Solfege is an amazing tool

One of my students recently asked me to start teaching him solfege. I made a video about Should I Learn Solfege? a while ago, but I figured I’d explain it in a post here.

So my student asked if I could prepare him for AP Music Theory. He’s a high school student.

After explaining the basics of solfege I told him some of the amazing things you can do when you get good at it.

One of those things being singing songs that you’ve never heard before.

I sang in a choir while at Berklee for a little bit, and I sang the bass parts. Most of the time I was sight reading either during rehearsals or during church services because I wasn’t provided with the music before hand. I also didn’t know many of the hymns.

With solfege I was able to sing them. I could imagine what the solfege syllables would be and hear the bass parts in my head before I sang them and then when I sang them they sounded alright.

It’s the same way that I’ve been able to harmonize some sea shanties on TikTok. Go follow me.

Once you’re able to hear a full scale in solfege and be able to hear different combinations of syllables you’ll be able to use that to figure out music without an instrument, sing harmonize without knowing what notes you’re singing, and even learn full songs without an instrument.

I’ve used solfege to learn songs while driving to a rehearsal. Because you’re focusing on the relationships between the notes, rather than the notes themselves, you can figure out what scale degrees the melody is playing and what roman numerals the chords are.

It kind of feels like a super power. You can sit down at your instrument and play a song you’ve only ever listened to, and never played, and play it fairly well.

It’s an amazing tool to learn to use.

ISJ