Once the diatonic scale and the diatonic center (DO) are internalized, the ear understands each scale step and can hear pitch relationships (intervals) more easily with practice. When this skill is acquired, it is then possible to hear a piece,ĭetermine the pitch relationships, and then write down, transpose, orĪll Let's Play Music students have the diatonic scale so strongly patterned in their mind's ear that they will intuitively be able to recognize and identify (sing) DO, the tonal center in a piece of music. In whole or part and accurately decipher where DO is – and can sing it. A child who has developed tonal orientation can hear a piece of music Tonal center is the musical “pull” toward the tonic chord and the tonic pitch (DO). One of the fundamental inner hearing skills is developing tonal orientation: a feel for the tonal center. Inner hearing is the ability to hear music in the mind without any music actually being present, and is the precursor to all musical skill. Hand signs and patterning promote “inner hearing”: a term that Kodály created. He incorporated hand signs as a teaching tool. Zoltan Kodály (Hungary, 1882-1967) was a revolutionist who changed the attitudes of teaching music to children. Hand signs must always communicate pitch height to be completely effective for training the ear. When signing the solfeg syllables, the hands begin near the waist with DO and rise with each consecutive sign until the octave DO is at a height near your forehead. While singing in solfeg, the child is producing the pitch with his voice, hearing it with his ear, and reinforcing that pitch relationship with his hands. In this way, full body involvement is utilized as the hands ‘feel’ the major scale. It is the common tongue of all Western musicians, and has many non-Western correspondents as well.Ĭurwen and Kodály John Curwen (Britain, 1816-1880) created hand signs for notes, giving us a way to visually and physically represent the function of each note of the major scale. Today, solfege is used at most major European and American music schools for training professional musicians. The notes of the solfege major scale today: So there you have it- words were created and adopted so musicians could work with and communicate about language. In the 19th century, Sarah Glover suggested that each syllabic 'word' should start with a different letter, so Si was changed to Ti. Take a close look at his name…what syllable do you think he suggested? Do! Or perhaps he, too, was influenced by the Arabic system. Okay, you might also be asking: what about the Ut? In the 17th century, music scholar Giovanni Battista Doni rightly pointed out that it would be easier to sing if there were an open vowel. Right! Did Guido of Arezzo try to make his song fit in with the musical scale (an idea that Rogers and Hammerstein also employed in 'Do A Deer'), or did his random song become the musical scale? If you get a time machine, let me know. Rogers and Hammerstein teach solfege in 'Do A Deer' Solfege used for singing: mi -fa -sol-la -si -(ut)do -re Just take a look at the Arabic alphabet letters Muslims were using to represent notes in their musical system, and you'll see something interesting:Īrabic letters used for singing: ﻡ mīm ﻑ fāʼ ﺹ ṣād ﻝ lām ﺱ sīn ﺩ- dāl It is possible that Guido of Arezzo (creator of the hymn) and Iohannes were influenced by Eastern musical ideas. Sancte Iohannes thought about it and added one more syllable, using his initials, and Si was added. Yes! Strong words in this hymn begin on each note of the major scale, so the first syllable of those words became important they became the words that represent the notes in the scale! There is still a little something missing to complete the diatonic scale. Can you figure out how the solfege syllables were chosen!? Check out this song (sing along if you like) and pay close attention to the words. Well, it turns out that if you were at all musical back in the 11th century, then of course you knew the hottest pop song of the time: the chant-like Hymn to St. So now you've sung the Solfege major scale in class ( Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do) and you might wonder why someone would choose such random syllables to be the new words of music. Hey, we invent words whenever we have new ideas, most recently we came up with "blogs" "tweets" and "hashtags". At a certain point in history, a language was needed to talk about music and notes because musicians started to experiment and become sophisticated with sound. Humans are hardwired to sing and create music. Photo credit: Red Poppy Photo and teacher Nicci Lovell Ready to become bilingual with your child? Once you speak Solfege, your musical abilities (ahem, superpowers) will amaze and astound.
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