Have you ever imagined what music would look or feel like without tonic solfa? we can hum, we can sing. But how do we easily hand it over to someone else to sing? Written tonic solfa notes help music groups a lot when it comes to learning new songs, most especially when you are learning music by ear. You would Learn how to transcribe any songs into their tonic solfa in this lesson.
Most people say it is very hard to write out or discover the tonic solfa of songs. It is not that too difficult. All you just need is to get the tonic solfa of beginning the first one or two lines of the song. Once you are able to make the discovery of the solfa of the first one or two lines, then your instincts will guide you in discovering the rest. Sometimes you might be wrong and sometimes you might be right. However, you should have a musical instrument in place right beside you to correct yourself when you go off. You can start off by learning the tonic solfa of popular gospel hymns.
Tonic Solfa
Tonic solfa is a system or combination of syllables used to sing out the musical notes for the purpose of sight singing or communication of musical notes to other musicians. Tonic solfa notes can also be used as a means of memorizing music pieces by singers and musical instrumentalists.
What are the 8 tonic solfa?
The 8 tonic solfa notes are: do re mi fah soh lah ti do. The first and the last are the same. The only difference is that the last has a higher intonation than the first. However, there are other syllables in between these 8 listed solfa notes that are called accidentals that are not a member of the scale or mode indicated by the most recently applied key signature.
What is tonic solfa for?
Tonic solfa is used for singing out musical notes and syllables that are generally accepted all over the world. They are used for the communication of scales and solos between musicians. Choirs and singers also use tonic solfa for memorizing musical pieces before singing the piece with the actual lyrics of the song. Check some samples of tonic solfa of common Nigerian praise and worship songs
How do you find the tonic solfa of a song?
- Start by getting the tonic solfa of some simple songs(solfa notation of 10 common Nigerian praise and worship songs) that you know from people around you. It could be your music teacher, your friends, your choir master.
- When you get the solfa of those songs, take them home and sing them over and over again, there is no limit to the number of times you should sing them.
- You need to sing them out loud, so you can hear yourself very clearly. In other words, I’m saying you should memorize the tonic solfas. If you do this, you are consciously taking steps to train your ears to recognize musical notes individually.
- Join the choir. Many of us want to learn to be musically inclined without having to be in the system of music. You need to immerse yourself in music generally. A church choir is a good place to really understand musical concepts. Most of the popular musicians we know today started from the church. If they didn’t start in the church, you can be sure that they spent some long period of time being the chorister in the church. In the choir, you would be opportune to do a lot of musical exercises which include ear training and voice training. You would sing a lot of solfas too. If you sing the notes wrong, you would be corrected. You just need to be disciplined.
- Buy yourself a musical instrument. Ask someone who knows how to play to some extent to show you how you can play the major scale on that musical instrument. When you can now play the major scale(d r m f s l t d), now begin to play all those solfas you already know on your musical instrument. As you play them, sing along. Do it on a daily basis. No pain No gain.
- Now, you need to start doing some trial and error. Pick a random song. A short one preferably. Sing out the first syllable of the song and look for the corresponding sound amongst the notes of the major scale that you’ve learned when you have gotten it, sing out the next syllable and look for the corresponding sound too. Make sure you are writing them down. Continue like that till you reach the end of the song. You need to be sure that you are on the same key with your musical instrument as you are doing it.
- When you are done, give your results to a musically inclined person to go through them and correct you.
- Try it again the next day, and the next, and the next. You would be getting better every day. Till you finally become a professional.
What are solfa names?
solfa names are do, re, mi, fah, soh, lah, ti, do. There are other accidental notes which are not a member of the scale or mode in the most recent key signature.