CPTP109: What is Solfa and How Does it Help Students with Christopher Sutton

Depending on where you got your musical start, solfa might be an integral part of your musicianship – or it might be a foreign language.

If you didn't learn solfa growing up or never felt like you had a"good ear" it can be intimidating to launch into solfa exercises in your teaching. It's tempting to just pick up a book of exam ear exercises and practice those before the big day.

But you'll be missing out on so much goodness, and your students will be too. Ear training with solfa can be fun, practical and above all truly musical. 

Christopher Sutton has some fantastic tips to share with us today all about using solfa in your piano teaching. Many of these ideas were new to me – and are things I'm definitely going to be using going forward.

Take a listen and see if you're persuaded by the power of solfa too.

Transcript

If you'd like to download a PDF transcript of this episode, please click below.

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In this episode, you’ll learn

• Why Christopher is so passionate about aural
• What solfa or solfege is
• Why solfa is such a powerful musical tool
• How it can be used in your teaching
• The difference between movable and fixed solfa
• How to get started with achievable solfa exercises
• How solfa can help with chord theory

Links Mentioned

• Musicality podcast episode 9: About perfect pitch
• Facebook video about aural tests in exams
• Making Aural Fun Webinar

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Thank you for Tuning In!

There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, and I’m grateful that you’ve chosen mine.

Whether you’re at the gym, on the bike or in the car, I know that you and your students will get lots out of what you learn in the long run.

Just make sure you try out some of the ideas before they get lost in the business of your next lessons!

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Have you decided to give solfa a try?

Do you feel like you could give some of these exercises a go? Let me know if you use some of these simple solfa exercises and how you get on in the comments.