Teaching Sol-Fa

Teaching Sol-Fa

General game rules: We do not run inside. Instead, we “walk with a purpose.” Boys pick girls and girls pick boys. If a boy points to another boy in the circle, go to the nearest girl who has not had a turn.

Books: There is a series of picture books by Stuart Manins which go over sol, mi, la, do, and a little bit with re. It is the So Me picture book series and comes with a CD. It is sold on-line through shop.musicplaytext.ihoststores.com/

Beat/Rhythm = In general I put the beat on their lap and the rhythm on their hands. This is a very Kodaly way of doing things since most of this is Kodaly. However, if you wanted to do a more Orff approach, they do body rhythm as a precursor to instruments. They put the drum part on their lap (patting), the sticks on their hands (clapping), and the shakers or bells in their fingers (snapping). So, for example, you could orchestrate one of the sol-fa songs by dividing up the rhythm into the three parts.

A note about notating the rhythms of the sol-fa songs: I tried to put in the rhythms, but I can’t make the cross bar for the ti-ti notes (two eighths) so I don’t think it helped much. I tried to show with the spacing as much as I could the difference between the ti-ti (eighth) and ta (quarter) notes. Hopefully, it makes sense.

1st Grade = Sol-mi songs (Cherry Pie, Little Tommy Brown Mouse, and Old Mother Witch) most of the year. I introduce Sol-Mi-La at the end of the year with Doggie, Doggie. We practice sight singing so-mi songs throughout the year.

2nd Grade = Review sol-mi songs with Little Tommy Brown Mouse. Then spend most of the year on sol-mi-la songs like Doggie Doggie, We are Dancing, Oliver Twist, and No Robbers Out Today. At the end of the year I introduce Do and we learn Mouse Mousie. We practice sight singing so-mi songs at the beginning of the year and then move on to sight singing so-mi-la songs.

3rd Grade = Review briefly sol-mi songs with Little Tommy Brown Mouse. Move on to sol-mi-la songs with Doggie Doggie and We Are Dancing. By mid-year introduce Sol-Mi-Do songs Mouse Mousie and Frog in the Middle. Mid-year we also go over Do-Re-Mi songs with Seven-Up. I add in Sol for Do-Re-Mi-Sol with Scotland’s Burning. I add in La for Do-Re-Mi-Sol-La with Land of the Silver Birch and My Paddle (Partner Songs). I then end with a So-fa round. (In 3rd grade we learn rounds so at the end of the year I am combining the so-fa and the rounds.) We practice sight singing harder songs. I have sight singing cards that go over sol-mi, so-mi-la, so-mi-do, do-re-mi, do-re-me-so, and do-re-mi-so-la.

4th – 6th grade = I can no longer get away with reviewing sol-mi, sol-mi-la, sol-mi-do, or do-re-mi songs so I use the sight singing book listed at the end.