solfege

Solfege, also called solmization or solfège, is a music education method used to teach pitch and sight-singing. It assigns syllables to the notes of a scale, enabling singers to recognize and reproduce melodies by internalizing relative pitch. The standard syllables for the major scale are do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, and ti (ti is sometimes called si in some traditions). Historically, ut was used for the first degree, but it was gradually replaced by do.

There are two main approaches to naming pitches: movable-do and fixed-do. In movable-do, do represents the tonal center of the current key, so the syllables correspond to scale degrees rather than absolute pitches. In fixed-do, do always designates the note C, and the syllables map to fixed pitch names. Movable-do is common in many English-speaking countries and some European systems, while fixed-do is widespread in parts of Europe and Latin-speaking regions and is closely aligned with traditional note-naming in those cultures.

Chromatic variation is often taught by modifying the syllables to indicate alterations, such as di, ri, fi, si, li for ascending chromatic notes and te, le, se, me, ra for descending ones in movable-do systems. Different pedagogical methods may adopt additional or alternative chromatic schemes, but the basic idea is to preserve relative pitch relationships through syllabic cues.

History and usage: Solfege traces to Guido of Arezzo in the medieval period, originally using ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la within hexachords. The system evolved in the 17th–19th centuries, with do replacing ut and ti replacing si in some traditions. In the 20th century, methods such as Kodály and related hand-sign systems integrated solfege with singing, ear training, and literacy skills. Today, solfege remains a core tool in hearing, singing, and music literacy education worldwide.