By Corinne Bach

🎶 Do-Re-Mi Decoded: Why Every Singer Should Revisit Solfège

Hey Songbirds 🎶🎙️🐦
Your Wednesday WOW is “Solfège” (or “Solfeggio”)

“Let’s start at the very beginning
A very good place to start
When you read you begin with A-B-C
When you sing you begin with do-re-mi
Do-re-mi, do-re-mi
The first three notes just happen to be
Do-re-mi, do-re-mi”

There’s so much to talk about on this subject—beyond just what we learned in grade school, college aural theory classes, or honing our sight-reading skills in choir.

Ooh … and speaking of honing those sight-reading skills! One of my beloved college chamber choir directors, Dr. John W. Richmond, would make us sing every new piece in Solfège, regularly—no matter how hard we thought it was. It was a tough exercise, but it definitely made us better musicians. We lovingly nicknamed him “MDoS” because he was indeed the Mac Daddy of Solfège! (I’m convinced to this day that he can read any given Schoenberg piece in any clef for any instrument in Solfège… seriously 💯)

But here we are, in this new era. What have we done with Solfège?

Do-re-mi.
It used to be just as easy as ABC & 1-2-3. (Homage to the Jackson 5!)
It was just as important, too.

Not to get too philosophical (I could write an entire dissertation on this), but let’s explore a couple of questions about it.

🤔 First, what the heck is Solfège?

Solfège is a tool used in conservatories and schools worldwide to teach music students how to sing and hear effectively. Also called “solfeggio” or “solfa,” it’s a system where every note of a diatonic scale* is given its own unique syllable, which is used to sing that note every time it appears. Think of the song “Do-Re-Mi” in The Sound of Music and all the fun patterns Maria teaches the kids to sing.

*There are two main diatonic scales: the major scale is the “happy” sounding scale, and the minor scale is the “sad” sounding scale.

🎯 1. Why do we use Solfège?

Solfège is used to identify the relationships between different notes in music. It helps learners recognize patterns quickly and sing on sight—like reading a book. A common pattern you hear is Sol–Do. Most new music students trained in Solfège can hear that interval and know what it is and how to sing or play it.

🧭 2. Where did Solfège originate?

Assigning a specific syllable to a corresponding note is the foundation of a pedagogical system called solmization. This exists in musical cultures around the world, but the form most associated with Western European music is known as Solfège (or solfeggio, if you’re feeling especially Italian). The name is self-referential—sol and fa are two of the syllables in the pattern:
do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti.

Side note: A basic raga scale in Indian classical singing is called Sargam, which is the equivalent to Solfège:
Sa, Ri/Re, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha, and Ni.
Songbirds, I took raga lessons well after I had been singing professionally, and I must admit—it was the most difficult singing I have EVER done. I cannot claim to understand it at all. I’ll leave that to the experts who’ve been doing it since childhood!

🎼 Guido, the Notation Monk

Guido d’Arezzo (ca. 991–after 1033), the monk to whom we attribute the beginnings of staff notation as we know it today, also gets credit for Solfège. His choice of syllables came from a chant to St. John the Baptist called “Ut queant laxis”. Each line began with a different pitch and corresponding syllable:

Ut queant laxis
resonare fibris
Mira gestorum
famuli tuorum,
Solve polluti
labii reatum,
Sancte Iohannes.

When Guido codified those syllables (without that final si/ti), it created a six-note series called a hexachord, defined by the intervals between the notes (whole step – whole step – half step – whole step – whole step).

Ut was later changed to Do because it was easier to sing. Many believe “Do” was chosen because it’s the first note of the scale—like Domine (God).

Pretty awesome, huh?!

💬 What are your thoughts on Solfège?

Do you love it? Hate it?

Is it useless in this day and age, or is it the missing component to a well-rounded musical education?

🎧 Watch my Solfège video on YouTube:
👉 https://youtu.be/SPZYx1w-RrM

🛒 Grab a Singing Straw (get a discount with the code LegacyVoice)
👉 https://singingstraw.com/

🎓 Want to train your ear and sight-singing with me directly?
👉 [Join the Singing Circle – placeholder link here]

🎯 The Big Takeaway (TL;DR)

Solfège isn’t just a relic from your childhood choir folder—it’s a vital skill that helps singers develop pitch accuracy, pattern recognition, and musical independence. Whether you’re prepping for college auditions, musical theatre, or just want to sharpen your ear, Movable Do is still the mac daddy of musicianship; shout out to my college Chamber Singers Artistic Director: Dr. John Richmond, the real MDOS – “Mac Daddy of Solfège” (he has the plaque to prove it!).