If you can sing Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do up the major scale, you have the talent required to master Solfege, a skill that will take your musicianship to a whole new level…
The Solfege system works like this: The note that acts as the tonal center is named Do, always. In other words, Do is the key that you are in. Once a tonal center Do is established, each of the other possible pitches has a unique “sound-feeling” with respect to this tonal center. Each of these pitches is assigned a unique Solfege syllable, as you will see in the examples below.
Solfege Syllables for the C Major Scale
Solfege Syllables for the C Natural Minor Scale
Pronunciation Hint: Me, Le, and Te sound like “May”, “Lay”, and “Tay”.
Sneak Peek: We are not doing ear training yet, but do know this: Solfege gives us a name that we can associate with the unique “sound-feeling” of each note in the scale. We will have plenty of time to study-practice Solfege ear training when we study scales in upcoming lessons.