Tonic Sol-Fa:

What is tonic sol-fa?:

Tonic sol-fa is a technique used to help teach sight singing. It was invented by Sarah Ann Glover and later developed by John Curwen and is based on the much earlier idea of a movable do solfège. You might recognise it from 'The Sound of Music'.

In a movable do solfège each note within a scale is given a single syllable name. In a major scale using tonic sol-fa these names are.

Do (1st)
Re (2nd)
Mi (3rd)
Fa (4th)
So (5th)
La (6th)
Ti (7th)
Do (8th / octave)

It is often sung in C major but due to the nature of the movable do it works in any major key and has accompanying hand signs (shown on the right).

Why do we use tonic sol-fa?:

Tonic sol-fa is designed so that it can be easily taught to people. Often choirs will use it as it helps for people to remember phrases easily as they can match the pitch of the note to the respective syllable. It is often used to introduce children to music theory as it is easy to remember and use. However I personally think that this form of musical notation is very inefficient as it is unable to fully demonstrate complex harmonies and rhythms which is why it is very hard to use to teach more advanced music such as jazz.