# Origin of "Do Re Me..."? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 9, 2014, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-do-re-me/706721 "2014-12-09T03:03:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2014, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-do-re-me/706721/1 "2014-12-09T03:03:31Z")
Did the “Sound of Music” give us the concept that “Do Re Me…” can be used to name musical notes? If not, where did this come from? Did composers like Beethoven go around talking to themselves in “Do Re Me…” as they jotted down their music? ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2014, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-do-re-me/706721/2 "2014-12-09T03:08:54Z")
I don’t know but, in case you didn’t know, my grade school music teacher had hand signs/gestures for each of the notes. ---
**Author:** ![I.Dunno](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9f8e36/32.png) [@I.Dunno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I.Dunno)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2014, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-do-re-me/706721/3 "2014-12-09T03:18:29Z")
I am NOT trying to be a smart ass but just google it. It’s too hard to explain here. I googled ''origin of do re mi" and lots of info comes up. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2014, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-do-re-me/706721/4 "2014-12-09T03:23:15Z")
> [@Jinx](#): > > Did the “Sound of Music” give us the concept that “Do Re Me…” can be used to name musical notes? . . . No, it’s a long-established musical education technique. In the eleventh century, an Italian musical theorist developed a note-naming convention which ran “ut, re, me, fa, so, la”. The names were taken from the first syllable of each line of an eighth-century hymn. (I assume, but I don’t know, that each line of the hymn began one note higher than the preceding line.) At some point “ut” became “do” - easier to have a name that starts with a distinct consonantal sound - and “si” (which later became “ti”) was added to complete the scale. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2014, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-do-re-me/706721/5 "2014-12-09T04:07:57Z")
Do re mi fa sol la ti do originated in Italy in the 1600s or thereabouts, as did a lot of other musical terms and methods. The scale is based on older works and one previous scale of sorts was ut re mi fa so la (based on a Latin hymn). The Italians were the cultural leaders musically at the time, so Europe pretty much universally adopted their way of describing music. Incidentally, the word “piano” also comes from the same basic Italian method of teaching music. Originally the instrument was called a piano-forte, since piano means quiet and forte means loud. This reflected the fact that, unlike the earlier harpsichord, the piano-forte could be played both quietly or loudly, depending on the player’s desires (harpsichords, since they pluck the string, always play at basically the same volume no matter how hard you hit the keys). Over the years we lost the forte part of piano-forte, so now we really just call it a “quiet”, which is a bit odd if you think about it. If you study classical music, you’ll find a lot of other Italian words, like pianissimo (very quiet), fortissimo (very loud), lento (slowly), allegro (fast), and a capella (without accompaniment, in other words voice only). Other cultures have different words and methods, and sometimes even different scales, to describe music. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2014, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-do-re-me/706721/6 "2014-12-09T04:25:30Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > … > If you study classical music, you’ll find a lot of other Italian words…and a capella (without accompaniment, in other words voice only)… I had a high school teacher who gave us a tour of the night sky. He pointed out the star Capella and reminded us that it was “Capella”, with no “a” before it, and that if we stated that a star was “a capella”, there were some guys in white coats who could help. ---
**Author:** ![zombywoof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/9e8a1a/32.png) [@zombywoof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zombywoof)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2014, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-do-re-me/706721/7 "2014-12-09T04:41:56Z")
> **[Solfège](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solf%C3%A8ge)** > > In music, solfège (/ˈsɒlfɛʒ/, French: \[sɔlfɛʒ\]) or solfeggio (/sɒlˈfɛdʒioʊ/; Italian: \[solˈfeddʒo\]), also called sol-fa, solfa, solfeo, among many names, is a music education method used to teach aural skills, pitch and sight-reading of Western music. Solfège is a form of solmization, though the two terms are sometimes used interchangeably. > Syllables are assigned to the notes of the scale and enable the musician to audiate, or mentally hear, the pitches of a piece of music being seen for the f... ---
**Author:** ![Locrian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/locrian/32/14146_2.png) [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2014, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-do-re-me/706721/8 "2014-12-09T05:03:57Z")
We had to sing solfeggio at Berklee College of Music in Harmony classes. Wasn’t easy to solfeggio the Half steps, or minor seconds. We had to solfege Straight, No Chaser, which was: sol do re ri mi, sol do re ri mi fa me, sol do re ri mi, sol do re ri mi, sol do re me… Have fun with that. I didn’t. 🙂 \*(me, is pronounced “May”, just like re is “Ray”) ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2014, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-do-re-me/706721/9 "2014-12-09T13:52:37Z")
> [@Locrian](#): > > We had to sing solfeggio at Berklee College of Music in Harmony classes. Wasn’t easy to solfeggio the Half steps, or minor seconds. > > We had to solfege Straight, No Chaser, which was: sol do re ri mi, sol do re ri mi fa me, sol do re ri mi, sol do re ri mi, sol do re me… Have fun with that. I didn’t. 🙂 > > \*(me, is pronounced “May”, just like re is “Ray”) We sang the entire song in solfege, including hand gestures and descending scales. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2014, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-do-re-me/706721/10 "2014-12-09T15:36:28Z")
Since this is about music, let’s move it to Cafe Society. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2014, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-do-re-me/706721/11 "2014-12-09T15:45:25Z")
> [@I.Dunno](#): > > I am NOT trying to be a smart ass but just google it. It’s too hard to explain here. > > I googled ''origin of do re mi" and lots of info comes up. Too hard to explain here? Trying _ **not** _ to be a smart ass? Where am I? Bizzaro Dope? ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2014, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-do-re-me/706721/12 "2014-12-09T23:08:21Z")
> [@Jinx](#): > > Did the “Sound of Music” give us the concept that “Do Re Me…” can be used to name musical notes? If not, where did this come from? Did composers like Beethoven go around talking to themselves in “Do Re Me…” as they jotted down their music? [You asked the same question (including the reference to The Sound of Music) in 2010](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=548735) and the answer is still the same. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2014, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-do-re-me/706721/13 "2014-12-09T23:16:03Z")
The way my guitar teacher taught it, the \*notes \*are “do, re, mi”, while the \*chords \*are “C, D, E”. I think that’s pretty standard in many places outside the United States. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2014, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-do-re-me/706721/14 "2014-12-09T23:21:30Z")
> [@I.Dunno](#): > > I am NOT trying to be a smart ass but just google it. It’s too hard to explain here. > > I googled ''origin of do re mi" and lots of info comes up. The OP is, for some reason, unable to use Google. This has been going on for well over a decade. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2014, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-do-re-me/706721/15 "2014-12-09T23:23:00Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > The OP is, for some reason, unable to use Google. This has been going on for well over a decade. [Cite](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=479633) (well, for six years). ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2014, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-do-re-me/706721/16 "2014-12-09T23:52:21Z")
From “The $ound of Money” in\*\*\* MAD Magazine\*\*\*: \*Dough ``` means cash for all of us, ``` 'Ray! ``` for musicals like this! ``` Me, ``` a star so big that by ``` Far ``` it simply couldn't miss! ``` So ``` insipid is the plot, ``` La-de-da, ``` although we know ``` Tee-dious ``` it is a lot, ``` It will bring us back much DOUGH-DOUGH-DOUGH-DOUGH-DOUGH!\* ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2014, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-do-re-me/706721/17 "2014-12-09T23:59:54Z")
And from the Simpsons, [D’oh! A deer. A female deer.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&persist_app=1&v=zPrI8db74kA) ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-do-re-me/706721/18 "2014-12-10T00:05:29Z")
Ut queant laxis Resonare fibris . . . . . . Salve johanes That’s all I remember. We had to sing this in music theory lecture back in undergrad! ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-do-re-me/706721/19 "2014-12-10T00:06:31Z")
Here’s the song: [Ut queant laxis - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ut_queant_laxis) (and yes each line begins on the next note up. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-do-re-me/706721/20 "2014-12-10T01:48:40Z")
Even if the OP could have googled for the facts, the personal experiences with music study described here certainly do add value. You don’t get that from reading the Wiki article. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-do-re-me/706721.md?page=2)