Solfège and Ear Training: Beginner 401 (Harmonic Minor)

Sad, yet spooky...let's discuss the harmonic minor scale and it's related solfege.

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Description

Have you ever wondered how to think of melodies in a way where you can make sense of the notes? 
Are you sick of melodic information being vague and unfamiliar? 
Are you looking to expand your musicianship and learn the vocabulary of solfege to help you gain context for your melodic decisions? 

You've come to the right place!


We're going to expand from our previous course on natural minor scales, and now cover Do-Re-Me-Fa-So-Le-Ti-Do.  In other words, the full harmonic minor scale.  Building these courses in small chunks allows students to saturate in each scale's environment, learning it's colors and characteristics, and then expanding their knowledge with each additional course. 

This beginner course offers all of the information you'll need before progressing into the next course where we mix up major and minor scales.  We are now going to mix up some of the past intervals from both major and minor scales, and also introduce augmented and diminished 7th chords.  The number of ear tests in this course is HUGE, so get ready to be tested on numerous ways of hearing harmonic minor solfege, and it's relation to chords.

Designed to teach absolute beginners, or help fill in some knowledge of intermediate level students, this course is worth going through even if you think you know the basics well.  You never know which rock you'll overturn to find out something new within this vast topic of solfege!

Solfege helped me personally as a musician, as it gave me a language to make sense of how I was coloring my jazz chords as a pianist, and gave me an understandable vocabulary as a soloist so that my improvisations had intent and confidence behind them.  Solfege is now always available to me to better understand and demystify the music I listen to, as well as inform my decisions as a composer and performer.

You don't have to be a pro singer to take these courses, BUT being able to sing on pitch is a solid benefit.  You can think of understanding pitch sort of like understanding a language.  If you only ever read it or think it, you can still understand it, but as you get speaking it your understanding of the language becomes more developed and confident.  So, even if you don't sing well, at least try your best during the ear test portions.

This course is NOT a course on sight singing.  While the material covered will certainly help you improve your ability to sight sing, providing you have separate instruction as to how to develop that specific skill, these classes will not cover any form of music notation at this stage.  From taking these courses you will eventually be able to understand note selection in melodies of songs you hear, and have more confidence when writing your own melodies.  However, singing music off of a staff will not be developed until later courses.

So, if you're ready to demystify melodies, improve your musicianship, and improve your understanding of scales and solfege, then this course is for you.

What You Will Learn!

  • Become more familiar with the degrees of a harmonic minor scale
  • Find out what solfège contributes to this spookier side of minor
  • Improve your overall knowledge of solfège
  • Train your ear through plenty of ear tests
  • Challenge yourself through singback, ear test, and reverse ear test environments
  • Learn about augmented and diminished 7th chords

Who Should Attend!

  • Beginner singers looking to better understand solfège and the harmonic minor scale
  • Composers / Music Producers looking to improve their understanding of minor melodies
  • Music theory enthusiasts looking to test their ears
  • Instrumentalists looking to improve their understanding of scale degrees
  • Improvisers looking to be more intuitive with their melodic/harmonic decisions
  • Musicians looking to improve their knowledge of solfège before taking a post-secondary entrance exam
  • Pianists looking for supplementary material to compliment the '4-star Sight Reading and Ear Test' series
  • Students in choir looking to accelerate their knowledge of solfège