Thread: [kln2-devel] solfege recap

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Hello Klearnnotes team :)

Sorry for the delayed response but I wanted to make some comments on
this e-mail.

Personally, in my opinion, learning the names of notes is the start of
musical anaylsis and theory. From there, the student can move on to
scales, minor and major keys, key signatures, chords and their
inversions, and so on.

It has become apparent to me, however, there are differences in some
locations in the world on how this is dones. In some places, letter
names are dominant while in others, solfege is the norm. 
Solfege however, does come with its set of problems mostly due to the
fact that (1) there are two different variations of it and (2) there are
some issues in determining how to label a raised or lowered note in the
Fixed Do method.

However, looking ahead:

Say in the future we decide to add some non-traditional scales into our
program For example... 

whole tone scale:
C D E F# G# A#

Diminished Scale
C D Eb F F# G# A B

Blues Scale
C Eb F (F#) G Bb

Can either Solfege methods work in these cases without confusing the
user? For example, in Fixed Do, do we sing Fa for F and F# but label the
notes as Fa and Fa#? 

I'm not even sure if Movable Do would even work in these odd scales.
Mainly due to the reason in that there is no tonal center in some of
these scales and Movable is based on assigning Do to the root/tonic
note.

> Just to restate the problem:
> 1. we need Solfeggio, because apparently this main method of naming notes
>   in some parts of the world (not because it is easier to be sung)

Okay, I didn't realize this. This is new to me :)

> 2. movable Do doesn't solve (1.) because it is not used there (and would
>   teach people things their folks would not understand)

Yes, I do realize not everybody uses Movable Do. Just as I find Fixed Do
confusing at times, I can see how the reverse can be true.

> 3. fixed Do is ambiguous (see bellow).

The great advantage that Fixed Do has over Moveable Do is that one does
not need to know what key the music is in. 

Somebody posted this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solfege
And I will quote from it: 

"the disadvantage [of Movable Do] is that the singer must do a harmonic
analysis of the piece in order to sing the correct syllables. In fixed
Do, the pitches are set: the tonic, Do, is C, Re is D, and so on; Fa is
easy to remember, since it is F."

> 2. Similar problem: we have to test if an user remembers the key signature
> in the following part of the score. OK, we have G Major key signature. Now
> there is a F note in the score. "Dear user, what is the name of this
> note?". Well, if we don't distinguish Fa and Fa# we cannot test if the
> user remembers that key signature applies to this note.

I see the problem. If we ask the user to write a G Major scale, should
we expect a "Fa#" or "Fa"? If we are testing for correct musical
anaylsis, I would think Fa# would be correct. But if the user is singing
the note, then Fa would be correct.

> > If so, why are we even bothering using solfege at all?
> 
> Because the guys repored, that in their environment naming notes by single
> letters is virtually not used. They use Do/Re/Mi for everything: naming
> notes, scales, pieces of music.

Ok, I didn't know about this either :)
The guys are going to have the best input on this on how this system
works for them in their environments. 

Marek has come up with some good ideas on how to resolve issues
pertaining to some of the issues of Fixed Do. I feel fine with his
resolutions. We should take into consideration however, with some issues
that could come up such as unusual scales, decorated chords, etc.

-Mo

Thread: [kln2-devel] solfege recap

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