If you played the C chromatic scale on a piano, the sharp/flat notes would be played on the black keys.Īndrew Molina goes from Hendrix to Satie on his Latest Record, EVOLV3 Note that when you descend the chromatic scale, as you do in bars 3 and 4 of Example 3, the notes change from sharp to flat to reflect the flatted nature of the non-major scale notes. The accidentals have an “e” sound when ascending and an “a” sound when descending. The sharp/flat notes (non-major scale notes) in the chromatic scale also have solfège syllables associated with them. To play a chromatic scale, start on any note and go up the fingerboard one half-step at a time until you reach the starting note, one octave higher. The twelve notes available in any given key are called a chromatic scale. To play the E major scale, for example, play the 2nd string open and then follow the whole-step/half-step pattern up the 2nd string. Whole-step/whole-step/half-step/whole-step/whole-step/whole-step/half-step You then simply follow the major-scale pattern of: This system is known as The Movable Do, which means that to play in any of the other eleven musical keys “do” is the note you start on that names the key. The first solfege exercise is for daily practice and will have you playing and singing the ascending and descending intervals of the major scale ( Example 1). Go slowly, playing and singing each note.Ĭ–do, D–re, E–mi, F–fa, G–sol, A–la, B–ti, C–DO (pronounced doe–ray–me–fah–sol–la–tea–DOE)Ĭ–DO, B–ti, A–la, G–sol, F–fa, E–mi, D–re, C–do (pronounced DOE–tea–la–sol–fah–me–ray–doe) The first step is to play and sing the notes of the C major scale using the solfège syllables. Learning solfège will improve your listening skills if you incorporate its use into your daily practice. One of the most important aspects in learning to play any musical instrument is ear training and becoming familiar with the intervals (distance between two tones) of the major and chromatic scales. No doubt, the most famous application of the solfège (pronounced sol-fej) is Julie Andrews singing “Do-Re-Mi” in the musical motion picture The Sound of Music. Italian music scholar Guido of Arezzo created the system in the 11th century. The technique of solfège involves assigning the notes of a scale a particular syllable, and then practicing by singing different note sequences using these syllables. It is definitely encouraged that you experiment with either style, but from a teaching and learning standpoint, I would suggest starting with moveable Do.BY JIM D’VILLE | FROM THE WINTER 2018 ISSUE OF UKULELE Not all systems use this, but it is helpful for identifying notes that don't belong to the scale diatonically.Įach system is very useful in many ways. A flattened La becomes 'Le' (pronounced 'lay') a flattened Sol becomes 'Se' ('say'). Example: If you sharp Do, it becomes 'Di' if you sharp Fa, it becomes 'Fi'. The syllable is altered if it is an accidental. Inflections: Another aspect of solfege is the syllable inflections. This inconsistency creates more difficulty when trying to analyze a piece theoretically. Do-Sol becomes the 3rd and 7th scale degrees, respectively of the key of A major.

Example: Do-Sol are the 1st and 5th scale degrees, respectively, of the key C major. The disadvantage is that scale degrees are not the same for each key.

For example, you could say 'Do-Mi-Sol' to a person who knows no English and they will know that those notes are C-E-G. Because of this, communicating a melodic idea becomes very specific the solfege is a language in its own way. It requires perhaps a little more thought when sight singing more complicated music that contain chromatic notes or many modulations.įixed 'Do': In this system, the note 'C' is always Do, 'D' always Re and so on. Identifying leading tones, accidentals and modulations are made very easy with this style of solfege. This system is great for theoretical purposes, as each syllable directly represents each scale degree. In other words, if your piece is in A major, do = A. Moveable 'Do': This type of solfege assigns the note 'do' to the 1st scale degree of whatever key you are playing in. Each system has its advantages and disadvantages, as further explained. Depending on where you study music, you will come across different solfege systems.

Chromatic solfege