... Is Solfeggio Useful?

I didn't dislike them, but I won't raise my hand because I can't say they were fun!

Carlos wrote:

Agreed. While maintaining the concept that, anyway, everything cannot always and in any case be fun and that a bit of "effort" is necessary, in music as in any discipline one wants to approach seriously... otherwise it sends the message that "either I have fun or the teacher doesn't understand a damn thing," but that's not necessarily true: learning how to subdivide for a week is not fun at all, especially for a child, but one must learn it

Carlos, it was a hyperbole... but I am generally convinced that once the theoretical subjects are done, for a good 70...80% you can have fun, if not literally cracking up with laughter, at least feeling a certain satisfaction and pleasure; which is different from boredom and the sensation of the "means" being useless. Otherwise, we wouldn't be here talking about it.

Carlos wrote:

... we did all the scales and arpeggios, didn't we? Raise your hand if you think they were fun... nobody? Hmm... how strange!

Let's just say that besides having done them... I also had to perform them for an exam (as did you, for that matter) ... and you know well that pianists didn't do it (but rightly they must study them). Now I don't know.

I assure you that I used to play arpeggios through various harmonic progressions and I had quite a bit of fun; maybe I'm a masochist... Of course, if you take Hanon or Mannino and sit there reading note by note, repeating it like a mantra from morning till night: "why am I even doing this" and with the teacher humoring you because they don't feel like it...

(Today I feel rhetorical; the arpeggio is a metaphor, let's replace the word solfeggio)

... do you understand that music changes?

Carlos wrote:

learning how to subdivide a week is not fun at all

...a memory surfaced regarding the words that were often used to try and memorize rhythmic scanning... instead of the usual Celibidache ( ) for the quintuplet "por-ca-put-xx-na", for the week "por-ca-put-xx-xx-vac-ca"...

Not exactly suitable for children, but certain adolescents loved it

Ok, I've written today's stupidity

the best word I know for the quintet is "psychopath", because it holds up even if you only think of it with the accent on the first syllable ...

anyway, I loved solfeggio; I always experienced it like a crossword puzzle, I always took my methods into the bathroom...

i started studying in my town's marching band, so with the precise goal of playing. I started playing at 13-14 years old and took the solfeggio exam at 17, preparing for it in 3 months. All quite late compared to the average pianist, probably

thallo wrote:

i always used to take the methods into the bathroom...

It didn't turn out very well, I wouldn't want someone to think you were bringing them to stimulate the act of defecating

Jokes aside, I also had this habit (of going to the bathroom with my pastime eheheh) and fitting irregular groups together was like solving a sudoku... but what kind of school are you attending?

thallo wrote:

the best word I know for the quintina is "psicopatico", because it holds up even if you only think of it with the accent on the first syllable ...

anyway, I loved solfeggio; I always experienced it like a crossword puzzle, I always took my methods into the bathroom...

i started studying in my town's marching band, so with the precise goal of playing. I started playing at 13-14 years old and took the solfeggio exam at 17, preparing for it in 3 months. All quite late compared to the average pianist, probably

Natan wrote:

It didn't turn out very well for you; I wouldn't want someone to think you were bringing them to stimulate the act of defecating

Jokes aside, I also had this habit (of going to the bathroom with my pastime eheheh) and fitting irregular groups together was like solving a sudoku... but what school are you attending?

Ahahah you won't believe it but I also always took Ciriaco to the bathroom... They were truly solfeggi of...

thallo wrote:

the best word I know for the quintuplet is "psychopath", because it holds up even if you only think of it with the accent on the first...

We have 5-syllable words with the accent on the penultimate syllable, i.e., paroxytone (almost all of them, e.g., torrefaziòne), few, perhaps some proper names, with the accent on the antepenultimate syllable, i.e., proparoxytone (such as psicopàtico). The quintuplet, in its original form, is characterized by the absence of internal accentuation within the irregular group (except, logically, for different indications from the composer at a particular musical moment, but that's a different story), ergo there is no word that can be used to learn the quintuplet: it is an error, because it perpetuates the insane habit of pronouncing the quintuplet as if it were, in reality, a triplet plus a duplet (Ce-li-bi/dà-che) or a duplet plus a triplet (psi-co/pà-ti-co). The reality is that to learn how to say the quintuplet correctly, one should use, if anything, two three-syllable words, but one oxytone and the other paroxytone (so that the third syllable of the first and the first syllable of the second are equally short and half the length of the others), and placed, as they should be, one on the downbeat and the other on the upbeat: the difficulty of the quintuplet is precisely that: dividing it so that the upbeat "falls" exactly halfway through the third sound. E.g., verità - balèna: by pronouncing them correctly, a quintuplet is formed where the third sound is perfectly divided (VE - RI - Tà/Ba - LE - NA) and, once one has learned to pronounce it this way, one can eliminate the first syllable of the second word and will know how to say a perfectly placed quintuplet in a subdivided movement (VE - RI - Tà/[...] - LE - NA).

Sorry Thallo, I have nothing against you (nor against psychopaths), but I see too many people who cannot pronounce, neither vocally nor with the instrument, a clean rhythm that is one: for me it is such an important matter that I do not miss any opportunity to carry on my "crusade."

Why do you say the quintina has no accents? One should have it, the accent on the first note

thallo wrote:

Why do you say the quintina has no accents? One should have it, the accent on the first note

I forgive you because you have a fever; I wrote that the quintina, in its original form, is characterized by the absence of internal accentuation within the irregular group, meaning that none of the sounds (except for the first one, as in any other group of notes, from the duina onwards) should be accented; therefore, no word (at least in our language) can be used to exemplify it.

ok :-) the adjective "internal" can be misunderstood... it's not that the first note is "external" ;-) I agree on the Italian words, in fact, speaking of "psicopatico" [psychopathic], I said that it seems to me like a word that "holds" an imaginary accentuation only on the first syllable (which is then the point you explained better)

What a beautiful discussion! I am arriving late.

I quote the concept that one must always keep in mind the connection with reality. A theory and solfeggio teacher must propose examples and listening sessions to stimulate the student to understand the importance of rhythm. It is better to do less, compared to the programs, rather than bore the student, who might even turn away from Music! This happened to me as a boy. One day my father gave me a 45 rpm record of Rubinstein playing two Chopin polonaises. I was already playing the old family piano "by ear". I managed to reproduce in my own way the "military" polonaise, the one in A major. My mother decided to have me listen to a concert pianist who lived in our neighborhood. I had just "decoded" by ear the second nocturne of op. 9 and I played it. The fact is that our piano was half a tone flat and I played the nocturne all half a tone sharp. The pianist was amazed by this "reading" transposition of mine, but when she discovered that there was no "reading" involved at all, her attitude changed. She said it was impossible.

The episode did not stop there. They decided to put me through SOLFEGGIO. I went from the joy of Music to the "prison" of boring study. I stopped playing the instrument for a long period. I was bored and disappointed to discover that in Music there was only dry theory....but that was what the teacher showed me. It was a trauma. Only later did I understand and meet people who brought me back to the piano.

Music is a joy and an immense experience. It is evident that there exists an "abyssal" vision of deepening studies and....one never finishes learning and discovering. The important thing is that this deepening, from the most elementary to the most advanced, happens at the right time and in the right way. A good teacher can slowly lead their student by the hand "through the Himalaya". Joy and "natural commitment" must not be lacking. Therefore, I invoke example and listening in parallel with the study of Theory and Solfeggio, and I share a method that cares about fixing well "in mind", even with figurative examples, fundamental topics such as tonality, simple and compound meters, accentuations, etc. Happy Solfeggio!!!