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Tech: Tonic sol-fa notation
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Subject: sol-fa notation From: Alan of Australia Date: 06 Jun 97 - 02:05 AM In the thread about "The Ploughboy" there was a mention of sol-fa notation. My comment as follows:- I think we should start a thread on sol-fa notation, it may be the best way to communicate tunes via these threads. I have seen it many times on old manuscripts and sometimes attached to words only. It is based on Doh-re-me to give the notes of the scale and includes some time values as well i.e. crotchets quavers etc. I have been able to work out some of the rules by looking the notation for tunes I know, but does anyone know all the rules? Cheers, Alan |
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Subject: RE: sol-fa notation From: Lani Herrmann (lanih@info.sims.berkeley.edu) Date: 06 Jun 97 - 07:02 PM Tonic sol-fa (the system) enjoyed some popularity in Britain after it was devised as a pedagogical method/notation at the end of the nineteenth century; it consisted of names for the notes as well as hand signals so a teacher could lead a class of children in singing! Explanations of the written system are in the 1929 Encyclopedia Britannica and in Mantle Hood's text, Ethnomusicology (1982). Many hymnals in Scotland, for instance, used tonic sol-fa notation in addition to (sometimes instead of) staff notation; I have bought several booklets with graded exercises, etc. etc. And the Irish between-Wars collector Sam Henry used it to publish the tunes in his weekly newspaper column "Songs of the People" (see also my introduction to the American edition of same, oddly enough entitled *Sam Henry's 'Songs of the People'* (Univ of Georgia Press, 1990). Nice thing about it is that you can use a typwriter to 'write' the music. But there's another (related) system that you should really explore: so-called ABC notation, which is very economical indeed. Folks on the Irtrad and Fiddle lists use it regularly; and there's lots of software available (as shareware). Alas, I don't have the official web address available to hand, but you can probably use a search program and find it quickly. -- Aloha, Lani lanih@info.sims.berkeley.edu |
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Subject: RE: sol-fa notation From: Alison Date: 06 Jun 97 - 08:25 PM Hi An even easier way than tonic sol fa is to reduce the notes to numbers. So that if you're in the key of C - C=1, D=2, E=3 etc. "Black notes are not included but could be done as F#= 4# etc. If a "_" = a crotchet, you can use it to show how long a note should be held. Accordingly a quaver can be written as a fraction eg. 3\4 = quavers of E &F. If this all sound a bit odd, have a look at a tune, here's an easy one. Frere Jacque 1 2 3 1 / 1 2 3 1 / 3 4 5 - / 3 4 5 - / 5\6 5\4 3 1 / 5\6 5\4 3 1 / 1 <5 1 - / 1 <5 1 - / As you can see I've used a "<" to mean an octave lower. And "/" to indicate bar lines. However it would be much easier if we were able to send tunes in notation. It can get very frustrating when you read all these great lyrics but you don't know what the tune is. |
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Subject: RE: sol-fa notation From: Hutch Date: 09 Jun 97 - 04:37 AM I agree, it really is anoying to find an interesting song and not be able to apreciate it fully. Tonic Sol-Fa is a recognised standard in music notation. My grandmother (who played for the silent movioes, and for dancesduring and after the war) could not read music, but played a supurb form of honkytonk based on Sol-Fa. So much published popular music from the 20's to the 70's still included this notation under the stave. I'll see if I can find any web-sites that deal with this subject (If & when I get time). Incidentally - Richard Robinson (Richard Robinson's Tune Book, on the web) has the right idea as sar as music goes, each piece is sent as a jpeg of the music. Good site - check it out. Unfortunately, he doesn't include any words to the tunes he collects!! |
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Subject: RE: sol-fa notation From: Alan of Australia Date: 09 Jun 97 - 04:50 AM I agree that Richard Robinson's method is great if you are looking at a web site, but not suitable for a discussion forum. I have had another look at some Sol-Fa examples and I think with minor modifications this could work well here. I might also be able to get together with Alison off-line and see what we can come up with. Cheers, Alan |
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Subject: RE: sol-fa notation From: anna root Date: 09 Jun 97 - 03:23 PM As someone who is new to this sort of notation, I'm wondering if it's not too much trouble to include (if you have time, of course) examples with your descriptions, as Alison did. Makes it easier to conceptualize and compare the various styles of notation being discussed. So far I like Alison's the best because it's the only one I get! Could anyone post a short example of sol-fa? Thanks! |
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Subject: RE: sol-fa notation From: Joe Offer Date: 09 Jun 97 - 03:30 PM Hutch, is there a way for those of us who are musically inept to play the songs in Richard Robinson's tune book? I really have made an honest try at sight reading and playing various instuments and singing harmony, but I have to admit I have failed miserably. Sister John Bosco tried to seach me Sol-fa singing 40 years ago, but I was a miserable failure at that, too. I learn songs by rote. I like MIDI tunes that I can click on and hear. It has opened a new world for me - I can actually hear what a song will sound like without having to shanghai a musician to play it for me. Transcribing from printed music to MIDI is a pain, but at least it's something I can do myself. -Joe Offer- |
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Subject: RE: sol-fa notation From: Alison Date: 10 Jun 97 - 02:39 AM Hi Here is the same tune in tonic sol fa. The idea being that you choose your own key (I suggest C because it's easiest), and instead of doing it as "1,2,3....), you do it as "Doh, Re, Me....." (just like "The Sound of Music".) I can't remember how to wirte the durations of notes properly, (Alan I'll be in touch to see if we can sort this out.) But basically you use the first letter of the note eg. d = doh, r = ray, m = me etc. so Frere Jaque turns out as d r m d : d r m d : m f s - : m f s - : s l s f m d : s l s f m d : d 's d - : d 's d - : By the way I see the last line of it disappeared when I submitted it numerically so it went 1<5 1 - / 1 <5 1 - / Like I say I can't remember all the fiddly bits of sol fa but I'll try to sort it out. Hope this helps. Slainte Alison
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Subject: RE: sol-fa notation From: dick greenhaus Date: 10 Jun 97 - 05:33 PM The only difficulty with a notation system that I've found is keeping durations correct. ABC and Sol-Fa do this by assuming that the next note has the seme duration as the previous one unless noted (Qbasic does the same thing, by the way, and has the advantage that it lets you hear what you've written). SongWright takes up a bit more space by attaching a duration to each note (ie a4 is a quarter note pitched to a; c2 is a half note pitched to C). Both approaches work; I'd be delighted to receive tunes in any of the systems. Pictures of the score in PICT, JPEG, GIF etc. work too, but make for lengthy files and lengthy transmissions.
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Subject: RE: sol-fa notation From: Alan of Australia Date: 11 Jun 97 - 12:00 PM Thanks to Alison and her library we now have a brief set of rules for Tonic Sol-fa, modified slightly for use in this forum. PITCH The notes of any major scale, doh-ray-me-fah-soh-lah-te are reduced to d-r-m-f-s-l-t. Passing sharps and flats are indicated by adding 'e' for a sharp and 'a' for a flat. Thus d sharpened becomes de; l flattened becomes la etc. The notes of a natural minor scale are l-t-d-r-m-f-s. Other modes use the same procedure e.g. Dorian r-m-f-s-l-t-d An octave shift is indicated by a superscripted dash for an upward shift and a subscripted dash for a downward shift. Since our keyboards don't have these I propose the use of Alison's idea of '>' for an up shift and '<' for a down shift. Thus a major scale with the octave is d-r-m-f-s-l-t-d>. A minor scale with the octave is l-t-d-r-m-f-s-l>. RHYTHM Bars are separated from each other by |. I have known many people who can't find this key, it is the \ key shifted. Bars are divided into beats (always) and when necessary into fractions of beats. Colons (:) separate beats, dots (.) divide beats into half beats and commas (,) divide half beats into quarter beats. Hyphens (-) show that notes are held and blanks (spaces or even nothing at all between the aforementioned dividers) indicate rests. The key may be optionally included (e.g. Key F) at the beginning. Here is the notation for a major scale, in 4/4 time, 1 beat per note: |d:r:m:f|s:l:t:d>| Here is a 4/4 bar with a note held for one and a half beats (dotted crotchet), the second note for half a beat (quaver), another note for half a beat, then a whole beat, then a rest for half a beat. |d:-.r:r.d:-.| Explanation Beat 1 (up to the colon) contains only one note. Beat 2 is divided into two half beats by the dot. The hyphen shows that the first note is held for another half beat. Then the second note takes up half a beat. Beat 3 is divided into half beats, the 'r' is not the first 'r' continued, that would require a hyphen but looking ahead the 'd' is continued for another half beat, thus it is a whole beat. Beat 4 continues the 'd' from beat 3 then there is a blank half beat i.e. a rest. Here is a 3/4 bar with a whole beat, two half beats and four quarter beats: |d:r.m:f,s.l,t| By the way, we all know that a 4/4 bar has four beats in it. I walked past a bar once that had four deadbeats in it. Three looked pretty crotchetty and the one lying on the floor was definitely having a rest. Sorry! LAYOUT The notation is supposed to go above the words to indicate which syllable belongs to each note. As this will be impossible here let's at least put in a line of Sol-fa followed by the corresponding line of lyric and split bars between line as necessary. Either use a BR between lines or hit Enter twice. e.g. (note the lead in bar) :d.-,d|d:s<:m.-,m|m:d In a cavern in a canyon :d.-,m|s:s:f.-,m|r:- Excavating for a mine :r.-,m|f:f:m.-,r|m:d Dwelt a miner forty-niner :d.-,m|r:s<:t<.-,r|d:-:|| And his daughter Clementine. I think this method of communicating tunes will work well in this forum. It has the advantage that it works in a text only environment and it's an existing format; there is no need to invent anything new. Hope this is useful, see also the Huntingtower thread for another example. Also, please check out the thread "Old Scottish Song Book". Cheers, Alan
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Subject: RE: sol-fa notation From: Alan of Oz Date: 11 Jun 97 - 10:08 PM Chords If you are going to the trouble of entering a tune in Sol-fa you could use the Sol-fa tempo rules for chords, e.g. for Clementine:- |E:-:-|-:-:-|-:-:-|B7:-:-|A:-:-|E:-:-|B7:-:-|E:-:-|| Add this to the end of the song to avoid cluttering the melody. You could take this one step further by using d-r-m etc. but using upper case for chords:- |D:-:-|-:-:-|-:-:-|S7:-:-|F:-:-|D:-:-|S7:-:-|D:-:-|| This seems a bit pointless but at least it's non key specific. Cheers, |
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Subject: RE: sol-fa notation From: Frank in the swamps Date: 12 Jun 97 - 06:17 AM Whew, I'm musically semi-literate, so I'm able to follow all of that, but jeepers, it's like when horn players ask guitar players to do a song in e-flat. Allison, kudos for your numerical method, I like it better than sol fa, but I think ol'sol holds the field by virtue of being there " fustest, fastest". I'm game, but I'm rusty, gonna have to REALLY wanna share a tune to work it out. Still, that's what it's all about, huh? Oh well, I'm of to search my "flat" for a song that's a "sharpie" Cheers, Frank.
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Subject: RE: sol-fa notation From: Alan of Oz Date: 12 Jun 97 - 08:09 AM Internet Sol-fa v1.1 OK, using 1...7 instead of d...t essentially changes nothing. A note by any other name would sound as sweet. So, as an option, and without renouncing any long standing rules, if you have a preference for numbers instead of d-r-m go ahead and use them, if you prefer the '#' for accidentals feel free. This variation will officially be known as "Alison's Sol-fa" or "Numeric Sol-fa". Cheers, |
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Subject: RE: sol-fa notation From: Wilfried Schaum, M.A. from Germay Date: 12 Jun 97 - 08:48 AM A most simple way: Use numbers 1 to 7, changing octaves marked by number of octave: c=1, c'=11, c''=12 and so on. Sharp: add "+", flat: add "-". Length of tones: whole="w", half="h", quarter="q", eighth="e", sixteenth="s", thirtysecond="t". Point lengthening a note with half of original length=":". Pause="p" Give tact first, set bars"|". Using C Major is best because of the lack of sharps and flats; you may transpose ad libitum. Example2: 4/4 1e 2e 3e 4e 5q 5q | 6e 6e 6e 6e 5q pq | 6e 6e 6e 6e 5q pq | 4e 4e 4e 4e 3q 3q | 5e 5e 5e 5e 1h || (Alle meine Entchen / All my ducks; German childrens song). 4/4 11e 11e 21e 31e 11e 31e 21e: 5s | 11e 11e 21e 31e 11q 7e: 5s | 11e 11e ... (Rebel song, about 1776) |
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Subject: RE: sol-fa notation From: wilfried.schaum@sprachen.uni-giessen.de Date: 13 Jun 97 - 04:04 AM Addition to my message: Instead of the numbers you may use the names of the notes c-b, but using the numbers makes transpositions easier. You have only to define: D major,and you kow: 1=g, 3=f+, 7=c+. This useful system is from programming the sound resources of HyperCard with slight changes. |
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Subject: RE: sol-fa notation From: Hutch Date: 13 Jun 97 - 04:18 AM Joe - you asked if there is any way for you to get something from standard notation. Refering again to my grandmother who, as I said couldn't read the music, what she would do is buy the sheet music, write out the notes of the melody as leters, ie. CDEFGAB...., and by playing the notes, work out the key. She would either leave it as that or convert them to Sol Fa so that she could play in different keys. Under these she would add chord markings, something akin to figured bass, but alas it was her own system and no-one can work it out. This is why using a standard such as Sol-Fa would be of greater benefit to future generations than something we could devise ourselves. Incidently, often-as-not Nan used no music at all and busked it. |
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Subject: RE: sol-fa notation From: Alan of Australia Date: 14 Jun 97 - 12:13 AM For another example look at the thread "John of Hazelgreen". Cheers, |
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Subject: RE: sol-fa notation From: Joe Offer Date: 14 Jun 97 - 03:41 PM All these systems get real complicate, real fast. I guess I should be happy to transpose from sheet music onto Noteworthy or other MIDI programs. I was trying to be lazy about this, but it seems that my Noteworthy method isn't bad. Two mouse clicks or two keystrokes per note ain't bad. Now, if we can get the Digital Tradition tunes changed to MIDI.....when's that supposed to happen, Dick? -Joe- |
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Subject: RE: sol-fa notation From: Alan of Australia Date: 15 Jun 97 - 12:14 AM I definitely agree that MIDI is the best way to transmit music. The best way to get from sheet music (or memory) to MIDI is to use a MIDI keyboard and just play the thing, at whatever speed you can. But the DT isn't MIDI yet (a huge job I would think) and anyway that's irrelevant to this forum which needs a pure text format. Cheers, |
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Subject: RE: sol-fa notation From: dick greenhaus Date: 15 Jun 97 - 07:00 PM Real Soon Now. And there are a couple of shareware programs that will let you change MIDI into a printed score. |
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