What is solfège?
Solfège is the training of the musical ear and eye: reading music, hearing it in your head, writing down what you hear, and singing what you see. The name comes from the syllables sol and fa, and singing with syllables (do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti) is still at its core. It is the common foundation for every instrument and for singers.
What you practise in solfège
- Ear training: recognizing intervals, chords and their inversions by ear—the basis of relative pitch.
- Melodic dictation: listening to a melody and writing it on the staff.
- Sight singing: singing a melody you have never seen before, in tune and in time.
- Rhythm: reading rhythms and performing them accurately against a steady beat.
- Music theory: intervals, scales, keys and chords—the knowledge that makes all of the above faster.
Fixed do and movable do
There are two common ways to use the syllables.
- Fixed do: do is always C, re is always D, and so on, whatever the key. It is common in France, Italy, Spain and many conservatories.
- Movable do: do is the tonic of the current key, so in G major, G is do. It shows how each note functions in the key, and is common in the US and the UK (for example in the Kodály method). In minor keys, some teachers use la as the tonic (la-based minor) and others use do.
Neither is wrong: follow the system your teacher or exam uses, and stay consistent.
How to practise
- A little every day beats a long session once a week. Ten minutes of intervals or a single sight-singing exercise keeps the ear sharp.
- Sing, don’t just listen. Singing an interval before you name it makes it stick.
- Write what you hear. Dictation turns listening into reading and writing, the skill you need for exams and rehearsals.
- Check your results. Review the intervals and rhythms you miss most often until they become easy.
Practise every day with Solfe
Music theory questions with explanations on the staff, ear training, melodic dictation, sight singing with pitch grading and a rhythm trainer. Free to start—every question and every level is open.
