Hello families and fellow music teachers! I am working on a fun way to teach all ages solfège. If you have been following me on my socials, YouTube, IG and TikTok, you may have seen my short videos, teaching the basics of the solfège syllables and proper pitch placement/order.
It turns out many people have been really enjoying these short videos. I decided to share more about what led me to create them. I was ultimately inspired in the beginning to simply create them for my private voice students. Most of my videos start that way. I’ll help one of my private students learn a new vocal technique or exercise, then create a video for them to practice along with. I realize during that process, that others would benefit from these quick filmed lessons as well.
What is solfège? Solfège is a system that uses special syllables to help singers and musicians hear, sing, and understand musical notes. Each syllable represents a different step within the musical scale. The syllables are:
Do-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol-La-Ti-Do
Many have only heard the solfège syllables sung by Maria in The Sound of Music, and then their understanding of how solfège works is limited after that lol.
Most of my music students over the years had never heard of it or learned it, unless they had strong musical backgrounds, or were blessed to study music in schools with a strong, well developed music program.
I spent many years teaching in schools that were underfunded, and were developing a music and arts program for the first time. I was learning and building at the same time. The amount of research I did in my first decade as a music teacher to properly train and develop young voices required a solid foundation and implementation of the solfège system. As I was learning it myself, I started teaching it to ALL of my students, as young as PreK!
What I discovered in those early years was that Solfege truly worked! My students, grades PreK-12 were able to sight sing, find their pitch without me playing the notes, and even begin singing harmony as a result of me teaching them this system!
A Solfège Resource I Still Love
When I first began teaching solfège to younger learners, Mr. Rob saved me countless hours of creating all the visuals and videos I needed to make the concept understandable and fun!
Rob Young—better known to young musicians as Mr. Rob—developed the Prodigies Music curriculum while teaching preschool and elementary music. Today, Prodigies offers families and music classrooms an extensive collection of colorful video lessons, printable resources, songs, and activities that help children sing, sign, play, and understand music.
They didn’t sponsor this post—lol! This is simply the first solfège resource I ever used, and it is one I still use and genuinely enjoy with my littlest learners. It makes learning solfège colorful, interactive, and so much fun!
Disclosure: This post is not sponsored. If you use one of my referral or affiliate links, I may receive a referral benefit or commission at no additional cost to you. I only recommend resources I have personally used and genuinely enjoyed.
What resources I couldn’t find then, I’d like to help create for fellow music educators now. There were a few resources during my formative years that helped me along the way, but they were very limited for a teacher with no budget. I’ve finally created my own set of resources for solfège. If you’d like to download the free sample of my full set of Solfege Flashcards and Posters, you can do so by scrolling down and clicking on the link below. Perhaps these printables, in addition to my interactive videos, will help another teacher get started with introducing solfège to their students, in a simple and easy to understand way.
I’ve learned that this generation of students have a very short attention span, thanks to the new culture of scrolling through 90-second reels and AI. In this case, my growing library of short and easy lessons can be watched in a short amount of time, and used to help all ages and levels understand, learn and practice solfege easily.
This is what I want all educators to know about solfège, not just from my experience, but what’s tried, and proven to be true.
Solfège helps children:
- Sing more accurately
- Recognize whether notes move higher, lower, or stay the same
- Hear and sing intervals
- Develop strong musical ears
- Read music more confidently
Hand signs can also be paired with each syllable, giving children a visual and physical way to understand pitch. I’ll share more about that in another post 🙃
https://buymeacoffee.com/mrsmastersmusicclass
Here is a quick snippet of the first video I created in the growing series I’m creating now. I am currently working on compiling all the videos I’ve created into one full playlist of videos, that will give bite-size, simple, guided instruction simple enough for singers of all levels to learn solfège, and teachers of all ages to teach it with ease. Enjoy and subscribe for more music lesson tips and shared resources!
