Hi Folks,

I remember sitting with a few choristers at choir practice one sunny afternoon a while ago. We were talking about tonic sol-fa when an esteemed chorister made a striking comment. She said that when she looked at tonic sol-fa, all she saw was a bunch of notes, so she wasn’t too sure how to make use of it. I gave a brief answer then but feel it would be great to use this medium to explore the topic in greater depth. So, why should you, as a choir singer or instrumentalist, learn and use tonic sol-fa? Here are 5 reasons.

1. Tonic sol-fa can come to the rescue when you need to quickly remember the melody of a song you once learnt but have forgotten. Believe me when I tell you that this situation happens more often than you may think. What causes us to sometimes forget the melody of a song we know? One possible reason is if we only learnt the song recently and haven’t practised it enough so that it is saved in our long-term memory. Another reason is if it has been ages since we sang a song. In either situation, a quick look at the tonic sol-fa is often helpful in bringing the song back to mind.

2. Tonic sol-fa helps you to know the melody of brand-new songs you have never encountered before. Truly, when I pick up my CCC hymnbook, I can often go to an unfamiliar hymn and, just by reading the tonic sol-fa alone, get a good idea of how the song would sound even though I’ve never listened to a recording of it. In fact, when I notice that the song’s progression is very similar to that of another song I already know, I may even be able to also determine the rhythm of the new song. This makes it so much easier to sing or play new hymns on musical instruments.

3. Tonic sol-fa makes it easier to compose music using just a pen and paper – you can write both words and tonic solfa and not need to worry about how to record your voice right away. This can come in handy if you find yourself in a situation where it may be awkward or even impossible to record your voice.

4. Toni sol-fa makes it easier and quicker to learn new complex songs as you listen to them. It does this by giving you a second way to absorb the new song i.e. you use your ears to listen to the song as the first mode, then use the tonic sol-fa as a secondary way to understand the songs more deeply. Think of it this way… You know how in large supermarkets there may be only one cashier register active and after some time the queue of customers waiting to check out starts getting long, then suddenly, a second cashier register is activated, and the queue moves faster and customers feel happier? That’s how it is when you know your tonic sol-fa. It’s like having an extra cashier register to handle the flow of new musical information.

5. Tonic sol-fa allows you develop relative pitch by training your ears to understand how different notes sound when compared to the key of a song (the home key). This makes it easier to sing songs in any key.

As you can see, tonic sol-fa is pretty important and useful to singers and instrumentalists. That’s why YHM provides clean tonic sol-fa of CCC Hymns and includes a dedicated tonic sol-fa section you can use when creating your own hymns.

So, how can you master tonic sol-fa?

First, read about tonic sol-fa. Yinkos Tutorial has an insightful article on tonic sol-fa you can read. You can also find other useful articles about it on the internet.

What else can you do? Learn tonic sol-fa for songs you already know. E.g. Check your hymnbook for familiar songs and learn their tonic sol-fa. If you’re a fan of CCC music, then check out the CCC Hymnbook New Revised Standard Edition which has Yoruba hymns and tonic sol-fa. You can also use YHM which shows tonic sol-fa for both English and Yoruba hymns.

Finally, you can take things a step further by writing tonic sol-fa for new songs you come across or when creating new songs.

With some practice and dedication, you can become very skilled at using tonic sol-fa to take your music knowledge and singing skill to the next level. Till next time, happy singing.