Solfège: do re mi
The syllables of the scale, what they mean, how to show them with the hand, and the chromatic syllables di ri fi si li and te le se me ra. With notation from which the check reads every syllable back.
Solfège (also solmization) names the degrees of the scale with syllables instead of letters: do re mi fa sol la ti do. Singing the syllables, you hear where you are in the scale — which is why it is the first tool of ear training.
The major scale
Syllable, degree, note and hand sign
| Syllable | Degree | In C major | Hand sign (Curwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| do | 1 | C | closed fist, back of the hand up |
| re | 2 | D | flat hand, slanting upwards |
| mi | 3 | E | flat hand, level |
| fa | 4 | F | fist with the thumb pointing down |
| sol | 5 | G | open hand, palm towards you |
| la | 6 | A | loosely hanging hand, fingers down |
| ti | 7 | B | index finger slanting up, towards do |
The hand signs are shown in front of the body, do at belt height, each sign a little higher than the last — the hand rises with the scale.
Movable do and fixed do
In movable do (English-speaking countries, the Kodály method) do is always the tonic of the key: in G major, G is do. Every syllable then sounds the same in every key — do is rest, ti wants to go to do. In fixed do (France, Italy, Spain) the syllables are simply the note names: do is always C, re always D. There they say si instead of ti; ti was introduced so that every syllable starts with a different letter — s already belonged to sol.
Minor: the scale starts on la
In movable do, minor keeps everything in place and only calls the tonic la: A minor is la ti do re mi fa sol la. That way major and minor keep their semitones on the same syllables (mi–fa, ti–do).
Chromatic: the syllables in between
Going up, raise with -i: do di re ri mi fa fi sol si la li ti do. Going down, lower with -e: do ti te la le sol se fa mi me re ra do — ra rather than re, because re is taken.
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See AnotonaEvery note on this page is computed, not typed in — following the rule that also makes F# major spell its seventh degree E#, not F.