
Let's take the major pentascale from the previous course and develop it into a full major scale. Adding La, Ti, and a high Do, we now have a full scale! This means that as we develop our ears later on in the course, I can add these new solfege syllables to expand on your ear training.
Just as our scale has added La, Ti and High Do, we can now cover intervals of a major sixth (Do-La), a major seventh (Do-Ti), and a perfect eights (Do-High Do). Let's talk about these intervals, how they sound, and how you can identify them when being tested on them in the following class.
Now it's your turn to identify intervals, including all of the intervals found in a major scale (providing Do is your bottom note). That leaves us with P1, M2, M3, P4, P5, M6, M7, P8
Let's now introduce the tense diminished and dominant 7th chords. While diminished is spooky and tense, and leans towards a minor sound, the dominant 7th is a bit more major but generally wants to resolve to a major or minor chord.
I can now quiz your ear on major, minor, diminished, and dominant 7th chords. Let's see how well you can pick out the sound of each. Remember, if this is tough, take the class as many times as you need to develop your confidence in hearing these chords.
I play a chord, give you Do, and you sing Do, Mi, or So. Some of these examples will have an assisted Do, and as we move forward you'll have to hear Do on your own!
Similar to the last course you'll be expected to hear the relationship between a major chord and it's root (Do), third (Mi), and fifth (Do). You won't always have the chance to sing solfege to figure out what you're hearing in music, so the "identify note with chord" series is meant to get you thinking about pitch with more accuracy without necessarily needing to sing it out loud. Of course, if you want to sing, feel free!
Also, feel free to pause as needed!
I play a short melodic phrase, you sing it back! This is meant to get you comfortable with the sound of the major scale in a "call and response" sort of setting. No stress, just have fun and try to tune your solfege as you go!
Let's take our major scale and mix it up a bit. I'll play some examples on the piano, you pause the video and do your best to figure out what I played, and then I'll tell you the answer.
Some of these will be tough, but the more you do it the more you'll improve!
Now, I'll tell you some solfege related to the major scale, and you'll have to do your best to sing it.
For example...I give you Do, then tell you to sing "Do, Re, Mi, La, So"
Reverse ear tests can be tough so take your time, pause as needed, and know that repetition will be your friend in building confidence in these tests.
C will always be your Do, so you'll be given it at the start before the examples proceed.
If you made it this far, great job!
Let's discuss what we've learned up to this point, and what's to come in the following courses.
Have you ever wondered how to think of melodies in a way where you can make sense of the notes?
Are you sick of melodic information being vague and unfamiliar?
Are you looking to expand your musicianship and learn the vocabulary of solfege to help you gain context for your melodic decisions?
You've come to the right place!
We're going to expand from our previous course on pentascales, and now cover Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti-Do. In other words, the full major scale. Building these courses in small chunks allows students to saturate in each scale's environment, learning it's colors and characteristics, and then expanding their knowledge with each additional course.
This beginner course offers all of the information you'll need before progressing into the full minor scales. We are going to continue to add new intervals, major 6th and major 7th, as well as explore diminished and dominant 7th chords. The number of ear tests in this course is HUGE, so get ready to be tested on numerous ways of hearing major solfege, and it's relation to chords.
Designed to teach absolute beginners, or help fill in some knowledge of intermediate level students, this course is worth going through even if you think you know the basics well. You never know which rock you'll overturn to find out something new within this vast topic of solfege!
Solfege helped me personally as a musician, as it gave me a language to make sense of how I was coloring my jazz chords as a pianist, and gave me an understandable vocabulary as a soloist so that my improvisations had intent and confidence behind them. Solfege is now always available to me to better understand and demystify the music I listen to, as well as inform my decisions as a composer and performer.
You don't have to be a pro singer to take these courses, BUT being able to sing on pitch is a solid benefit. You can think of understanding pitch sort of like understanding a language. If you only ever read it or think it, you can still understand it, but as you get speaking it your understanding of the language becomes more developed and confident. So, even if you don't sing well, at least try your best during the ear test portions.
This course is NOT a course on sight singing. While the material covered will certainly help you improve your ability to sight sing, providing you have separate instruction as to how to develop that specific skill, these classes will not cover any form of music notation at this stage. From taking these courses you will eventually be able to understand note selection in melodies of songs you hear, and have more confidence when writing your own melodies. However, singing music off of a staff will not be developed until later courses.
So, if you're ready to demystify melodies, improve your musicianship, and improve your understanding of scales and solfege, then this course is for you.