HearmonySolfege Explained: Do Re Mi, Hand Signs and Movable Do
Solfege (also spelled solfège) is a system that gives each note of the scale a singable syllable: do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti, and do again at the octave. Singers and ear-training students use it to hear and sing notes by their role in the key. In movable do, do is always the home note of the key; in fixed do, do always means C.
What does solfege mean?
Solfege means singing or reading music on syllables instead of words or letter names. The word comes from the French solfège (Italian solfeggio), built from two of the syllables themselves, sol and fa.
The idea goes back to the 11th-century monk Guido of Arezzo, who used a Latin hymn to St. John, "Ut queant laxis", to teach singers. Each line of the hymn starts one note higher than the last, on the syllables ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la. Later, ut became do because it is easier to sing, and si was added for the seventh note. In 19th-century England, Sarah Glover changed si to ti so that every syllable starts with a different letter, and John Curwen's Tonic Sol-fa method spread the change. For more history, see the reference entry on solfège.
The solfege scale: syllables and scale degrees
The solfege scale is the major scale sung on seven syllables, one per scale degree. In C major the syllables line up with C D E F G A B.
| Degree | Syllable | Say it | In C major | In G major (movable do) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | do | doh | C | G |
| 2 | re | ray | D | A |
| 3 | mi | mee | E | B |
| 4 | fa | fah | F | C |
| 5 | sol | sohl (often "so") | G | D |
| 6 | la | lah | A | E |
| 7 | ti | tee | B | F♯ |
The half steps of the major scale always fall between mi–fa and ti–do. Knowing that makes it easy to sing the scale in tune: those two steps are the tight ones.
Movable do vs fixed do
Movable do and fixed do use the same syllables for different jobs. In movable do, the syllables name scale degrees; in fixed do, they name pitches.
| Movable do | Fixed do | |
|---|---|---|
| What "do" means | The tonic of the current key | Always the note C |
| G major scale | do re mi fa sol la ti | sol la si do re mi fa♯ |
| Seventh syllable | ti | usually si |
| Where it's common | Kodály-based teaching, many English-speaking classrooms | France, Italy, Spain, Latin America and much of Europe, where do re mi are the note names |
| Best for | Hearing how notes function in a key, sight-singing in any key | Naming exact pitches, reading in many clefs and keys |
For ear training, movable do is the more useful system, because sol always feels like sol, whatever the key. That is the same idea as scale degrees, with syllables instead of numbers.
Solfege in minor: la-based and do-based
Movable-do users sing minor keys in one of two ways, and teachers are split between them. Both work; pick the one your choir, class or method uses.
- La-based minor: the minor scale starts on la, so A minor is la ti do re mi fa sol la. Relative major and minor share syllables, and the raised seventh in harmonic minor (G♯ in A minor) becomes si.
- Do-based minor: the tonic is always do, and the lowered degrees get new syllables. C minor is do re me fa sol le te do (C D E♭ F G A♭ B♭). The tonic always feels like do, and major and minor on the same note compare directly.
Chromatic solfege: di, ra, me, fi, se, le, te
Chromatic solfege adds syllables for notes outside the scale. Raised notes change the vowel to "i" (pronounced "ee"); lowered notes change it to "e" (pronounced "ay"), except re, which becomes ra.
| Raised | Say it | In C | Lowered | Say it | In C |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| di | dee | C♯ | ra | rah | D♭ |
| ri | ree | D♯ | me | may | E♭ |
| fi | fee | F♯ | se | say | G♭ |
| si | see | G♯ | le | lay | A♭ |
| li | lee | A♯ | te | tay | B♭ |
Mi and ti have no raised form in the scale, because a half step above them is already fa and do. The full chromatic scale is do di re ri mi fa fi sol si la li ti do going up, and do ti te la le sol se fa mi me re ra do coming down, the same sharps-up, flats-down rule as the chromatic scale.
Solfege hand signs
The solfege hand signs are seven hand shapes, one per syllable, developed by John Curwen in the 19th century and later made central to the Kodály method. The singer holds each sign in front of the body, higher for higher notes, so the hand shows both the syllable and the pitch level.
- Do: a closed fist, held at waist height.
- Re: a flat hand, palm down, slanting upward.
- Mi: a flat hand, palm down, level with the floor.
- Fa: a fist with the thumb pointing down, like the note falling to mi.
- Sol: a flat hand held sideways, palm facing your chest.
- La: a relaxed hand, palm down, fingers curving and hanging toward the floor.
- Ti: a fist with the index finger pointing up and slightly out, toward high do.
- High do: the same fist as do, held higher, around head height.
The shapes are chosen to show tendency: fa points down because it leans to mi, and ti points up because it pulls to do. Teachers also use them silently, signing a melody for a class to sing back.
Why solfege helps you hear music
Solfege helps because each syllable becomes tied to one feeling in the key, so you learn to recognize notes by function instead of by letter. Hear sol–do, and you know it is the dominant falling to the tonic, in any key.
Try this 5-minute routine, singing along with a piano or keyboard:
- Play a C major chord, then sing do, mi, sol, do and back down.
- Sing the whole scale up and down on syllables, slowly, landing firmly on mi–fa and ti–do.
- Sing familiar openings on syllables: "Twinkle, Twinkle" is do do sol sol la la sol; "Mary Had a Little Lamb" is mi re do re mi mi mi.
- Change key: play a G major chord and repeat. Do is now G, but the syllables feel the same.
- Self-test: play a random scale note after the chord, sing the syllable you think it is, then check on the keyboard.
Use the hand signs while you sing, even alone. The movement makes you commit to one syllable before the note sounds, which is the habit that sight-singing depends on.
Practice solfege in Hearmony
Hearmony uses solfege in two places. In Home Key Harbor, four chords set a key, one note plays, and you name it as a scale degree with its movable-do syllable (1 · Do, 2 · Re, 3 · Mi and so on), starting with do, mi and sol and adding re, fa, la and ti one at a time. Separately, Settings lets you show note names as letters (C D E) or as solfege (Do Re Mi); that option uses fixed-do names, so C is always Do. Hearmony has no microphone features, so it trains the hearing side and leaves the singing to you. It is part of the path in the beginner ear training plan; Hearmony is an iPhone app, available on the App Store.