 'do' shape raises it by the same, and the other shapes indicate deviations of 16.67 and 33.33 cents. From the lowest to the highest, the shapes in order are re, mi, fa, so (sol), la, ti (si) and do.
There has been another unconventional usage of shape notes--one that has nothing to do with pitch, but with rhythm. The American composer Henry Cowell (1897-1965; website) proposed shape notes as an alternative to tuplets. A graphic can be found on this page, but the image is of low resolution.
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