Part 3 in a 4-part series

Go to Part 1: The Joy of Solfège

Go to Part 2: The Legacy of Guido d’Arezzo

This is a simple but somewhat thorough description of the syllables for movable do solfège with la-based minor and how I applied them in my work as a teacher.  I do not claim this method as an example of haute Kodály, Gordon, or any other technique – for me solfège was always a means to an end, not an end in itself.  We used it for exercises to develop skills, and to learn notes accurately – and when these goals were achieved we left it behind.

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Part 2 in a 4-part series

Go to Part 1: The Joy of Solfège

Solfège is a practical method for teaching sight-singing (singing music from written notation).  Each note of the diatonic scale is assigned a solfège syllable.  This practice is called solmization.

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Part 1 in a 4-part series

Most of the country is still enjoying summer vacation, but here in Nashville the school year begins the first week of August – no lie.  This will be the first fall in many years that I am not starting a new school year as a teacher, although I am still vicariously experiencing it as a parent.  Forgive me if I wax nostalgic.

For all of my teaching career – save for 2008 – 2011 when I ran the piano studio at Nashville School of the Arts and simultaneously directed Music City Youth Orchestra – I was in some part, often for the most part, a singing teacher.  And so it is natural for my thoughts to turn, at this time of year, to the wonders of solfège.  For so many years, the use of this invaluable tool, the practice of this incomparable method was a staple of my daily life.  How many thousands of hours have I spent solfèging songs or vocal parts, or teaching students to do so, or doing it with them?  How could I have done my work without it?  Oh thou noble art. (more…)