Solfege, sol what?
You might have heard of Solfege before and to be honest maybe you think it’s kind of silly. What’s the point of using these nonsense syllables when you could just sing the notes perfectly with the actual lyrics. These were my thoughts as I began my first musical skills (musicianship and ear training) class at Wilfrid Laurier University during my Undergraduate Degree back in 2008. Boy was I wrong. As it turns out Solfege has many practical applications. Not only does it help train your ears to better recognize pitches but it also improves your ability to read music.
In this blog post I will be revisiting the topic of Solfege and discussing some of it’s more practical applications. If you haven’t already read my first blog post entitled Doe a Deer I highly recommend you check it out as I build upon some of the previous concepts.
Doe a Deer
Doe, a deer, a female deer. Ray, a drop of golden sun. Me, a name, I call myself. Far, a long long way to run!!!
Wait a minute, why do I recognize this? The words you just read come from Rogers and Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music. Maria sings this song to the Von Trapp children using solfege to teach them how to sing.
Did you know that as a singer it’s impossible to sing something without hearing it in your head first? I mentioned this in my previous blog post about Solfege. Whether you realize it or not we all possess this ability. I like to think of this as our superpower.
When someone says to me that they are tone deaf I refuse to believe that is true. More likely they are just unaware that they have the ability to hear a sound in their head and for that reason they have also never practiced this skill. How could you expect to be good at something that you have never practiced? You don’t wake up one day and just know how to ride a bike or cross stitch. That being said, the more we are exposed to music the better our ears become at recognizing the different sounds and pitches.
One of the challenges of singing is that we do not have something physical to hold or press in order to generate a sound. This is unlike a piano or guitar where you press a key or pluck a string and sound is created. As singers the sound is created by air moving through the glottis and the vocal folds vibrating. Thankfully you are already pretty familiar with this since it’s the same coordination that is required for speaking.
This is not to say that singing is any easier or harder than playing another instrument, it’s just different.
Since we don’t have a particular hand position to feel our way from note to note, we must find those notes by what we hear. This is why training our ears is so important as singers and all musicians for that matter. Your brain is incredibly sophisticated and knows the proper coordination of specific muscles and air pressure that is required to produce these different sounds and pitches.
So if we are relying on our ears to guide us, how are we supposed to keep track of which notes are which?
Well there are note names (A, B, C etc.) but there are also sharps and flats, so that could get complicated. Not to mention there are different key signatures and adding those, it will become too much to keep track of. This is where Solfege comes in. Solfege takes the different scale degrees and replaces them with syllables.
Note: I am using Movable Do (as opposed to fixed do).
Solfege helps to train our ears
Solfege is a system that replaces the scale degrees and notes with syllables. This system acts as a guide to help us keep track of which notes are which. By using Solfege and practicing it with exercises or singing a song with it, you start to be able to better recognize what each syllable sounds like. It gives you reference points so you can navigate your way through the melody. By translating the sound of the pitches into Solfege it helps your ears to better recognize and remember them.
This might not seem all that useful for a very simple song but believe me, it pays off in the long run when you have to learn something that is more advanced. I also find it to be very effective when you have to learn a melody in a short amount of time. In addition to the words and notes you now have Solfege as a way to help you learn your piece and even help you to memorize it.
Solfege helps you to read music better
When you started learning how to read music it’s likely that you started by writing the note names in. This is quite common and in fact I encourage my students to do it if they find it to be helpful. Over time you may have found that you no longer needed to write in the notes. You are able to identify the notes on the staff the same way you can read these words on the page. The same thing goes for Solfege. You could practice by first writing in the syllables and work towards singing them without them written in. With practice you will begin to identify the syllables by sight in any given key. By seeing the notes as Solfege syllables in addition to their note names and scale degrees you can improve your ability to read music.
Test your Skills
If you’re looking to test and improve your Solfege skills, look no further! I have just created a new set of exercises. Notice that all of these exercises are in the key of C Major. I do this because it’s the simplest key due to it not having any sharps or flats. It also puts the notes of the scale fairly close to the middle or upper middle of most singers range. That being said, if the notes get too high or low for you feel free to change where Do is by starting on a different note.
I would also encourage you to check out my first set of Solfege Exercises that come complete with Practice Tracks.
Remember that Solfege is a tool to help improve your ability to recognize the different pitches both visually and aurally. If however you don’t find Solfege to be useful then by no means is it necessary for you to use it. My hope is to give you as many tools as possible but you ultimately decide which ones work best for you.
Thank you for taking the time to read this post. It means a lot to me. If you would like to hear more from me then I encourage you to subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on social media.
I look forward to seeing you in the studio and online!
Sincerely,
Adam
