Transcript Introduction to Solfege

Introduction to Solfege
Origin
Scale degrees
The Sound of Music
• 1965, Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer
• Derivative of 1959 Tony-award winning musical (Rogers and Hammerstein)
• Austria during World War II, nun becomes governess (nanny) to children of
widowed naval captain
• Fun fact: Very little was known or available to Christopher Plummer about
the real Captain von Trapp so the actor took to the Salzburg mountains
with an interpreter. There, they met with Georg's nephew and asked him
what the real man was like. The nephew told them that he was the most
boring man he'd ever met.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brt0KH8q-94
Solfege
Tool for teaching pitch and sight reading in Western music:
Scale Degrees
• A scale is a series of pitches with a distinct starting and ending point.
• A scale spans one octave (8 pitches)
• Each pitch in the scale is numbered 1-7 = scale degrees
• Each scale degree is labeled with a solfege syllable
Solfege Origin
Why do we use solfege instead of numbers?
• Solfege syllables have tendencies, or little mini jobs to do.
• Each syllable relates to Do, or our home base, in some way.
• We can interpret music quicker if we can identify a pitch according to
its solfege syllable.
• If we can identify solfege, we can audiate a melody.
• Solfege is cyclical
• Plus…
The distance between solfege syllables is
distinct:
• Do Di Re Ri Mi Fa Fi Sol Si La Li Ti Do
•1
2
3 4
5
6
7 8
• Syllables exist between our standard solfege scale.
• The distance from 1 to 2 is not the same distance as from 3 to 4 = can
be unclear/confusing.
Do is home
• Do is our starting point. 99% of melodies find their way back to Do,
eventually.
• Melodies that end on anything but Do don’t sound “right.”
• Each solfege syllable is a distinct distance away from Do.
• Any pitch can be Do.
• Let’s say C is Do…
Let’s say C = Do – observe half/whole steps
So…
From Mi  Fa = half step
From Ti  Do = half step
These are smaller steps, trickier to keep in tune.
Every other step in the major solfege scale is a whole step.
Singing from Do to…
From Do to…
Distance…
Re
Major 2nd (M2)
Happy Birthday
Mi
Major 3rd (M3)
Oh When The Saints
Fa
Perfect 4th (P4)
Here Comes the Bride
Sol
Perfect 5th (P5)
Star Wars/Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
La
Major 6th (M6)
NBC/My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean
Ti
Major 7th (M7)
Strange…
Do’
(perfect) octave
Somewhere Over the Rainbow
Practice – repeat after me’s, blue books…
Sounds like…