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Views from the Choir Loft

Solfege

Lucas Tappan · September 29, 2015

LMT Solfege Hand Signs THE FIRST MONTH of probationer rehearsals I set 3 goals, one of which is for them to become fluent in the use of diatonic solfege. Some children (although not nearly as many as one might presume) are familiar with the song “Do, Re, Mi” from The Sound of Music, which is a useful little ditty for introducing solfege syllables to children. I have the boys and girls sing this song during our first practice before we work more in depth on the first five syllables: do, re, mi, fah and sol. After we sing up and down those five notes a few times, we play any number of little games to help make them second nature. One of the probationers’ favorite games is to play “Around the World with Solfege.” Hopefully you are familiar with the game “Around the World.” Basically, children compete against each other one-on-one until one child goes “around the world” and beats all his classmates. In my version, I give the name of a solfege syllable to the two students competing and they have to name the syllable higher or lower (depending on what we have established beforehand) in order to beat one another. This gets them thinking on their toes.

The second week I review sol, la ti and high do, and go through the process again. This time I draw middle C on the board and have them sing the note as Do, after which I add another note and another note until we sing up the major scale. I use these and various other games over the next two weeks to help the children reach fluency, both forward and back. For those who have tried solfege and didn’t seem to get anywhere, remember that this is only the first step. The ultimate goal is not to have children be able to parrot back nonsense syllables, but rather for each child to understand and hear how every note functions within the scale. The probationers will be working on this in the coming months.

This ultimate goal is why I use solfege. Simply put, I feel that solfege is the fastest and most secure route to establishing the scale (whether major, minor, or the variations of the minor scale) and the way its notes function within that scale in the minds of singers. If a student learns what the home note (do) of a scale sounds like, he will be able to hit that note every time it comes along in his music. Likewise, a singer who struggles with distinguishing between descending fifths and fourths within the context of a given work no longer struggles if he understands how those notes function within the scale.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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About Lucas Tappan

Dr. Lucas Tappan is a conductor and organist whose specialty is working with children. He lives in Kansas with his wife and four children.—(Read full biography).

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Quick Thoughts

    Vespers Booklet (4th Sunday of Lent)
    The organ accompaniment booklet (24 pages) which I created for the 4th Sunday of Lent (“Lætare Sunday”) may now be downloaded, for those who desire such a thing.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Vespers Booklet, 3rd Sunday of Lent
    The organ accompaniment I created for the 3rd Sunday of Lent (“Extraordinary Form”) may now be downloaded, if anyone is interested in this.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Weeping For Joy! (We Hope!)
    Listening to this Easter Alleluia—an SATB arrangement I made twenty years ago based on the work of Monsignor Jules Van Nuffel—one of our readers left this comment: “I get tears in my eyes each time I sing to this hymn.” I hope this person is weeping for joy!
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

To end an impropriety, noticed particularly at orchestral Vespers, when two or three Psalms are sung with full orchestra, and then the other Psalms and the Hymn are rapidly hurried through with organ accompaniment only […] we order that at Mass all portions of the text, including “Agnus Dei,” be sung with orchestral accompaniment. […] Moreover, the musicians are not allowed to put the instruments away and leave their places before the conclusion of the sacred function.

— Cardinal Patrizi (18 November 1856)

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