Sol fa notation
  • ViolaViola
    Posts: 411
    Help, please!
    We have a new choir member with a good voice and pleasant personality. I would like to keep him.
    BUT he doesn't read music (though willing to learn), only sol fa notation.
    Can anyone recommend a book or other way I could learn to write music in this notation for him (just hymns and simple motets so far) so that I can encourage him to stay with us?
    He knows quite a bit of chant by ear (thankyou, Lord!) so I don't have that problem to face.
    Thanks!
  • Incardination
    Posts: 832
    It would be fairly easy to teach him to mark his own music - the only challenge will be with excessive accidentals (unless he is familiar with the full chromatic sol-fege scale).

    The key signature always gives the DO. So the key signature of 3 flats, the DO is E flat. The key signature of 2 sharps, the DO is D. (The key is unimportant... an A minor and C major key both have the same DO, which is C.) Once the DO is known, all else is fairly easy. DO, DI = RA, RE, RI = ME, MI, FA, FI = SE, SOL, SI = LE, LA, LI = TE, TI, DO (other systems may use other variants). Just a matter of working through it.

    I would think it would be more beneficial for him to write it in rather than you transcribing it - perhaps spot-checking. It would give him ownership of the process. Just a thought.

    Attached are two examples...
    145 SOL-FEGE and Counting Example 1.pdf
    117K
    161 SOL-FEGE and Counting Example 2.pdf
    146K
    Thanked by 2CHGiffen Viola
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,193
    I second Incardinaiton's recommendation that you teach him to mark his own music. Not only will it give him ownership of the process, it could well lead to his becoming able to read standard notation.
    Thanked by 3Viola Incardination M. Jackson Osborn
  • a_f_hawkins
    Posts: 3,471
    I agree. Salvation Army hymn books generally (I think) have sol-fa written along the top of the stave*, not too difficult to pencil in.
    *British usage, I don't speak musical American.
    Thanked by 2Incardination Viola
  • Richard MixRichard Mix
    Posts: 2,801
    Sibelius has a plugin to add tonic solfa notation above the staff; I haven't tested it on accidentals. But as suggested, just tell him that the rightmost part of the key signature is fa if a flat; ti if a sharp.
    Thanked by 2Incardination Viola
  • stulte
    Posts: 355
    Do you mean he reads shape notes?
  • Richard MixRichard Mix
    Posts: 2,801
    Tonic sol-fa uses keyboard characters, while 4-shape notes require a staff.
  • a_f_hawkins
    Posts: 3,471
    The hymns I have seen, from the Salvation Army in England, look like this picture, except that the bottom line, the solfa, is written above the stave rather than below the lyric. The picture comes from a thread about how to do that in MuseScore. Unfortunately there is a plethora of variant styles.
    Thanked by 2Incardination Viola
  • stulte
    Posts: 355
    Interesting. There's something new to learn about all the time, isn't there?
  • ViolaViola
    Posts: 411
    British usage is fine for me, thanks, I'm an English expat living in Scotland. But our choir member is from Ghana; I wonder what variant he might be used to. Sol fa notation seems to be widely used in Africa; we have an African choir who visits quite often and they sing from it.
    I'll sit down with him and together we can attempt to mark up his music. That way we should be able to learn from each other.
    I've since found an old hymnbook with SATB parts all in solfa; trying to get my head round it.
    Thanked by 1Incardination
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,216
    [I deleted a couple of off-topic comments. Hope no one minds too much.]
  • Richard MixRichard Mix
    Posts: 2,801
    The Oakland Public Library has an intriguing edition of JSB's Matthew-passion in Welsh with tonic sol-fa only.
  • ViolaViola
    Posts: 411
    That sounds complicated!
    Thanks for helpful replies. Our choir practice is tonight; I've tried putting a couple of things (bass parts of ST CATHERINE and Palestrina's Jesu Rex admirabilis) into solfa, and I'll run it past him. I can take some other things for him to try himself.
    Btw, I notated the Palestrina as if it were in C; it seemed the only way to cope with dorian mode.
Add a Comment