While the upward chromatic solfege maintains and upholds the high pitch, the downward chromatic solfege reverses it. A lot of concentration and practice will be needed to get the tone right. The tone of the upward chromatic solfege is raised while that of the downward chromatic solfege is lowered. Since ‘fa’ is not usually lowered and that ‘ti’ and ‘la’ are of the minor scale, the downward chromatic syllables in the major scale can be said to be the same as the major. The natural minor scale syllables for the scale degrees here will be 3, 6, and 7 for altering the chromatic tones. For example, ‘la’ can be changed to ‘le’, ‘sol’ changes to ‘se’ to enhance the lowered pitch. The scales are lowered here chromatically by replacing the solfege syllable vowels with another syllable. Pron: doe tee tay lah lay soul say fah mee may ray rah Tone: do ti te la le sol se fa mi me re ra The major scale key syllable should be matched with the scales degrees that go with it. When using a minor key, it is advisable to start with the natural minor syllables when presenting a diatonic pitch. For example, Do changes or takes another form as di, fa changes to fi and the others take newer forms also. The other semitones that are pitched higher are meant to change the syllable of the original solfege. When using a major key, ‘mi’ and ‘ti’ will form a semitone with the ones beside them in the scale and they are not always fully realized or raised like the other semitones. Pron: doe dee ray ree mee fah fee soul see lah lee tee Tone: do di re ri mi fa fi sol si la li ti Below is an illustration of rehearsing the upward and downward chromatic scale solfege: The upward chromatic solfege syllables Thus, it is the combination of the diatonic syllable and the solfege syllable. The chromatic scale pitches are the pitches between the diatonic pitches denoted by bare letters A-G and the chromatic solfege syllables( di, ri, fi, si, li/ te, le, se, me, ra) fit in the diatonic syllable do, re, mi,fa, sol, la, and ti. However, the chromatic scale depends on the expressional gravity to fit the rhythm. The fact that the chromatic scale does not take an interrupted pattern like the major or minor scale makes it devoid of the natural cadence points in the scales. The chromatic scale can begin from any of the twelve tones as listed:Ī, A#/Bb, B, C, C#/Db, D, D#/Eb, E, F, F#/Gb, G, and G#/Ab. It is no news again that the chromatic scale consists of all twelve tones in chronological order. The 12 notes of the octave( black keys and white keys) comprise the chromatic scale and it has a meaningful space apart referred to as the one-half step. Whenever a note is given to 0, the chromatic scale might be denoted precisely by the numbers 0-11 mod-twelve. The 1# (Di) note is also called the 2b (Ra) since they both refer to the same note.
The above is the enharmonic notes ( notes with the same pitch or sound but different nomenclature). The upward scale of the major scale consists Do, Di, Re, Ri, Mi, Fa, Fi, Sol, Si, La, Li, Ti, the downward scale consists Ti, Te/Ta, La, Le/Lo, Sol, Se, Fa, Mi, Me/Ma, Re,Ra, Do while the other combination is the actual solfege syllable.
It is the library of all acquired pitches arranged upward or downward, an octave’s value after another.Įssentially, the twelve notes of the chromatic scale have enharmonic coordinates in solfege syllables, the upward scale degree, and the downward scale degree. Thus, it is a number of half steps that consists of all the 12 pitches of the equal-tempered system. Hence, the 12-tones equates the temperament tuning and the chromatic scale covers all 12 available pitches that include the minor scale and the major scale. It is a tuneful scale with twelve pitches, with each pitch having a semitone that is also known as a half-step found on or under its adjacent pitches. The chromatic scale is also referred to as the twelve-tone scale. The conventional purpose of the chromatic scale degree is to color or enrich the tones of the major scales and minor scales. ‘Chromatic’ was first used in 1630 and comes from the Greek word meaning ‘color’. GETTING BETTER WITH THE CHROMATIC SCALE SOLFEGE.The downward chromatic solfege syllables.