Tonic solfa, in short answers.

The seven syllables at a glance:

Degree	Name	Symbol
1	doh	d
2	ray	r
3	mi	m
4	fah	f
5	soh	s
6	lah	l
7	ti	t

The syllables

In tonic solfa, what is the first degree of any major scale called?

Doh, written d. Whatever the key, the first note of the major scale is doh: in C major doh is C, in G major doh is G. That is what "tonic" in the name means: the scale is named from its tonic, its home note. Where doh is in every key.

What is d r m f s l t d called?

It is the major scale in tonic solfa, sung doh, ray, mi, fah, soh, lah, ti, doh. The last d is the doh an octave above the first, so the eight notes are degrees 1 to 8 of the scale, from the tonic up to its octave.

What are the names of the solfa syllables and their symbols?

There are seven: doh (d), ray (r), mi (m), fah (f), soh (s), lah (l) and ti (t). The symbol is the first letter of the name, which is why a solfa score can be typed on any keyboard. Solfa syllables in the glossary.

Which solfa syllable has the highest pitch?

Within one octave, ti (t) is the highest of the seven. The doh after it, written with an octave mark above, begins the next octave and is higher again, and any syllable with an octave mark above it is higher than the same syllable without one.

Which solfa syllable has the lowest pitch?

Within one octave, doh (d) is the lowest. A syllable with an octave mark below it is lower still: basses often sing soh and lah below the middle doh.

Which syllable is the dominant, and which is the leading note?

Soh (s), the fifth degree, is the dominant. Ti (t), the seventh, is the leading note: it sits a semitone below doh and pulls up to it.

The symbols on the page

What do : and | mean in tonic solfa?

A bar line (|) separates the bars, a double bar (||) ends a section, and a colon (:) separates the beats inside a bar. In 4/4 time a bar reads | d :r :m :f |. Rhythm and bar lines in the primer.

What does a dash mean in tonic solfa?

A dash (-) holds the note before it through another beat. d :- is doh held for two beats, the same as a half note (minim) in staff notation, and d :- :- :- is doh for four.

What do the full stop and the comma inside a beat mean?

They split a beat. d .r is two notes in one beat (two quavers), and d ,r ,m ,f is four notes in one beat (four semiquavers). An empty beat is a rest.

How is a higher or lower octave written?

With an octave mark on the letter: a dot (in some books a small stroke) above for the octave above, and below for the octave below. Two marks mean two octaves.

How are sharps and flats written in tonic solfa?

By changing the vowel. A raised note ends in e: de, re, fe, se, le (fe is fah sharpened). A lowered note ends in a: ta, la, sa, ma, ra (ta is ti flattened). The key itself needs none: the key line says where doh is. Every altered syllable.

Keys and scales

Is doh always C?

No. Tonic solfa is movable do: doh moves to the first note of the key. In F major doh is F. Only fixed-do solfege keeps do on C. Fixed do in the glossary.

How do you show the key in a solfa score?

With a key line at the start, such as Key G or Doh is G. When the key changes in the middle of a piece, a new key line or a bridge note (the old syllable and the new one together) shows where the new doh is.

What is the minor scale in tonic solfa?

The minor scale starts on lah: l t d r m f s l. In the harmonic minor soh is raised to se, giving l t d r m f se l, which is why se appears so often near the end of a minor hymn.

What is a modulator in tonic solfa?

A chart of the syllables printed as a ladder, doh at the bottom, with the related keys in columns beside it. The teacher points and the class sings, which teaches the steps of the scale and how one key leads into the next. The modulator in the glossary.

Where it came from

In which language is solfa notation written?

In none in particular. The syllables come from medieval Latin (Guido of Arezzo's ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la, taken from a Latin hymn), the English spellings such as doh, fah and soh come from Sarah Glover and John Curwen, and the letters are read the same way whatever language the words of the song are in.

Who invented tonic solfa?

Sarah Ann Glover, a teacher in Norwich, England, developed the system from 1812, and John Curwen, a minister, formalised it and spread it from 1843. Missionaries and schools carried it across Africa and beyond, where choirs still read it. The history in the primer.

What are the Curwen hand signs?

A hand shape for each syllable, held higher for higher notes, so a class can sing from a teacher's hand with no page. John Curwen built them into his teaching course in the nineteenth century, and Zoltán Kodály's method took them up in the twentieth. All seven hand signs.

What is the difference between tonic solfa and staff notation?

Staff notation writes fixed pitches on five lines; tonic solfa writes the steps of the scale as letters. So solfa reads the same in every key and staff does not, while staff shows exact pitch and is what instrumentalists read. A score can be converted either way. Converting staff to solfa.

Practise it

Type d r m f s l t d into DomiSol's free tonic solfa editor and press play to hear the scale, or drill your ear with the sight-singing drills.