1. Introduction to Solfege
Origin
Scale degrees

2. The Sound of Music 1965, Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer
Derivative of 1959 Tony-award winning musical (Rogers and Hammerstein)
Austria during World War II, nun becomes governess (nanny) to children of widowed naval captain
Fun fact: Very little was known or available to Christopher Plummer about the real Captain von Trapp so the actor took to the Salzburg mountains with an interpreter. There, they met with Georg's nephew and asked him what the real man was like. The nephew told them that he was the most boring man he'd ever met.

3. Solfege
Tool for teaching pitch and sight reading in Western music:

4. Scale Degrees
A scale is a series of pitches with a distinct starting and ending point.
A scale spans one octave (8 pitches)
Each pitch in the scale is numbered 1-7 = scale degrees
Each scale degree is labeled with a solfege syllable

5. Solfege Origin

6. Why do we use solfege instead of numbers?
Solfege syllables have tendencies, or little mini jobs to do.
Each syllable relates to Do, or our home base, in some way.
We can interpret music quicker if we can identify a pitch according to its solfege syllable.
If we can identify solfege, we can audiate a melody.
Solfege is cyclical
Plus…

7. The distance between solfege syllables is distinct:
Do Di Re Ri Mi Fa Fi Sol Si La Li Ti Do
Syllables exist between our standard solfege scale.
The distance from 1 to 2 is not the same distance as from 3 to 4 = can be unclear/confusing.

8. Do is home
Do is our starting point. 99% of melodies find their way back to Do, eventually.
Melodies that end on anything but Do don’t sound “right.”
Each solfege syllable is a distinct distance away from Do.
Any pitch can be Do.
Let’s say C is Do…

9. Let’s say C = Do – observe half/whole steps

10. So…
From Mi  Fa = half step From Ti  Do = half step These are smaller steps, trickier to keep in tune. Every other step in the major solfege scale is a whole step.

11. Singing from Do to… From Do to… Distance… Sounds like… Re
Major 2nd (M2)
Happy Birthday Mi
Major 3rd (M3)
Oh When The Saints Fa
Perfect 4th (P4)
Here Comes the Bride
Sol
Perfect 5th (P5)
Star Wars/Twinkle Twinkle Little Star La
Major 6th (M6)
NBC/My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean Ti
Major 7th (M7)
Strange…
Do’
(perfect) octave
Somewhere Over the Rainbow
Practice – repeat after me’s, blue books…