A question regarding solfege

Hey everyone!

In sight singing whenever the music isn't really stepwise and consists of larger intervallic distances I have to sing up or down the scale to get to the note... for example let's say a piece goes mi, re, LA in order to figure out the "La" I would have to think "la, ti, do" my brain won't just go straight to the la. I hope I'm making sense hear.

This also applies to when I'm hearing music and trying to hear the solfege syllables.

So my question is should I just keep practicing like this and eventually I will instantly "know" how each scale degree sounds in relation to the tonic... or is there a better way to approach this. Thanks!

When I was briefly taking a sight-singing course (in a misguided attempt at studying music at my current university), one of the most important exercises the professor had us do were interval-patterns. So beginning at the tonic you would, say, go up twice by step (do-re-mi) then go to the note above tonic and do it again (re-mi-fa) all the way up to the top do, then back down. Next time, change the intervals to, for instance, thirds (do-mi-so re-fa-la mi-so-ti fa-la-do so-ti-re la-do-mi ti-re-fa do-mi-so, then the reverse down). Then change it to a third followed by a second (do-mi-fa re-fa-so etc.). Keep doing this with different combinations of intervals until you can get all the diatonic ones. Make them longer over time, getting up to five, six, seven notes in a stretch (it helps range too). Once you're very comfortable in diatonic intervals, you can do chromatic ones.

When you first start out, practice with a piano or tuner or something like that to make sure you're not drifting as you go.

It's mainly a matter of practicing until you can't get the patterns out of your head. :P

The exercises that really made me understand solfege in practice was from a Berklee book we used at school. The thing was, the first page was full of Ti Do Mi and Fa. The first page contained only the scale steps that were a minor second apart. So you would sing like: ti do fa mi ti do mi fa do ti and so on.

Page two contained all the steps a major second apart: do re, re mi, fa so, so la, la ti

Third page was minor thirds and fourth was major thirds and so forth.

So my question is should I just keep practicing like this and eventually I will instantly "know" how each scale degree sounds in relation to the tonic... or is there a better way to approach this. Thanks!

Yes, for me this worked. When I started Juilliard, we have ear training, and I didn't even know solfege all that well. Within a week or two of practicing it, I knew it backwards and forwards.

If it doesn't work for you... not sure what other methods there are.

Hope that helps!

Heckel

Hey everyone!

In sight singing whenever the music isn't really stepwise and consists of larger intervallic distances I have to sing up or down the scale to get to the note... for example let's say a piece goes mi, re, LA in order to figure out the "La" I would have to think "la, ti, do" my brain won't just go straight to the la. I hope I'm making sense hear.

This also applies to when I'm hearing music and trying to hear the solfege syllables.

So my question is should I just keep practicing like this and eventually I will instantly "know" how each scale degree sounds in relation to the tonic... or is there a better way to approach this. Thanks!

There is a better way to approach it.

1) Are you a singer? Practice arpeggiation exercises on intervals other than "do mi sol". :) For example, do planing exercises as such: "do mi sol, re fa la, mi sol ti, fa la do, etc." "do fa te, re sol do, mi la re" (perfect 4ths! It's easier to hear than you think, it's all 'sol do', but your conscious brain doesn't know that!), "do fa ti, re sol do" (diatonic 4ths), "do sol re, re la mi," (p5ths, d5ths) etc.

2) Play a game with yourself, I call it "guess the pitch." It's a speed game. You essentially do what YOU already do (figure out pitches by singing the scale in your head), but you do it FAST. Pick a pitch, play it on the piano. Pick a random solfege pitch in your mind, audiate the scale up/down to it REALLY fast, like in a literal second, then sing it. Then play that pitch to check yourself. Be sure to include accidental notes time to time, and do it in TEMPO.

You want that "scale audiation" to get to the point where it's instantaneous. Do it faster and faster.

If you want to learn perfect pitch, always do it in C and learn fixed do. :P

Good luck.

Thanks a lot guys, some really useful ideas here! I'm no singer, just want to brush up my ear to be prepared for AP Music Theory next year. Oh, and what sight singing books would you guys recommend?

good tip Peter, but you're not practicing perfect pitch but relative.

Good book: Modus Novus by Lars Edlund

Right, the tip wasn't meant for perfect pitch. :) It was meant primarily to gain facility with movable do solfege and relative pitch familiarity in general.

BUT it does give a starting point for learning fixed do if you do it solely in the "key" of C. That's practical absolute pitch.

edit: also, learn to sing. lol

Well I mean I can sing decently. People have always told me I have good intonation. As for the quality of my voice... I've been told it's pretty good but I don't really try to "work" on my voice. When it comes to practicing solfege I don't care at all how bad I sound as long as I'm in tune. I'm trying to develop my ear mostly and I know singing is a big part of that, but I'm not trying to develop a beautiful voice here ;)

Right. Every musician should be able to hold a pitch and demonstrate rhythm and style with their voice.

I guess it's a little late, but for me I try to think of solfege as all in relation to other solfege, especially the tonic triad (i.e., do mi sol). Every pitch has a relationship/pull to the one of those notes - ti obviously moves up to do, fa generally moves down to me. La moves down to sol, and re can move either up or down depending on context, but nonetheless fits right between do and mi. This can work for minor modes and non-diatonic pitches, too. In tonal music, most of the chromatic alterations you encounter in a sightsinging example are secondary leading tones, so you can just treat them as "ti do" in whatever temporary key the secondary implies. The other possibility is an upper chromatic neighbor, which usually to me equates to "le sol" or "fa mi" in terms of sound. Also, it helps to figure out what the relationship sounds like between do and every other pitch. That will help you keep tied to a tonal center and not get "off" - if you miss one pitch and only do everything intervallically from the last pitch, the entire rest of the example would be incorrect.

Everyone is different, but I have found that for me I really try to associate a color/sound to each solfege syllable, regardless of key (well, I was trained in a moveable do system, and don't have perfect pitch). It can be the tension of dissonance vs. consonance, or just simply the way it tunes to the other notes in the chord.

Anyway, hope this helps! ^^;

Yes keakealani I pretty much do what you do haha! I've been practicing sight singing guys and the improvement is slow but there!