Roadmap:
Play Melodies By Ear (Solfa)

This is a preview of a Musical U Roadmap.
Roadmaps are a “big picture” guide to developing a particular musical skill. Learn more about Roadmaps here.

Phase 1: Fundamentals

Before starting to learn solfa and how to play melodies by ear is it important to understand how pitch works, what exactly your sense of “relative pitch” is and how it will allow you to play by ear.

Start by taking the Ear Expansion: Pitch module. You might be surprised by how powerful and subtle this simple concept is in music!

Then move on to the Ear Expansion: Intervals module which explain the “what, why and how” of intervals and relative pitch, providing context for the solfa framework you’ll be learning:

As you will learn in this module, solfa is one of three approaches to recognising intervals, and it is the one this Roadmap will focus on.

Phase 2: Solfa Preparation

Continue learning how interval recognition works with the Learning Intervals module. This will introduce you to three methods: Reference Songs, Solfa, and “Just Doing It”.

Note: This Roadmap is based on you focusing on the Solfa framework. You should however feel free to explore the other two approaches, and you can find more information on this in the alternative Roadmap, Playing Melodies By Ear (Intervals).

Learn the details of solfa with the dedicated module, Start Solfa:

In this module you learn how solfa works and how it can be used to identify the notes in a song. You will also learn some basic singing exercises you can use to begin training your solfa skills.

Phase 3: Start Learning Solfa!

Now it’s time to begin practising solfa note recognition. As you learned in Start Solfa there is a certain type of scale, the major pentatonic, which is very common in music and is a great starting point for learning to recognise notes by ear using solfa.

In this Phase you will use either the Interval Recognition 1 module, or if you have an iOS device you can use the SingTrue app, to learn to recognise the notes of the major pentatonic scale: do, re, mi, so, la, do’

The Interval Recognition 1 module provides plenty of practice material for you to train your solfa skills:

Don’t aim to complete the module (unless you want to!). For now, aim to pass the “ascending” and “descending” levels of lessons covering the following types of interval:

unison, major second, minor third, major third, perfect fourth, perfect fifth, major sixth, perfect octave

These correspond to the solfa notes you will need for the major pentatonic:

Solfa Note	Interval from “do”
do	unison
re	major second
mi	major third
so	perfect fifth
la	major sixth
do	perfect octave

and a few more which appear between different notes of the major pentatonic scale.

If you have an iOS device you can get the interactive SingTrue app for free as part of your Musical U membership and this provides an easy and convenient alternative to the Interval Recognition 1 module for building your solfa note recognition skills:

As always, we want to connect your listening skills with your instrument. Once you’re getting the hang of the major pentatonic scale in solfa, start to connect it with your instrument practice:

This is also a good time to increase your fluidity and comfort with the notes of the major pentatonic scale. Here’s a fun exercise to include in your training:

Phase 4: Playing By Ear Preparation

Playing music by ear is a topic which causes a lot of confusion and misunderstandings among musicians.

Before continuing with your own play-by-ear training, take a bit of time to explore two modules which will help you get 100% clear on what “playing by ear” is – and what it isn’t.

The Start Playing By Ear module gives you the full low-down on playing by ear, clarifying what this ability involves, the various skills required to do it, and helping you take your first steps in playing by ear yourself.

Then check out the Play-By-Ear Process module which provides examples of a musician going through the process of figuring out songs by ear.

As these two modules explain, knowing the key of a song can greatly accelerate the process of figuring out the notes of the melody, by revealing the tonic (“do” in solfa) and the type of scale used. In Finding the Key you’ll learn a simple 4-step process to find the key of a song by ear:

Begin trying to use this process now, and then continue developing your key-finding skills as the next Phases progress.

Phase 5: Start Playing Melodies By Ear

Now that your solfa skills are getting solid and you understand how playing by ear works, it’s time to do it!

We’ll start off simple. Don’t worry that the melodies you really want to play by ear are more complicated than these ones you’re starting with. They are all built on the same foundational structure and you will quickly find your ability to tackle complex melodies growing, as long as you start off simple and proceed with patience.

Focus on the first two lessons of the Melody Practice: Major Pentatonic module which will help you to start figuring out melodies by ear:

These lessons explain which solfa notes are present in the scale being used and you can use the “Solfa” version of the Training and Testing tracks to apply your solfa note recognition skills to figure out the melodies by ear.

These melodies may be simple, but you should still take pride in the fact that you are doing it! You are now playing melodies by ear on your instrument.

Phase 6: Play Major Pentatonic Melodies

The remainder of the Melody Practice: Major Pentatonic module will extend your skills to the full “major pentatonic” scale. This is a powerful stage to reach since this scale is so prevalent in music. Even when you encounter melodies which use other notes, often the major pentatonic will give you a great starting point for playing them by ear.

Finish applying your solfa recognition skills to the full set of intervals present in the major pentatonic by completing this module:

Then there are two exercises you can do to connect your skills to your instrument:

You should start to feel a real sense of satisfaction, as these melodies are becoming more and more like the music you hear every day!