solmisation

Solmisation is a system for teaching music reading and singing, often referred to as "singing the notes." It assigns a unique syllable to each degree of a musical scale. The most common solmisation system uses the syllables Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti. These syllables represent the first seven notes of a major scale. The system is attributed to Guido of Arezzo, an Italian music theorist of the eleventh century, who used the first syllables of the Latin hymn "Ut queant laxis" to name the notes.

The primary benefit of solmisation is that it helps singers and musicians understand the relationships between notes in a scale, regardless of the specific key. This is known as movable-do, where "Do" always represents the tonic (the first note) of the scale, making it easier to transpose melodies. Fixed-do is another variation where "Do" always refers to the note C, regardless of the key. Solmisation aids in ear training, sight-singing, and developing aural skills by making melodic intervals and harmonic progressions more intuitive. It is widely used in music education worldwide, particularly in Kodaly-inspired teaching methods.