All About ABRSM Grades & Support

[waiyean]

sunflower:

Singing via solfege uses movable “Do” and this usually helps develop very good relative pitch. It’s rather difficult for people with perfect pitch to sing in solfege because of the way they associate the notes to the sounds they hear inside their head. Just sing the letter names, i.e. the exact notes as seen written on the staff.

For people with perfect pitch, is it important to also train on relative pitch? I would think that relative pitching will be useful for transposition, etc.

[Dreamaurora]

waiyean:

sunflower:

Singing via solfege uses movable “Do” and this usually helps develop very good relative pitch. It’s rather difficult for people with perfect pitch to sing in solfege because of the way they associate the notes to the sounds they hear inside their head. Just sing the letter names, i.e. the exact notes as seen written on the staff.

For people with perfect pitch, is it important to also train on relative pitch? I would think that relative pitching will be useful for transposition, etc.

If main instrument is piano, relative pitch is optional. For transposition, a stronger grasp of theory and chords are more important. But more or less can get by if have good perfect pitch. Though it is still recommended to learn relative pitching to express music better i.e. students with only perfect pitch often have more difficulties feeling the tension and release of pitches and harmony.

If main instrument is not piano, relative pitch may be necessary. Let's say for example I play violin and I need to perform a sonata with a piano accompaniment. Let's say the piano is quite out of tune and not in concert pitch. If I only have perfect pitch I will have problem adjusting to the piano. Same problem may occur also if I play in an orchestra and the conductor request for non concert pitch tuning.

[sunflower]

Dreamaurora:

waiyean:

[quote=\"sunflower\"]Singing via solfege uses movable “Do” and this usually helps develop very good relative pitch. It’s rather difficult for people with perfect pitch to sing in solfege because of the way they associate the notes to the sounds they hear inside their head. Just sing the letter names, i.e. the exact notes as seen written on the staff.

For people with perfect pitch, is it important to also train on relative pitch? I would think that relative pitching will be useful for transposition, etc.

If main instrument is piano, relative pitch is optional. For transposition, a stronger grasp of theory and chords are more important. But more or less can get by if have good perfect pitch. Though it is still recommended to learn relative pitching to express music better i.e. students with only perfect pitch often have more difficulties feeling the tension and release of pitches and harmony.

If main instrument is not piano, relative pitch may be necessary. Let's say for example I play violin and I need to perform a sonata with a piano accompaniment. Let's say the piano is quite out of tune and not in concert pitch. If I only have perfect pitch I will have problem adjusting to the piano. Same problem may occur also if I play in an orchestra and the conductor request for non concert pitch tuning.[/quote]Yup! People with perfect pitch has difficulty adjusting to \"out of tune\" performances. They will \"see\" sharps and flats all over the place on the \"score\" in the head! Some really can get headache. It's a \"curse\" and \"blessing\" at the same time.

I'm really not sure whether it's possible for people with perfect pitch to \"train\" for relative pitch. It seems that they don’t really feel the necessity for it as they could already hear everything they see and vice versa. It's usually those without this gift that need to depend on relative pitch to help them in the various aspects of musical learning.

[kathyh]

sunflower:

waiyean:

[quote=\"kathyh\"]Hi,


may I know your suggestion on singing of sharp or flat notes?

As when you sing say, a D major, \" Re Mi Fa# So La Ti Do# Re \", the correct pitch of, say, \"Do #\" will be always hidden/distorted by the pronunciation of \"Do\" and \"Sharp\".

We usually sing first note of D major as Do, ie. movable Do.

Singing via solfege uses movable “Do” and this usually helps develop very good relative pitch. It’s rather difficult for people with perfect pitch to sing in solfege because of the way they associate the notes to the sounds they hear inside their head. Just sing the letter names, i.e. the exact notes as seen written on the staff.[/quote]
So we sing Fa sharp or Fa when come across black key notes?

[Dreamaurora]

kathyh:

So we sing Fa sharp or Fa when come across black key notes?

Fi.

Just search for solfege in Wikipedia. There is a chart of solfege there.

[waiyean]

sunflower:

Yup! People with perfect pitch has difficulty adjusting to \"out of tune\" performances. They will \"see\" sharps and flats all over the place on the \"score\" in the head! Some really can get headache. It's a \"curse\" and \"blessing\" at the same time.

I'm really not sure whether it's possible for people with perfect pitch to \"train\" for relative pitch. It seems that they don’t really feel the necessity for it as they could already hear everything they see and vice versa. It's usually those without this gift that need to depend on relative pitch to help them in the various aspects of musical learning.

I would think that it's possible for people with perfect pitch to learn relative pitch. My DD's aural teacher used to train her to listen and identify various intervals, ie. major & minor 2nds, 3rds, 4ths, etc. Also she will listen to a series of notes, and has to sing it in another starting note. She is still not well grounded in her theory yet to do all this using perfect pitch.

[kathyh]

Thanks, may i know How are things going during ABRSM exam, if sing solfege for echo singing?

Dreamaurora:

kathyh:

So we sing Fa sharp or Fa when come across black key notes?

Fi.

Just search for solfege in Wikipedia. There is a chart of solfege there.

[kathyh]

My child's teacher is from china, and she asked us to sing 升Fa (F#), or 降Ti (Bb), which makes me very confused, and in Yamaha, we were asked to sing in this way, say for this chord, \"Fa sharp Do Re (F# C D)\"


which way is the standard way, then?

Dreamaurora:

kathyh:

So we sing Fa sharp or Fa when come across black key notes?

Fi.

Just search for solfege in Wikipedia. There is a chart of solfege there.

[Dreamaurora]

kathyh:

Thanks, may i know How are things going during ABRSM exam, if sing solfege for echo singing?

Any syllabe will do, though alternating between 'ta' or 'ti' is recommended to get most accurate pitching. Most people would use 'la', but singing using 'la' is actually quite difficult to pitch.

Solfege is normally only used during sight singing component in grade 4-8. It is not compulsory though, so still can use any syllabe you want.

[Dreamaurora]

kathyh:

My child's teacher is from china, and she asked us to sing 升Fa (F#), or 降Ti (Bb), which makes me very confused, and in Yamaha, we were asked to sing in this way, say for this chord, \"Fa sharp Do Re (F# C D)\"


which way is the standard way, then?

Chinese system uses 'movable do' a lot as they are expected to be able to read the number notation score. They don't really use 'fixed do'.

The issue here is not all of them adopt the practice of using alternate syllabe for sharpened or flattened note. So some may sing F and F# with the same syllabe 'Fa' and another may sing F# as 'Fi' instead.

Yamaha they use 'Fa Sharp' because having that too many syllabes will confuse the young kids.

So unfortunately, there is no standard way that everybody follow when it comes to the alternate syllabes. As long your daughter can pitch them accurately, that is all that matters.