You do, however, get it from the previous time that he asked the same exact question here before.
I’m not sure what the chord part means (I think you mean “notes” there), but I think you’re explaining the difference between “moveable do” and “fixed do.” In “moveable do” solfege, the “do” corresponds to the first note of a key. So, in C, it’s C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C, but, say, in G, it’s G, A, B, C, D, E, F#, G. Moveable do is used in Germanic countries, Commonwealth countries, and the US (according to Wikipedia.)
Chord means chord - a C chord, say, is never referred to as a “do chord”.
But c also refers to a note so the distinction isn’t clear cut.
I know that. I’m just not sure how it relates to solfege. What I think is meant is that in “fixed do,” “do” refers specifically and only to the note C, whereas in “moveable do,” it refers to the first note of the scale.
Look, I was never a very advanced theoretical musician, and I don’t know much about movable scales and stuff like that. I know that the notes were called do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-si, and that chords are comprised of three or more notes.For instance, if you play do, me and sol, you get a C Major chord.
That’s correct (in “fixed do.”) In the solfege I was taught, it’s whatever chord the “do” happens to be. In other words, the system I was taught it was relative. The “do” could be in any key, it’s the intervals that mattered. So, if you’re in the key of A, “do,” “mi,” and “sol” are the first, third, and fifth note of the major scale (A, C#, and E), which make an A chord.
Huh. I never knew that was an option.
Yeah, you’ll sometimes hear singers practicing solfege starting with “C”, and doing their do-re-mis up and down, then up a half step in C#/Db, doing their do-re-mis, then D with the do-re-mis, etc., up the scale. The key itself doesn’t matter that much–it’s the intervals. Of course, this is with the “moveable do” system. You can see an example of it here, starting at about 4 minutes into the video.
It was a rude awakening for me when I took solfege in college. I grew up with stationary do and the class was moveable do. I couldn’t do it, the prof. let me stick with my system.
I never knew fixed do existed. Is hard for me to imagine how moveable do could be a problem unless you have perfect pitch or something… But then I’ve never been in that situation so I know nothing.
Yeah, I’ve only fairly recently (within the last few years) found out that “fixed do” exists. As I’ve always known it, it was a relative thing, with the “do” representing the tonic. It seems like, according to Wikipedia, it varies by culture. To me, “fixed do” is kind of odd/difficult, as it would require perfect pitch (or some type of pitch memory) or at least a reference pitch. But I suppose if I grew up in a “fixed do” system, then “moveable do” would seem foreign to me.
Were you a class of deaf children?
For those of us using musical instruments, that’s not much of an issue.
That’s not an accident. Italian is the international language of music, or at least used to be.
So where does the A-B-C-… names for notes come from?
There’s an explanation here on Wikipedia. I mean, basically, it starts with the letters, of course. Now why “C” instead of “A” being the base note, I’m not entirely sure. My guess is that the Aeolian mode (which is what A-B-C-D-E-F-G comprises) was more common when the system developed, and then our common major scale (C-D-E-F-G-A-B) developed from that. But I don’t know. It’s an interesting question, and I’d be curious to what others have to say.
(That article also goes into “moveable do” solfege, which does appear to be a more modern development, as in 19th & 20th century. There it says it’s primarily an American concept, but elsewhere I read that it’s Germanic and Commonwealth, as well. And the guy who was mostly credited with fully developing it, Zoltan Kodaly, was Hungarian.)
Just chiming to add how shocked I was when I moved to Mexico that they use the “fixed do” names for notes and chords (and keys, like “this song is in re menor”). For some reason it really threw me. I just couldn’t imagine, say, a “C” piano key being anything but a “C.” I mean, I wouldn’t expect it in some indigenous culture, or ancient India or whatever, but Spanish/Latin America isn’t far from the US in culture, distance, or language – most words and phrases “map” pretty cleanly between the two languages – so this really surprised me.
To be fair, 4 years is a long time. It could have changed since then.
Two things:
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Jinx, please do not start threads asking easily Googled questions, unless you have something to add to the discussion. You have been told this before, I believe.
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Sometimes, the same topics can be discussed over and over again. New people, new opinions, old people, fresh takes on an idea. Or even people who missed the topic the first time around. So, it’s not all that alarming that we’d be talking about it again.
Well, three things.
- When you know the notes to sing, you can sing most anything.