In Chris Liepe’s Discover Your Voice one of the exercises was to sing the major triads up and back in Solfege, Do Mi So Mi Do and a good way to hear the major third intervals. That was after sing Solfege forwards and backwards and starting at random note, which I now recognise as modes. Took a while to go straight back down but got there in the end.
You can also work on the minor thirds by singing the minor chord intervals in solfege. For example re fa la fa re which would be Dm for Julie Andrews fans.
That’s a really useful video, Michael
It’s encouraging that I stumbled on most of those types of exercises just by messing around on walks, although I’ll have to practice starting off from somewhere that’s not Doh!
I’m surprised that the triads exercise feels natural enough to sing along with, as it’s all in the same key, even though the triads themselves are not all major (which is what I would be familiar with).
The brain is a wonderous thing
Brian @brianlarsen
Yes it is an interesting channel on YouTube. There are quite a few other lessons, from basic singing up and down the scale to singing intervals and beyond.
Worth a look at for anybody interested in that sort of thing.
Michael
I took my very first singing lesson recently, and my vocal teacher hails from Russia. She had me sing solfège to work out what my range was and was surprised when I sang do re mi over C, D and G major. She said I was singing the wrong notes - I was referring to D and G as C when they were clearly not. Much hilarity ensued after I explained that I had picked this up from my guitar teacher (aka YouTube videos) and she said she had never heard of it and asked me to explain at our upcoming class.
That led me to this thread!
So my question is - have I understood the “point” of movable versus fixed Do correctly?
Movable is about intervals and interval training “Sol do La fa mi do re” sounds like the same relative intervals no matter what starting pitch you “peg” Sol to.
Fixed is like another set of labels or names for the notes, so you can sight read sheet music for vocals or a “sheet music not tabs” melody for guitar, recognize the exact notes and sing their absolute pitches and hence get the same melodic intervals.
Hi Ashu, the concept of the moveable Do is exactly the same of using a Capo on the guitar…it changes the key but, say you play a song in the key of C, you will still play the chords in that key, use on the fretboard the same C Major scale notes and you can keep on calling those Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Si Do (or C D E F G A B), but the sound will correspond to a different key relatively where you have placed the capo…in reality you’re using a different major scale but you can still call it the C Major Scale because of the capo and the chords in the key of C you’re playing. @Richard_close2u Richard can you please check that this is correct? I wouldn’t like to give Ashu innacurate information.
Sol Do La Ti Do Re Do! When you know the notes to sing , you can sing most anything!
I’m surprised a singing teacher using solfege would not be aware of the difference between fixed and movable systems.
There’s a decent Wikipedia article on it (Scroll down to Modern Use)
Essentially Germanic/English-speaking countries use the moveable system and Romance/Slavic countries use the fixed one.
The moveable one seems to be far more practical for singing purposes, unless you had perfect pitch.
Hi David, no worries at all. I thought replying to your message was the best way to reply in the relevant spot in the thread… but perhaps a new message at the end with specific quotes like I am using here is the way to go next time!
That makes complete sense, thank you!
Haha yes - I took Ms. Andrews’s advice to heart. I have tried ‘singing’ out normal sentences to these two phrases in the song, just as a way to get used to using words. ‘Will you call me when you leave’, ‘We can leave right a-way!’ To much amusement at home, when done sparingly!
That seems to be the answer… she studied at a conservatory and has turned her ‘aria’ background into a teaching vocation - mostly local kids studying for the choir, or musicals and the occasional ‘vintage club’ enthusiastic amateur like me!
