Solfa Notation

Solfa Notation

You may call it solfa notation or tonic solfa, it’s fine. Often times I have heard people say “I don’t want to join the choir because I find the solfa difficult”. I often gave this short response; it is difficult when you don’t learn it. That is the truth about anything in life. Nothing is easy if one has not learnt it. New things become easy and could be interesting when you have learnt them. From a distance, the solfa notation looks like a very complex representation of sounds; yes, but it’s not that complex.

1. What is Solfa Notation?

This is a set of symbols used to identify tone units in relation to other tone units in a song. It’s a name given to different tunes according to their relationship with other tunes in the key. Although instrumentalists can use it to play songs by the ear, it is basically important for singing (sight-singing). The notes are represented by 7 letters of the English alphabet: d, r, m, f, s, l, and t. They are however named differently when they are used for the solfa notation. They are pronounced as doh, ray, mi, fah, soh, lah, and ti.

2. What is the importance of learning the solfa notation?

You may be asking “Why do I need to learn the solfa notation as a singer? I could always just sing a song after listening to it.” For a lover of singing, that is not enough. I have not said “for a professional”; yes, because not every singer is a professional – in terms of making a living through singing.  You could be only a member of a choir without any monetary benefit. It is just because you love to sing – maybe for psychological or sociological benefit.

i.                    You can sing a song without being taught

The knowledge of solfa notion enables a singer to sing any song without depending on phrase-by-phrase teaching. When a composer wants to share his songs with other people, he provides the solfa notation for the song which anybody around the world would use to sing the song. It’s great fun getting the tune of a song all by yourself through the solfa notation.

ii.                  The solfa notation makes song composition easier

Songs come by inspiration most times. You may be in the kitchen washing some dishes and a nice tune pops up in your mine, and you know you could forget it if you don’t save it. The solfa notation is the easy way to save your beautiful tune from disappearing forever, especially if you don’t have a recording device handy. You quickly jot it down in your song book, and you could go back to it years after and recover every bit of it. It’s safer than using a recording device because you can produce multiple copies very easily.

iii.                The solfa notation is a great way to start learning music before the staff notation

If you are interested in learning to read the staff notation, starting with the solfa notation will help make things easy for you. It will help you understand better how to interpret the symbols and signs of the staff notation. This is because the staff is only a different music language created basically for playing instruments. Whether the instrument or voice, what is produced is music; and certainly, making music with the instrument is usually more complex. You see, that is why it is best to start with the solfa notation.

iv.                The solfa notation is a good guide for voice training

Singers find the solfa notation useful for voice exercise in order to get quality vocal pitch. Using the solfa scale, the singer is able to manipulate different tunes at different tone levels. They could measure how they hit low notes and high notes easily even without the help of an instrument.

3. How to use the sol-fa notation?

i. Pitch

There are seven solfa syllables (A syllable is a unit of sound) representing different pitch notes.
doh ray mi fah soh lah ti
These syllables are abbreviated in writing the notation as
d r m f s l t

ii. key note (tonic, major)

Every song is sung on a key.  As indicated on the keyboard, there are seven major keys and five minor keys, making twelve keys altogether. The seven major keys are
C D E F G A B
The five minor keys are the sharp (#) keys.
C# D# F# G# A#
 In solfa notation, the key indication is placed at the beginning of the song, e.g. Doh is C. The Doh in an octave is referred to as the tonic, and it is the indicator of the key note. The song does not have to begin on the tonic or key note, but every other note in the song must pick its pitch range from the tonic.

iii. Octave

The octave refers to the set of seven syllables in a key. It is a range of pitch from doh to ti. Another doh comes after the last ti in an octave to start another octave in the same key.

4. Reading the solfa notation 

To read the solfa notion is to sing the song; because it is read based on time and pitch variation. It is not read the same way we read ordinary compositions where we could choose any speech intonation we want, like in asking a question with a rising or falling tone. Therefore, you must learn to differentiate tunes according to the solfa notes. This requires hearing skills. Doh and Ray, for instance, are not read on the same tune. Ray is a pitch higher than Doh and a pitch lower than Mi.

5. Time Measures

Singing follows specific rhythm measured in time duration. The measure in solfa notation is indicated by a bar (long and short), a colon (:), a dot (.), and a coma (,). A dash (-) is used to indicate the absence of a note. The note before the dash is sustained to the length of the time of the dash. If the dash is a full note and the preceding note is also a full note, then the preceding note is sustained to the length of two notes.
The long bar splits the beats into groups of four or three depending on the general timing of the song which could be 4/4 , 3/4 etc. Each beat can be represented by one or more solfa notes. If  a note occupies a beat, that note is a full note.

The short bar divides the space between the two long bars into two equal halves with two notes on each side. The colon indicates one full note. The dot indicates half of a note, while the comma indicates quarter of a note.
In singing, the time symbols and the solfa notes are read together. The time symbol shows how long a note should be sustained and when a new note should be introduced. For instance, the notes on figure 1 above, which are full notes, are more sustained than the notes on figure 2, which are halve notes.

Here is an example of a song where Doh is C.

In the short song above, every Soh is the same tune pitch as the other. Likewise, the Ray, Mi, Lah etc. is the same as other notes of its kind. Therefore, as you read the notation, ensure that the tune for Mi is not replaced with that of Soh. You should be able to identify the differences among the various notes sang in key C. the same solfa note will have a different tune pitch if used in a different key is like D, G or any other key.
6. Exercise A
1. : d : r : m : f : s : l : t : d’
:d’: t : l : s : f : m : r : d
2. : d : d : r : r : m : m : d : d
:m : m : r : r : s : s : m : m
3. : d : d :m: m: d : d : f : f
: m : m : s : s : r : r : m : m
4. : f : f : r : r : l : l : t : t
  : l : t : l : m : f : m : r : d

Exercise B
1. : m : - : r : m.f : s : s : l : - : s : l.t : d’: -
: t : - : l : t.l : s : f : m: - : r : d : d 
2. : m : m : r : d,d.r,r: m : m: s: s : m : l,l.m,f : l :s
: l,s.sl : t : d: m : f : r :d