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What Is Tonic Solfa

Tonic Solfa is a musical system that represents notes in a key using English syllables rather than letter names. The syllables consist of a consonant followed by a vowel, such as Do, Re, Mi. This system was developed in the 19th century as an aid to teaching music more quickly. While it has been widely used, some see it as archaic compared to standard musical notation. However, it remains common in parts of Africa and can help singers and instrumentalists learn music and play by ear. The document then provides examples of popular worship songs written out using Tonic Solfa notation.

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Abuh Ahmed
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615 views13 pages

What Is Tonic Solfa

Tonic Solfa is a musical system that represents notes in a key using English syllables rather than letter names. The syllables consist of a consonant followed by a vowel, such as Do, Re, Mi. This system was developed in the 19th century as an aid to teaching music more quickly. While it has been widely used, some see it as archaic compared to standard musical notation. However, it remains common in parts of Africa and can help singers and instrumentalists learn music and play by ear. The document then provides examples of popular worship songs written out using Tonic Solfa notation.

Uploaded by

Abuh Ahmed
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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What is Tonic Solfa?

Tonic Solfa (or relative solfa) is a musical system of representing the


notes in a key with simple English syllables. In this case, musical
scales are not named by letters, but rather, by syllables, which in
most cases consist of only two letters — a consonant and a vowel.
The consonant always comes before the vowel. On variations, these
could also be represented with the first letter of the syllable — the
consonant letter only. That is to say, the system focuses on the
pronunciation of each syllable, associating them with the sound of
each notes. This is to aid quick learning of music. This will be more
detailed later in this post.

According to History and research, it was collected that Sarah Ann


Clover discovered this system of naming notes with Tonic Solfa.
Then John Curwen, an English man, who was also the Son of a
congregational Minister, developed the new method that was
adapted from Sarah Ann.

The use of Tonic Solfa has proved to be immensely useful in music


over many centuries, thanks to the genius of many music scholars
who contributed to its development. Although the Tonic solfa system
or Solfa Notation system (or simply Solfa system) has proved to be
most useful for Singers since they have to articulate diverse
combinations of vowels and consonants, many instrumentalists,
particularly western, see it as an archaic method of learning music.
They recommend using sheet music. But that is not the case because
many musicians even use the Tonic Solfa to teach sheet music.
In standard music, there are seven notes in the major scale of any
key. These notes are named with alphabets — accidentals are added
to the rest. For example, in the key of C major, the notes are: C, D, E,
F, G, A B. In Solfa notation, these are changed to Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So,
La, Ti. As mentioned above, we can see that the names are a
combination of a consonant and a vowel letter. Also, due to the
variations talked about, we can represent Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti
with D, R, M, F, S, L, T. In music, they are written in small letters.
The same names go with any key, be it major or minor!

Concerning the accidentals part, we could have (Db)Dflat, (Eb)Eflat,


(Gb)Gflat, (Ab)Aflat, (Bb)Bflat, for instance. They are the most
popular accidentals in music — The accidentals in Key C major. In
Tonic Solfa of these notes are named Di, Ri, Fi, Si, Li when
ascending up the scale. While the names of the accidental notes are
Te, Le, Se, Me(pronounced as “May”), Ra in descending order. So
together we have:
do, di, re, ri, mi, fa, fi, so, si, la, li, to do — ascending order.
do, ti, te, la, le, so, se, fa, mi, me, re, ra, do — descending order.
It looks more like an informal way of learn music. This style is very
common in Africa.

How do you know which octave to play if a song is


written in Tonic Solfas?
It is very easy to do this. First of all, relative Solfa has just a little
difference when compared to the standard system. It follows the
same principles — key signature, time signature, dotted notes et
cetera. But for you to know that a phrase in a song should be sung in
a higher or lower octave/pitch than the present, then we make use of
the (‘) symbol after the note — the apostrophe symbol.

This means that a composer or transcriptor has to be conscientious


when doing his work by considering the range of the piece, and
deciding whether to start with a (‘) or not. In higher octaves, another
“apostrophe” may be added. The higher the octave, the more the
“apostrophe”; the lower the octave, the less the “apostrophe”.

It is safest to calculate the range and start transcribing or scoring on


a middle pitch.
As mentioned earlier, in this post, you will be given the Tonic Solfa
of worship songs for free. The aim of this is to equip you
musically. How?

Benefits of using the Tonic Solfa System


- It helps to make you familiar with the tunes of songs.
- It helps some people understand music better.
- It is a fun way to learn music.
- It is very simple.
- It becomes easier to play by ear by learning this method.
All these and many more are the advantages you get from learning
Tonic Solfas. So it means that if you get the pdf and/of Tonic Solfa of
worship songs in this post, and you consistently practise it, you also
get to gain the skill to score any song without the presence of any
musical instrument. It was through this method I learnt how to play
by ear.
But I must warn you by virtue of my experience, that this method of
learning breeds laziness. So you have to put in some discipline if at
all you want to grow musically.

The songs I will be transcribing are popular songs: there is no need


to add the time and key signatures since we already know how to
sing them.

The Tonic Solfas of Worship Songs


1. Tonic Solfa of Yeshua Hamashiach

Yeshua Hamashiach
m’ l’ l’ t’ l’ s’ m’
Lion of Judah
t’ t’ l’ s’ m’
Agunechemba
m’ m’ r’ d’ l
Yeshua Hamashiach
l r’ r’ m’ r’ d’ t
Lion of Judah
m’ m’ r’ d’ t
Agunechemba
r’ r’ d’ t l

2. Tonic Solfa of I look to Yahweh- Tonic solfa of Worship


songs

m' m' r’ d' l, f' m' r’

My hope is Yahweh, Yahweh eh

m' m' r’ d' l, f' m' r’

I look to Yahweh, Yahweh eh

m' m' r’ d' l, f' m' r’

Forever Yahweh, Yahweh eh

m' m' r’ d' l, f' m' r’

3. Tonic solfa of My daddy My daddy


My daddy, my daddy
sllsll
Your baby is singing
sllsll
I will be singing and dancing and shouting
d’ d’ d’ d’ m m m r m m r
For the rest of eternity.
ddmrdmmr

4. Tonic Solfa of I love You now

I love You now


d’ d’ m’ m’
I love You tomorrow
d’ f’ m’ r’ m’ r’
I love You forever
r’ m’ r’ d’ r’ d’
I love You Lord
l l d’ d’

5. Tonic Solfa of Eze You are worthy of my praise

Eze, You are worthy of my praise


s’ m’ m’ s’ f’ m’ r’ d’ m’
Oh oh oh oh
d’ r’ f’ m’
You are worthy of my praise
m’ s’ f’ m’ r’ t d’

6. Tonic solfa of Jesu my Love


Jesu, Jesu my love

s m, s m r m

I want to make you smile

msmsmd

I want to bless your heart

msmsmr

Jesu, Jesu my love

s m, s m r m

I want to wipe your tears

msmsmd

I want to make you proud

msmsmr

7. Tonic solfa of You are the covenant keeping God


You are the covenant keeping God

l l l l l l t d’ d’

Yahweh, the covenant keeping God

f’ m’, d’ m’ m’ r’ d’ r’

8. Tonic solfa of Kadosh Kadosh


You reign, You ancient Zion’s King

l’ l’, l’ l’ l’ l’ s’ m’

Kadosh, Kadosh

s’ s’, m’ r’

You are mighty on Your throne


r’ d’ r’ m’ r’ d’ l

9. Tonic solfa of You are God from beginning to the end

You are God from beginning to the end

s s d’ d’ r’ m’ s d’ t l

There’s no place for argument

f’ f’ f’ f’ m’ r’ d’
You are God all by Yourself.

d’ d’ d’ t l t d’

10. Tonic solfa of You are Yahweh eh eh eh

You are Yahweh eh eh eh

s’ s’ d’’ t’ l’ t’ d’

You are Yahweh

l’ l’ s’ f’ s’ s’

You are Yahweh eh eh eh

s’ s’ d’’ t’ l’ t’ d’

You are Yahweh

l’ l’ s’ f’ s’ s’

You are Yahweh, Alpha and Omega

m’ m’ s’ r’, m’ d’ l d’ f’ m’

You are Yahweh, Alpha and Omega

m’ m’ s’ r’, m’ d’ l m’ r’ d’
So that is it, friends — the Tonic Solfa of worship songs.

Do you want many more solfas? If you want…

Remember I told you about a pdf? Yes! There is a pdf that has over
80 correct and complete Tonic Solfa of worship songs. And in this
pdf, you will also get these for free:

How to find:
- The key of any song
- The Tonic Solfa of any song
- The Chord Progression of any song

Besides these, all Piano learners will get a compendium of over 20


piano tutorial videos to help you improve your music skills
immensely.

It costs just 1,000 Naira.

If you want to buy yours, contact me via Whatsapp on 09137249215.

So, friends. It was a journey worthwhile. Do the needful. Practise


your Solfas religiously. Do what you think can make you improve.

Cheers!

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