Solfege Program

Music Theory, Music Literacy, and Aural Skills:
Learning to read music is an important emphasis of SVCC, not only because it helps the choristers to learn their choir music more easily, but also because it will allow them to be independent musicians for the rest of their lives. Teaching a child to love music without teaching him how to read it is like teaching a child to love literature without teaching him how to read words!

• Solfege is one of the tools used in SVCC to train our choristers’ ears and to help them learn to read music. The syllables, do re mi fa sol la ti, and high do, the pitches of our major scale, have been used for centuries, some since the Middle Ages to teach not only music reading, but also ear training and music theory.

• SVCC choristers also learn handsigns which correspond to the solfege syllables. The purpose of these handsigns is to add a visual and kinesthetic component to the auditory learning that is taking place.

• Rhythm reading is taught sequentially, using both rhythm syllables and counting.

Weekly solfege and rhythm homework includes sight-reading, memorization, and written theory. Challenge homework is offered for students more experienced in music literacy and ear-training skills. The melodic and rhythmic aural and literacy skills the choristers learn are used to teach fundamentals of music theory.

Here are some frequently asked questions about solfege and rhythm reading:

What is the advantage of solfege over other pitch-reading methods?
A scale is like a musical ladder with uneven rungs, not even ones! Scales are made up of whole steps and half steps. (e.g. the intervals, mi to fa and ti to do are half steps. The other steps in the scale are whole steps.) The Curwen/Kodály handsigns are designed to emphasize where the whole and half steps fall. When singers learn solfege and handsigns, their ears learn where the whole steps and half steps are in the music, and it helps them to sing much better in tune! When singers sing pitches using numbers, it implies, inaccurately, that the intervals, like the numbers, are evenly spaced. Also, solfege allows for more flexibility in singing and reading in minor keys and in modes.

What is the reason for solfege memorization homework?
When singers memorize songs and scale patterns using solfege, the intervals in each song become more solidly internalized. When the singer sees, for instance, do-sol on the staff, the ear will automatically know what that should sound like, because the singer has aurally memorized that interval in many other contexts.

Why do the lessons seem to be in such an odd order instead of just beginning, “do, re, mi, fa, sol, etc.”?
In SVCC, lessons begin with songs and exercises based on the “pentatonic” (five-tone) scale (do, re, mi, sol and la). This scale contains no half steps, and so is easier to sing in tune. A large body of our music is based on this scale, and the sounds are familiar. Often, singers who learn music reading beginning with all stepwise lessons (eg. do-re-mi-fa-sol) have difficulty when encountering skips (eg. do-mi-sol) later on. Singers who encounter skips right away usually read them more successfully and have no trouble with steps.

Should I play the piano (or encourage my chorister to play the piano) to help with sight-reading homework?
NO! Sight-singing is only sight-singing if the singer can sing what is on the staff without help from another instrument. It is fine to use the piano to check what the singer has read, but the first reading should be done with no help, except for a starting pitch.

Why does SVCC use rhythm syllables? Why not just count?
Research has shown that elementary-age children who learn to read rhythms using rhythm syllables are more successful than those who learn rhythm by counting. As our choristers become older we continue the use of rhythm syllables and also begin reading using counting (as many of you parents probably learned in instrumental lessons and ensembles.) We believe that it is valuable to learn more than one tool.