“Why are you calling that do? It sounds like ‘fa?’”
I turned away from the board and met the knitted eyebrows of the second grader who had asked the question. Many other young musicians also looked confused, their heads innocently cocked to the side.
The student most likely had perfect pitch and was correct in that they were used to calling that pitch “fa” outside of school.
I gave an unsatisfactory response, “‘do’ can move. Whatever we call ‘do’ we can think of as home base and in this piece that’s this note.” I played an F on the piano.
For the next ten minutes of class, I watched the students struggle to play the folk song we had been singing for the past few days. They were not yet sure how to use their ears to help them and figure out the melody and my written out movable-do solfege seemed more of a hindrance than an aid.
This exchange happened last spring and over the summer, I had some time to reflect on my teaching practice. I think I know now how to better meet the needs of my students and it involves careful consideration of the following question.
Fixed do or movable do?
It’s certainly a polarizing issue in the choral world and one that I was certain that I had made up my mind when I was in high school. Heck, at one of my college auditions a panelist even told me I was “the poster child for solfege.” I loved solfege and had had a solid training with it up to that point.
Moveable do is best for honing the ability to audiate, to hear pitches in one’s head before singing them out loud. Moveable do also teaches the hierarchy of important pitches in tonal music, the relationships between the pitches, and intervals. What's not to love?
To start, much of the world uses fixed do and very few countries use Western letter names, “C, D, E, F, G, A, B.” And as I learned from Vince Peterson at Choral Chameleon over the summer, movable do is really only useful in a tonal music and it can, at times, be limiting. Fixed do is also a great way to teach absolute pitch. Yes, I did write “teach” as I do not believe there is a gene for it, but something that can be trained. I myself have learned to pull C and A out of thin air and use intervals to go from there when sight reading. No tuning fork needed!
“Imagine if we taught pitch the same way we teach color?” Vince Peterson asked the room of conductors at the Choral Chameleon Summer Institute. It is certainly a compelling notion.
Well, after that gainful encounter and my experience working with young musicians in Korea, I made the hard realization that moveable do was getting in the way of my students. I wasn’t being helpful, which is ultimately what teaching and conducting is all about.
What makes my students unique?
Many of them take private piano lessons and come into the classroom thinking in the framework of middle C is ‘do,’ D is ‘re,’ E is ‘mi,’ …’pa,’ ‘sol,’ ‘la,’ ‘si,’ and ‘do.’ In other words, they can read music, but do not know the Western letter note names and moveable solfege makes no sense.
So, with my particular population of students, I made the choice to keep singing in movable do, but read traditional notation and play Orff instruments using fixed do. I showed the students the notes on the staff in traditional notation and told them that there are multiple ways to name them. We can name them “do re mi,” we can name them “C D E,” use numbers, or simply look at the notation on the staff. I think a lot of them felt liberated by that. I even put sticker labels on each instrument so that students could read the notes in whichever way is familiar for them.
Side note: I am not at all a visual learner, but I am adapting to meet the needs of my wonderfully diverse students. And besides, having the sticker colors match the boomwhackers sparks joy!
For now, the second graders and I are doing most of our music in C major, which helps this process and makes it easier for them to learn on the xylophone. When it does come time to read in F major, G major, etc. I will just tell them that home tone/”do” moved, hence “movable do”.
Ultimately, I think them knowing a system first and being music literate will open the door to more enriching musical experiences. I think this will make them stronger musicians and able to play more advanced repertoire sooner, giving them opportunities to be musical, to be engaged, and to experience joy. When the time comes for the conversation about moveable do, they’ll already feel like competent musicians.
Just because a system is familiar to me, a college-educated white Westerner, does not mean it is most appropriate for my international students living in Korea in the year 2021.
Further, it is inappropriate for people like me to assume that complex systems of art and education are not already in place in Asia. This whole experience has been a perfect example of the importance of practicing reflection and open-mindedness in one’s teaching. I will learn from it and support my students’ success.
After one week’s test run with the fixed do and keyboard stickers, the students seem to be learning more quickly and confidently. I am looking forward to our learning journey together this year!
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