TOPIC: DO RE MI C D E ????

Ok .. I was going to let someone else answer this question (which has a second but similar question attached to it)

The major scale is DO RE MI FA SOL LA TI DO

That is universal language for a major scale no matter what country you live in.

Now, all Keys (from A to G and including the sharps and flats) require a different alphabetical scale.

The C Major Scale is recognized first because it is the only major scale that has No sharps or flats. On a piano, the C is the middle key of the instrument an if you play the next seven white keys from C to the right, you would play a C major scale. If you played all the white keys to the left, you would play a backward C Major Scale.

All other major scales on the piano would include one or more black keys.

I hope this helps.

Nope, it doesn't help other countries don't use the cdefgab....why do we????

When you sing do re me fa sol la ti do does it really matter what key you're in? Doesn't that melody just represent the steps between notes?

I totally missed that! It makes total sense to start the musical alphabet in the key that has no enharmonics. I knew Dave would come out to play! Silvia, i don't know what country that is, but they're backwards!

espian wrote:
Do re mi i would feel safe to say is the tonal representation of the major scale..how you would perceive it to the ear. It doesn't matter what key it's in, the key just moves up or down, and keys other than C will contain enharmonics, but it's still the major scale. I'm confused why other countries wouldn't start at C, but Dave's explanation makes total sense.

At the risk of going from the Frying Pan into the Fire here goes.

DO Re Me is called a solfege. It is usually used for singing ear training. For English and Germanic countries we use CDEFGABC.

From Wikipedia under solfege:

In music, solfège (pronounced /ˈsoʊlfɛʒ/, also called solfeggio, sol-fa, or solfa) is a pedagogical solmization technique for the teaching of sight-singing in which each note of the score is sung to a special syllable, called a solfège syllable (or "sol-fa syllable"). The seven syllables normally used for this practice in English-speaking countries are: do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, and ti (with a chromatic scale of ascending di, ri, fi, si, li and descending te, le, se, me, ra).

Traditionally, solfège is taught in a series of exercises of gradually increasing difficulty, each of which is also known as a "solfège". By extension, the word "solfège" may be used of an instrumental étude. Solfège is taught at many conservatories of music. For example, in the 1960s The Juilliard School hired the late, well-known solfège expert Renee Longy to teach solfège to many instrumentalists and singers.

THIS IS THE IMPORTANT PART.....In the Romance countries of Europe and Latin America, these seven syllables have come to be used to name the notes of the scale, instead of the letters C, D, E, F, G, A and B. (For example, they would say, "Beethoven's ninth symphony is in Re minor".) In Germanic countries, the letters are used for this purpose, and the solfège syllables are encountered only for their use in sight-singing and ear training. (They would say, "Beethoven's ninth symphony is in D minor".) Japan uses traditional kana order (iroha) to correspond to Anglo-American note names.

For all the gory details see:


en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solf%C3%A8ge

I beleive that you would find the CDEFGABC in Germany and Great Britian but the Do RE ME in Spain, Portugal, etc. I could go on but I think this should do it.

Sleep tight Sylvia. Hope this helps. Be kind in your reply. Kudos greatfully accepted.