How I use Solfa in Piano Lessons
Singing is a fundamental part of building musicianship. It can happen without needing to read notes or worry about piano technique, so can be very liberating. It should be noted that I am not a vocal coach - I don't aim to build technical singing skills, nor is this about the quality of my or a pupil's voice, just about singing the correct pitch with understanding and having fun along the way.
In order to be able to sing the scale above, it is necessary to have a well established knowledge and understanding of the relationships between the notes; do to re and re to mi are not the same gaps as mi-fa and ti-do' (the apostrophe indicating high do). This can be better understood by the following diagram:-
This is one of the things that makes Solfege (the study of Solfa) so powerful - mi to fa and ti to do' are always semitones in any key, as it's all relative.
Five line staves with 4 note solfa patterns, showing Do in different positions.
Once this is well established with colours, we can switch to black note heads (as long as the first one is given a label telling us which the first note is, eg So, as we no longer have the colours to tell us this). At this point they are relying on their knowledge of relationships to determine which note is which as they no longer have the colour prompt. This is a gradual process, building up sounds systematically and working in both major and minor keys separately. The final progression of this work is to add rhythm to the patterns. At this point, they are hearing the patterns in their heads, with rhythms and it can become a springboard into composition.
Singing is part of my piano lessons right from the start, and there is a specific and systematic order to introducing the sounds. The first pieces that pupils learn to play start on D & B, which are So & Mi (or the 5th and 3rd) of a G major scale. These are the first two notes that all children sing - think of the falling pattern used when calling out 'Mummy' in a singsong voice. As these are naturally used in all cultures and languages, they are the starting point for developing tuning and musicianship.
Before we even get to playing pieces on the piano, we work on pitch matching and some simple singing games using body solfa. Body solfa is patting the body to show relative pitch, so when singing a So, we pat our shoulders, Mi is the tummy, and La is the head - this shows that the La is the highest, and is quite close to the So, but Mi is lower and a bit further away from the So. This is used as a precursor to using handsigns. An essential part of learning to play the early pieces, is also learning to sing them in lots of different ways:- using the words, then solfa and singing the note names. We work on developing the inner ear (i.e. hearing the tune in our heads) - for example can we sing the Sos in our heads, but the Mis out loud? This requires being able to keep a steady pulse as well as being able to hear the sounds in our heads and means that if when playing the tune, if we play a wrong note, we are instantly aware that it isn't quite right. The ultimate aim of this kind of work is that if given a new piece of music, we can look at it and hear in our heads what we see on the page, without having to play it first to see what it sounds like.
Away from the piano, and the pieces being learnt, there are all sorts of Solfa based games and activities that I use to help build aural skills and musicianship. The simplest activities involve listening to and singing back a solfa pattern, perhaps with body solfa or handsigns. Moving on from this, is singing a pattern back when I give the pattern using handsigns only ie no voice except from the starting note. In order to do this, it is necessary to be able to hear the sounds in our heads, which is known as internalisation. The next step is improvisation using a given set of notes (known as a toneset) - I will sing a four note pattern and the pupil sings back a different four note pattern, but using the given toneset. The toneset may be as simple as just So & Mi, or may be any combination of notes up to a full scale (major or minor).
Another game we play is recognising Solfa patterns that I sing or play. Sometimes I give pupils a selection of patterns written on a stave, and sometimes just a list of solfa letters, they then have to listen to the pattern I sing of play, sing it back then identify which is the correct one from the selection of patterns on the stave or solfa letters that they have. For example, can they hear the difference between So, Mi, Do and Mi, Re, Do or So, Re Do? Or how about So, Do, So compared to So, Mi, So or Mi, Do, Mi? Once they can manage these easily we can move on to not having the visual prompts - so can they sing it back, then identify it and sing it in solfa without having options to choose from?
Reading in solfa from a stave is another important skill. In its simplest form, the stave can consist of one line only and the notes be just So (in the space above the line) and Mi (in the space below the line). To aid in the visual representation of this each note is given a colour; So is Blue and Mi is yellow.
A simple So, Mi pattern on a single line stave
The numbers of lines used can be built up gradually according to the notes being used. This can also help reinforce the fact that Do is movable ie any line or space can be used as the Do, it's all about the spacing of the notes relative to each other (which is why it is called Relative Solfa).
A major scale in Solfa showing all the colours used.
In order to be able to sing the scale above, it is necessary to have a well established knowledge and understanding of the relationships between the notes; do to re and re to mi are not the same gaps as mi-fa and ti-do' (the apostrophe indicating high do). This can be better understood by the following diagram:-
The major scale in solfa, showing the gaps between the notes (tones and semitones).
Pupils choose notes from a set toneset, using an appropriate number of lines for the stave, then place the note heads on the stave in the correct places relative to each other, before sight singing the pattern they have created. Below are two examples using a 5 line stave, with Do in different positions.
Once this is well established with colours, we can switch to black note heads (as long as the first one is given a label telling us which the first note is, eg So, as we no longer have the colours to tell us this). At this point they are relying on their knowledge of relationships to determine which note is which as they no longer have the colour prompt. This is a gradual process, building up sounds systematically and working in both major and minor keys separately. The final progression of this work is to add rhythm to the patterns. At this point, they are hearing the patterns in their heads, with rhythms and it can become a springboard into composition.
As a piano teacher, this is obviously only part of what I do - indeed one can spend years studying musicianship in its own right to become proficient in this area. However, I do believe any understanding of solfa, even if constrained within the limitations of a half hour piano lesson, will help considerably, resulting in;-
- Enhanced aural skills
- Deeper understanding and appreciation of the fundamental building blocks of music
- Increased skills and enjoyment when learning the piano
