Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Teachers Forum Teaching how to read music- solfege versus letter names

If you're looking at the Yamaha program, consider also the Harmony Road course.
www.harmonyroadmusic.com

Both programs are group piano-based programs; the curriculum is not designed to be used in private lessons. Lots of singing, rhythm ensembles, ear training, and the parent participates as well. I taught Yamaha in the 80's and now teach HR. There are over 100 locations in the US.

Hi Greg,
I don't think the book is available through any store because it hasn't been translated. I googled it though and I found it is available in google books:
http://books.google.com/books/about/El_Meu_llibre_de_m%C3%BAsica.html?id=6e4fBPjzgogC

It's in Catalan though !

In the past I have used the two volumes of Kodaly method book called Sound Thinking by Philip Tacka and Micheal Houlahan. It has similar exercises as Ireneu Segarra but the songs are from the North-American popular repertoire. It's very well explained.

Beautifully written ! Can I hire you to write my school marketing ?




Em pensava que parlaves frances i no catala !


This is very funny. I heard all the stereotypes but not this one !

Thank you so much for letting me know. I will definitely look into it !

Landorrano,
I thought you would enjoy this quote:
"Teach music and singing at school in such a way that it is not a torture but a joy for the pupil;instill a thirst for finer music in him, a thirst which will last for a lifetime. Music must not be approached from its intellectual, rational side, nor should it be conveyed to the child as a system of algebraic symbols, or as the secret writing of a language with which he has no connection...Often a single experience will open the young soul to music for a life time. This experience cannot be left to chance, it is the duty of the school to provide it."
Kodaly , Selected Writings.

Just a note for accuracy

I do not believe that this is done across all of Europe. I suspect that it's done in some countries in Europe and that there may also be differences. When it's Kodaly, is that still fixed Do, or is that movable Do? In countries that use movable fixed Do because of language (what the notes happen to be called) do all those countries follow that tradition? Etc.

Hi Keystring,
Kodaly method uses movable do but it still uses solfege sillables. Movable do and fixed do use solfege sillables too.
If I want to teach Kodaly I would have to learn it first.
The difference is that if you sing in fixed do if you are in the key of GMajor( sol Major) sol would be tonic in fixed do. In movable do sol would become do because in movable do always the first scale degree is do. This way it's easier to see the tonal tendencies.
If you are trained in fixed do switching to movable do is a headache at the beginning because you have to transpose mentally onthe spot ( you see a sol but you need to sing do ) I know some people who have done the switch and they say its worth it though .
By the way, I'm just sharing my opinions here but I'm really not an expert or I don't hold any academic position anywhere. It's just something that I've worked on in the past and now it's popping up again . I hope it doesn't seem like I'm imposing my views.
I believe that everybody needs to find their own way . This is what I have learned in America. There are many ways of doing things , not just one.

Yes, so I remembered right. Things were starting to be mixed together, as though Europe as a whole taught the same thing, and I saw movable Do systems being mixed together with fixed Do. As long as people are aware that different things are being talked about, it's fine.

I heard an interesting comment at a panel discussion this weekend. (I just spent three days at a trombone conference watching masterclasses, seminars, and performances).

A university professor talking about auditions for entrance to music programs said he always requires sight reading along with the usual prepared solo. He said sight reading is your true level of performance; that's where your actual level of tone production, rhythmic accuracy, intonation, etc., show.

Of course it's a bit different for a monotonic instrument like low brass, where you play one note at a time and the instrument itself limits what you can do technically. I'm not sure if his comment applies to piano much if at all. But it was a comment that caught my attention.

Amen. It seems he knows what he's talking about.

I think sight-reading says a lot about your performance potential. It also indicates students who have over-prepared on one or two audition pieces, because even if they play very well, they will probably have problems learning new repertoire.

There are students who are super fast at sight reading new music, but they lack the discipline and/or desire to polish one or two pieces for performance. All they can do is sight reading.

I can't fathom a student like that.

That's a problem, but there are also many different levels of sight-reading.

The really top sight-readers come close to playing a lot of music right before polishing, and they play musically.

So it's not a black and white thing.

If someone has enough talent to play fairly well sight-reading and then won't move to the next step, that's just a kind of laziness that is beyond what we do when we teach.

I've only read bits and pieces of this thread, but thought I'd drop in with my own thoughts. I'll be going to France at some point in my life, and will be discussing music at one point or another, so I know the differences and have considered this topic before.

It's quite simple. You teach the method that would be used in that country. So if you're in America/Australia/UK, you use letter names. If you're in France/Spain/elsewhere, use fixed do. That's not to say I wouldn't use solfège at all. I'd probably use moveable do for aural training.

I've learnt a second language, so I'm sure I can translate the different notes into solfège names.

Definitely an interesting comment. And a most interesting person. Kodaly said, it seems, when asked at what age the musical education of a child should be started, "at nine months before birth"!

The only way I see a true need for letters vs do re mi is for people who want to get fast at reading letter chord notation.

I don't you are going to see "do7" instead of C7.

Other than that I have NO preference. The syllables seem much better for singing. (I don't sing, never have...)

I do not understand why more people do not mention the "register" problem and keep harping on singing everything when a great deal of what we play on the piano is not singable.

It's just stupid, but no one ever brings up the problem.

The object is to hear things accurately in your mind, not to drive people insane by humming all the time.

I've heard of people who do exactly that: hum constantly as they play. I even saw one perform live, once. But I can't imagine those who do that are anything other than a small minority, especially among those who play a polyphonic instrument with a range that's obviously beyond any singer's.

As you say, the object is to develop a good inner ear. Learning to read through singing rather than playing is a good way to do that, I think, because singing, more than any other way of making music, forces you to hear every note in your mind. If you can't hear it, you can't sing it. You can lack that inner ear entirely, and you'll probably still be able to play the piano passably. Assuming you know basic fingering, you'll even be able to get by, more or less, on strings or brass, although if you can't hear the difference between 440 Hz and 455 Hz (which is somewhere North of A4, but not quite A#) and correct accordingly, a teacher or roommate who does hear that difference may eventually run away screaming.

The idea behind solfège, I think, is just to get people into the habit of hearing notes internally. The singing is just a way go get there. Eventually, the singing stops, or at least it should. For pianists, it should probably stop after the first ten or so pages of the first method book, because no singer, no matter how skilled, can sing harmonies on their own. That doesn't mean it's a useless or stupid way to go about developing the inner ear.