When singing melodic ideas, it is uncommon for most music enthusiasts to get familiar with note names, C D E and such, since we will eventually face the problem of requiring to sing a two-syllable note name (C Sharp or G Flat) under one note. What is more doable (pun intended) is to use a solfège or a solmization system to have a single syllable assigned to each note.
There are seven syllables in any solfège system, just as there are seven pitch classes, and they are: Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, and Ti. Before I move on, let me explain the little global inconsistency regarding the name Ti for the 7th degree. In countries such as France, China, Japan, and perhaps Australia, the consensus is to call this degree Si. Since Si is the original syllable of this scale degree , this is not a right or wrong question. The choice is made based on efficiency. When we use Ti instead, each of the seven syllables start with a different letter, which not only makes it easier to distinguish, but also possible for chromatic alternations and modulations. Thus to be more musically expressive, it is advised to stick to using Ti as the seventh syllable of your solfège.
There are several universal method of solfège system, you can wiki them up if you are interested. For our purpose, we are using a system called movable do, explained below.
The Movable Do
The movable do solfège system is one that uses seven syllables above to distinguish each major scale degree from 1 to 7, rather than the actual Note names. So when you are in the key of C, Do equals to C, else if you are singing in the key of F#…well you guessed it, F# will be your Do. This method is taking advantages of the relative pitch recognition ability innate to us human beings.
‘What about minor scales?’ You may ask.
Minor and Modes
This is where things get interesting. There are two ways to sing our minor scales, the first one is what I called the modal system, and the second named tonic system. In the modal system, everything is named by the relative major scale, thus the first note of any Minor Scale or Aeolian Mode is La, since it’s the sixth degree of the relative major scale. In Dorian mode, your tonic will be called Re. Similarly in Mixolydian: Sol, and Phrygian: Mi. The advantage of this system is that it’s easier to learn, since we are already familiar with the sound of the major scales; and the drawback is that we may not be able to experience the modal feel of the scale, since we might get distracted by the major sounding solfèges that we are so used to.
Therefore under such circumstances, it may be better to use the second system, which is one that names all tonic as Do, and builds the rest by their scale degree variations. For example, the major scale degrees are 1-2-3-4-5-6-7, and the correlating minor scale is 1-2-b3-4-5-b6-b7. To represent the flats, we need to alter our syllable accordingly.
The way to do that is to keep the first letter of the degree, and change the suffix. Normally, when we sharpen a degree, we change the suffix to “i”, for example, sol to si; and use “e” to flatten, mi to me. The exception is the second degree Re, since it’s already ending with “e”, we need to use “a” to flatten it instead, making it Ra. There are some variations of the flatted seventh degree, some countries use Ta and some use Te. It’s better to learn both and pick whichever you feel more comfortable with for daily usage.
Thus in the tonic system, to sing our natural minor scale, we sing Do, Re, Me, Fa, Sol, Le, Te (or Ta), Do. If we ever need to sing a Lydian dominant mode (1-2-3-#4-5-6-b7), it will be Do, Re, Mi, Fi, Sol, La, Te (or Ta), Do. This way you only need to think about the scale degrees themselves, rather than the related major scale, if there is one.
Summary:
To keep things simple, here are suggestions for using solfège at a beginner to intermediate level.
- Solfege syllables are representation of the scale degrees rather than the actual note names.
- Use Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti to sing scale degree 1 - 7.
- When applying chromatic alternations, we keep the first letter of each syllable and add “i” when sharpen, or “e”("a" for Re/Ti). The Sharps: Di = #1, Ri = #2, Fi = #4, Si = #5, Li = #6. The Flats: Ra = b2, Me = b3, Se = b5, Le = b6, Te/Ta = b7.
- To sing minor scales, start with la. La Ti Do Re Mi Fa So, use Si for harmonic minor, and Fi Si for ascending melodic minor.
- For modes, use the scale degrees of relative major scales, i.e. start with Re in Dorian, Sol in Mixolydian.