What is Solfège?

…and why should I learn it if I only want to play an instrument and have no interest in becoming a vocalist?

Solfège is something you likely learned in elementary school music class, but didn’t know what it was called. Does do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti, do sound familiar? Solfège consists of small, Italian syllables that help you sing the twelve tones of western/European music correctly, and in tune. If you don’t remember learning the syllables in music class, you might have picked them up from Rogers and Hammerstein’s popular song, Do-Re-Mi from the Sound of Music:

If you line up the seven, single, letter tones of the western musical alphabet, the commonly known solfège syllables line up with them:

Note	C	D	E	F	G	A	B	C
Solfège syllable	do	re	mi	fa	so	la	ti	do
Scale note	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8 (or 1)

These notes are the white notes on the piano. There are five less commonly known syllables for the notes, or tones, between the letters – the black notes on the piano. For simplicity, I’ll refer to them only as flats (sharps are the same keys on the piano, but would be notated differently and have a different solfège syllables). Flats are notes that are slightly lower than the regular letter notes.

Note	D flat	E flat	G flat	A flat	B flat
Solfège syllable	re	mi (may)	se (say)	le (lay)	te (tay)
Scale note	minor 2nd	minor 3rd	flat 5th	minor 6th	minor 7th

When you go to a note slightly lower in pitch, a half step to be exact, it takes on an “a or (ay)” sound.

There are two main systems of solfège. Fixed do, where do is always sung on the letter c, regardless of what key the piece of music you are playing is in. And, moveable do, where do corresponds to the letter of the major, or minor key the piece of music you are playing is in – “home base” if you will. In the United States, moveable do is mainly taught and sung.

If you’re an instrumentalist, the main reason you should learn solfège, and be able to sing at least reasonably accurately and in tune, is so you can improvise and solo well in different styles of music. These styles range from jazz and blues, to some folk music, as well as certain types of rock and roll (largely dependent on the particular group). Jazz of course, is mostly improvised, especially in small groups. Solos in blues, some folk music and rock and roll (listen to the band’s studio and then their live albums, to give you an idea of how much) are usually improvised.

The best way to play interesting, creative, and original solos, is to hear them in your head and then play them on your instrument, as completely and quickly as possible. One of my teachers called this “being wired”. Eventually, you won’t use solfège syllables and will basically scat sing the sounds you’re hearing through your instrument. Even if you play classical music or another style where you will seldom improvise or solo in real time, singing solfège will help you play and interpret melodies more lyrically and musically.

Eventually, you’ll want to “sing” to yourself in your head, or as well and quietly as possible during a live performance. This way, the audience won’t be distracted from your brilliant and beautiful playing. I’m thinking of you Keith Jarrett:

(fast forward to 50 seconds in, if you want to skip the beautifully played melody of Jerome Kern’s, jazz standard, All the Things You Are, and just hear the background humming/singing of Keith Jarrett during his solo)

On more recent recordings, Jarrett’s humming/singing is much less noticeable. I’m not sure if he’s doing it more quietly or less overall, if they’ve figured out better ways to mic the piano without picking his humming, or some of both.

Though I thoroughly enjoy and admire his playing, Thelonious Monk also does this. However, to a lesser extent:

(fast forward to around a minute to hear Monk’s singing/humming)

It’s not as loud, or as noticeable when Monk does it, so I find it less distracting overall.

And yes, I realize I’ll never be as great a jazz pianist as either one of them.

Start singing! (the sooner the better)

Matt