What is Solfege?
As a 19-year-old, I was already on my way to completing my Grade 10 Piano exam when circumstances abruptly forced me to change piano teachers. (Which happened to be the best thing that ever happened to me as far as my musical education went, but that's not my point.) No more than three lessons in, my new teacher handed me a sheet with a list of assignments. The first ten started with the word, "Sing..."
Inwardly, I cringed. Singing?! I loved to sing -- when no one else was listening. I just never sang in public scenarios. Not any one of my other teachers had asked me individually to sing in class, and believe me, I had never volunteered it either.
Now here I was, with one of the best-respected teachers in Edmonton, whom I barely knew. And he was saying, "Go ahead. Do number 1."
Why? Why was he forcing me to sing when I had come to him for piano lessons?
If you're one of my students' parents, you are probably either laughing or shaking your head right now. You all know that I just handed out that same sheet two weeks ago.
And if you're all asking the same question I did, I'll gladly share with you why!
It was the best ear training I ever received.
That's what solfege is. It's training our musical ears through singing. From my teacher, I have learned that the best tool to have for learning music is a good ear.
So that's what we've been up to in the piano studio recently -- singing. And playing ear training games, where possible. And studying intervals. It's amazing what solfege can reveal about gaps in theory training. That's the other great thing about it. Speaking of ear training and intervals, I even found a way to turn a strictly-on-the-paper exercise into an ear training exercise:
Can you read where I crossed out the word "saying," and wrote in, "sing"? :)
Also, we picked out Christmas pieces!
Yes, I actually do have a reason for assigning Christmas music in October. It's not just because I'm crazy over Christmas, although that is true. It's so that everyone has enough time to learn their pieces -- even those who are playing pieces that are challenging for them -- by the time we do the recital.
Inwardly, I cringed. Singing?! I loved to sing -- when no one else was listening. I just never sang in public scenarios. Not any one of my other teachers had asked me individually to sing in class, and believe me, I had never volunteered it either.
Now here I was, with one of the best-respected teachers in Edmonton, whom I barely knew. And he was saying, "Go ahead. Do number 1."
Why? Why was he forcing me to sing when I had come to him for piano lessons?
If you're one of my students' parents, you are probably either laughing or shaking your head right now. You all know that I just handed out that same sheet two weeks ago.
And if you're all asking the same question I did, I'll gladly share with you why!
It was the best ear training I ever received.
That's what solfege is. It's training our musical ears through singing. From my teacher, I have learned that the best tool to have for learning music is a good ear.
So that's what we've been up to in the piano studio recently -- singing. And playing ear training games, where possible. And studying intervals. It's amazing what solfege can reveal about gaps in theory training. That's the other great thing about it. Speaking of ear training and intervals, I even found a way to turn a strictly-on-the-paper exercise into an ear training exercise:
Also, we picked out Christmas pieces!
The last bit of studio news is that the first prize for this school year was claimed from the Prize Box last week! Congratulations! Most of my students have enough points stacked up that I see more prizes being claimed in the near future. So keep up the good work, everyone!
Comments
Post a Comment