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Aural Skills - Solfege

Learn to recognize moveable-do Solfege by ear.

Setup

Keys
Use these checkboxes to select which keys should be used in the quiz.

Answer by
Use these radio buttons to select whether the quiz should accept input via buttons or through typing.

Allow nondiatonic notes
Enabling this checkbox will allow notes that are not in the key signature to be used in the quiz.

Keep each question in one key
Usually, the question changes keys each play, even between plays of the same question. You can turn this off and keep playback in the same key until a new question is chosen by checking this box.


Learning Solfege

Aquallegro teaches moveable-do Solfege exclusively. This is because fixed-do Solfege is not related to relative pitch, it is more of a note naming system (it is taught in the Note Names module, however), and la-based minor and similar systems are easily learned if one knows the Solfege for the major mode.

Chromatically
One way to learn Solfege is to memorize the syllables as a chromatic scale. Basically, Solfege is a way of representing notes relative to the tonic of the key. Each step of the scale has its own syllable, and if that same step is raised or lowered, it shares the same first letter. Here is a traditional chromatic scale, upwards and downwards. (It may help to look at a keyboard while thinking through the chromatic scale.)

Scale Degree

Solfege

1

Do

Raised 1

Di

2

Re

Raised 2

Ri

3

Mi

4

Fa

Raised 4

Fi

5

Sol

Raised 5

Si

6

La

Raised 6

Li

7

Ti

1

Do

Scale Degree

Solfege

1

Do

7

Ti

Lowered 7

Te

6

La

Lowered 6

Le

5

Sol

Lowered 5

Se

4

Fa

3

Mi

Lowered 3

Me

2

Re

Lowered 2

Ra

1

Do

Start with Constants
Start off with Do and Sol, the most important tones in both Major and Minor. Once you've learned them, you can try to add Ti, Le, and Fi, and try to hear them as leading towards the familiar Do or Sol. (That is, Ti "wants" to go to Do, Le and Fi "want" to go to Sol.) Then you can add Mi and Me, two more relatively stable tones in Major and Minor, respectively. Once you've mastered those two, you can probably hear Fa as leading to Mi in Major or to Me in Minor. You can find many of these little tricks yourself just by paying attention to what your ear "wants" to hear next. Not only is this a good trick to master the Solfege quiz, it also focuses on the true point of the quiz: hearing the notes for their functions in the key—where they "want" to go next—not by interval or any other method.


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