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Neither numerals nor academic names is fully optimized for the practical use, especially for singing. Is there anything else?? —In fact there is: do-re-mi.
4. Do-Re-Mi
Do-re-mi, though in some countries used as absolute pitch names instead of ABC, are utilized as relative pitch names. Let me introduce its history a bit.
The Origin of Do-Re-Mi
The history of do-re-mi traces back to long long ago…in 11th century in Italy. The syllables do-re-mi come from the lyrics of Latin hymn.
The melody lines of the hymn have a very remarkable feature; the pitch of the first note of each phrase ascends by step in order (from ut to la). So the syllables are appointed as the names for scale tones.
A score a la 11th centurySome modifications added later in history; Ut was changed to do for the easiness to sing, and Si (ti) was added to complete the scale.
Do-re-mi by nature is connected with singing, and it originally was relative pitch names rather than absolute. This is how do-re-mi was born and raised.
5. Tonic Solfa
Over time, do-re-mi came into use as absolute pitch names in countries such as 🇮🇹Italy or 🇫🇷France, but not in 🏴England. In 19thC, music educators in England chose to revive the ancient practice—utilizing the syllables as relative pitch names again.
These labels are relative to the key; whichever key you’re in, the tonal center is labelled do.
Do-re-mi is the pure abstraction or representation of major scale tones.
In Minor Key
What about minor key? —The syllables assigned to notes are common between relative keys. For example, C major key and A minor key has the same assignments.
As explained before, relative keys are literally “family” sharing the same stuff. Key signatures are shared between them, so are syllables.
The system, originated in Italy and developed in England, is called Tonic Solfa1.
Analyzing with Solfa
By using solfa syllables, finally, a melody can be transcribed in a simple, handy and singable way!
“Yoo hoo hoo” turns mi-so-mi-re-do. Easy to write, easy to read, and easy to sing. Solfa is the ideal tool for handling melodies.
And with pitches relativized, the process of analyzing melodies and collecting/comparing melodic data is dramatically improved. For example, you can easily find that “Champagne Supernova” by Oasis has the same phrase as “Imagine”.
The very first phrase of the chorus part is mi-so-mi-re-do. The keys of the two songs are different to each other so absolute pitches of the line are not equal. But you now are able to see through its structure smartly, by virtue of solfa.
Or, the last time we listened to the songs that have ascending leap by 5th from tonal center.
“Ascending leap by 5th from tonal center”… What a verbose expression! Under the governance of solfa, it can be simply described as “do–so leap”. Revolutionary😇
True you may have to make an effort to master the correspondence of syllables in each key, but once you get used to it, you can’t imagine life without it.
6. Get Friends with Solfa
Familiarity with do-re-mi may differ depending on countries. You may be total stranger to it, or you’ve been taught do-re-mi as absolute pitch names. From here, therefore, I’m gonna add complementary information for both situations.
For Do-Re-Mi Novices
Those who are not familiar with do-re-mi at all have to remember the syllables in the first place. On remembering the order of syllables, there’s a famous song that will help you, “Do-Re-Mi“, from the 1959 musical The Sound of Music.
The lyrics of the song is so made that you can recall the syllables, by the power of fun homophones! The song is translated to many languages so your country may have its own. In Japanese, for example, do is linked with doughnuts🍩🍩
Or if that’s not your taste, there are other songs featuring do-re-mi, like “do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do” by Porter Robinson.
It is definitely recommended that you learn do-re-mi through listening to such songs where the syllables are actually linked with its corresponding pitches.
For Absolute Do-Re-Mi Users
In some (or many?) countries, the syllables are used as the absolute pitch names instead of ABC. If you grew up in that environment, solfa may feel uncomfortable to you because do-re-mi as absolute pitch is already engraved on your mind, which completely conflicts with what was introduced so far.
Nothing but chaos.Do-re-mi as absolute pitch is called “Fixed Do”, while the solfa system, do-re-mi as relative pitch to the key is called “Movable Do”. Since solfa is extremely important in learning the theory of melodies, you have to switch from fixed-do system to movable-do system.
You have two tasks to tackle on in parallel— 1.Get used to ABC absolute pitches, 2.Convert do-re-mi from absolute to relative pitches.
In fact I myself, Japanese, am one of those who have got through the transition. It may sound tough but take it easy. First, through the course of chord theory you’ll naturally get familiar with ABC. And through the course of melody theory you’ll gradually master movable-do.
It’s definitely worth the hassle, for solfa is the foundation of developing relative pitch skills. Relative pitch, or relative hearing, is the ability to detect relative pitch structure. For example, for a person with relative pitch, the phrase “Yoo hoo hoo” is recognized as mi-so-mi-re-do in a flash, though they cannot tell which key the melody is in.
Unlike absolute pitch, which is thought to be acquired only during early childhood, you can obtain relative pitch even after you’re grown up. And it will help your songwriting as well as analyzing. Through this text I hope you to get familiar with solfa and improve your musicality.
Summary
- Along with absolute pitch names, relative pitch names are used in music theory.
- Scale degrees are numerals assigned to the tones of a scale, or the special names for tones such as “tonic”, “dominant” or “leading tone”.
- Tonic solfa is a method that uses do-re-mi syllables as relative pitch names optimized for singing and writing, where do is always assigned to the tonal center of a major scale and la to that of a minor scale.
