Purpose of Solfège Study


Solfège is not primarily an “ear trainer.” Its purpose is to insist that the lazy, unwilling mind cut out all the nonsense and know what is going on. The mind cannot assume that it can drift because the fingers know the fingerings or because the ear can hear the pitch. Or also because the eyes see the notes or because the lips and air are educated enough to produce the required notes. A mental awareness of the actual name of the note is required. This awareness can be extended to understanding the harmonic setting of the note. Only for single notes, or for slow passages can the player trust to physical knowing. He will then have time enough to move and play without using his brain to think and know each note.

The “physical knowing” is itself related to the brain. The brain functions in this case as a clearing house, an information desk, or a receiver of reports and a sender of orders transmitted by the nerves to the muscles. The mind is aware of what the eye sees, it is aware of what the ear hears, and it certainly knows at least as much about fingering combinations as the fingers do. But this passive awareness of what is going on cannot take the place of a situation in which orders are given by the brain. Before the brain can give such definite orders, the brain itself must go through a process of education. This can be accomplished by solfège.

The use of letter names of syllables with the “fixed do” is most important. The idea is to know always where you are on your instrument, which is almost hopeless with the “movable do.”

It is fairly easy to grasp mentally the idea of a pattern, say descending fifths or descending or ascending triads. It is also not difficult to sing such a pattern with or without printed music, so long as one sings la-la-la as a name for each note. But when the effort is made to pin down clearly just what is happening by singing a correct name for each note, such as syllables or letters, then the trouble starts, especially at moving tempos.

One is surprised to find out just how fuzzy one's thinking is regarding intervals both large and small. The tongue-tied pauses and hesitations are not all simply the result of an unfamiliarity with the use of syllables. This can easily be proven by substituting letter names (A-G). All of us are familiar with the whole alphabet and are certainly experts with the first seven letters of it as used in music. Yet when we try to use those very letter names when singing something, we find ourselves stopping and stammering and calling mistakes that are ridiculous on the face of it. This, in spite of the fact that the passage being sung might even be a very familiar one, familiar as to sound and time.

The experienced professional often becomes more lazy mentally about giving specific orders than the learner.

If the physical apparati had to be taught and ordered by the mind, then the process would not stop. One should fight playing by ear.

Only when no fingering is involved, as say in a repeated C major triad, is it ever remotely possible to trust to play by ear. Change the E-natural to E-flat or the G to an A and suddenly mistakes start to happen. Are the notes that much harder to produce? The fact is that a lack of thinking control is the cause. One cannot prove out the passage by singing the notes with their given names. This is actually because the mind is working too slowly to think of each name. If the mind is so slow, why expect the lips to be any faster or more accurate?

The use of solfège can aid the general subject of having confidence; also having something to think about can help avoid nervousness. It can destroy that excuse of the so-called (self-styled) nervous player that his troubles are the result of “nerves.” He is nervous to that destructive degree primarily because he does not understand enough about the mechanics of performing, which in turn means he can’t teach his “physical” and can’t even act with enough concentration so that at least his incorrectly used physical apparatus might with luck accomplish. The physical can’t act with the required conviction if the mental doesn’t take charge by knowing each note and by sending commands or orders to the physical.

The player can “forget” to do something, which he has previously learned he must do. He can “misjudge” something; e.g., the amount of air needed or the exact condition of his physical equipment at the moment, etc. Or he can be unsure intellectually of the notes he is supposed to play. He can see them, he remembers how they sound melodically, but he isn’t sure enough of the names of each note (as they pass swiftly by) to enable him to act with conviction.

Therefore even though he is able to play each note separately, consecutively, at a slower speed (by applying the lessons of his practicing), he cannot maintain his physical control over each note at higher speeds because he is not thinking fast enough to ever know what notes he is playing. If he doesn’t know the notes (the names of the notes) then he cannot intelligently order his physical servants to act together to produce the notes. The servants are then left to depend on themselves and we are soon given proof that Indians need chiefs and that soldiers need generals.

Solfège is not as much needed for slow passages or for single notes, because almost any mind can “recognize” notes that pass by slowly, and can send the required orders to lips, wind, arms, or fingers, etc. The mind is fast and the physical equipment is by comparison slow and lumbering. Unfortunately, most players proceed as though the reverse were true. Their physical equipment moves with lightning speed (as dangerous as a blind man running) and their minds are wandering aimlessly about or nervously awaiting an impending disaster.

Even this feeling of impending disaster makes the situation worse. It further detracts from the authority with which the mind sends orders. The player tends to relax his lip just when he should retain or increase muscle control. He tends to hold back the air thus using insufficiently an important ingredient. Or if he realizes that he isn’t using enough air, he may overcompensate and begin to blow an excess of air, more air than the lips can accommodate and control.

Solfège is finally applied to the actual playing of the instrument by experiencing (while singing) the recollection of the physical sensations that accompany the production of each note on the instrument. Solfège therefore becomes an aid to the physical control in the playing of musical instruments.

The study and regular use of solfège is of tremendous importance as an aid in developing the physical control that is needed for musical performance. It is a basic truth that the control of the physical is necessary for the creation of musical sounds. Good playing results when the physical apparatus has, with conviction, committed itself to the correct course of action. Lack of conviction, leading to a half-hearted physical commitment, affects all performing adversely.

The problem is further that one cannot physically act with conviction if one doesn’t know what to do; and that even after one has learned (understood) what to do physically, that still will not work unless it is done with conviction. Further, even the learning of what to do will not be accomplished unless each attempt, right or wrong, is made with conviction. Go at each note as though you are sure you are going at it in exactly the right way. By a process of elimination you will find the right way. The feeling of conviction is almost as much an ingredient as are air, lips etc.

If the player has practiced carefully and has analyzed and understood the functions of the physical; he is theoretically ready to play with security most of the ordinary repertory. The player knows how much air to blow and how to shape his lips and cheek muscles. He also knows how much the air stream should be pushed by the diaphragm, abdominal, and lower back muscles. He knows all these things if he has practiced carefully, trying to observe and record his own physical sensations and also because he has repeated each note frequently during his practice. Therefore if he misses the note, it is not because he doesn’t know how to hit it, or can’t hit it. Neither is it because of nerves. Rather, it is because a last moment’s doubt, a lack of conviction held him back from actually doing those things that he already knew must be done.

Solfège can be described as that system which consciously brings intellectual control and guidance to the otherwise disorganized physical efforts made in the playing of music. To make music without this mental direction may be compared to driving a car with one’s eyes closed. Performing without it means that the performer is trusting to a combination of physical, rote, melodic memory, and that vague thing which is often called “musical feeling.” Without intellectual self-direction, the player is actually relying too much on luck.

What is mental awareness like? It is like knowing where you are when reading the music. It is however, an ultra-refinement of simply knowing the place on the page. It means that one can at once give a specific name to the note, know exactly where it must be placed in time, and also something of where the note fits into the melodic and harmonic logic of the surrounding notes in the passage.

Solfèging a passage repeatedly imparts specific information to the mind. Playing a passage repeatedly without mental awareness (without thinking) is an attempt to impart information to the fingers, lips, or other physical tools in the production of sound. This must also be done.
Some benefit is gained from repeating physically a series of notes. But the benefits are far greater when both the physical and mental are being used together. The physical is practiced by repeating single notes and then the complete passage many times, striving also for the correct tone quality. The mental is practiced by calling the note a specific name and singing it in rhythm.