Sight-Singing SOLFEGE VS. NUMBERS

ï¿½I had hoped to debate an expert in the field, as both my undergraduate and graduate degrees are in music, with my masters being in music education. ï¿½I also have 14 years of experience teaching vocal music from pre-K through college. ï¿½ My opponent informed me she was still in high school, so the debate will be a little off balanced. ï¿½In the comments section, she said the debate should be a fun debate. ï¿½Because I do not have a contender who is a music education expert, I agree to proceed as a fun debate. ï¿½I hope the debate is informative. Secondly, I found ddo in a google search. ï¿½I looked at a couple of debates, liked what I saw and joined. ï¿½Immediately after joining, I posted this debate, so this is my first posted debate. ï¿½(I have since accepted and finished a debate and posted a third debate in which I am currently engaged). ï¿½I apologize for the lack of organization in this debate and for the failure to post definitions. ï¿½ I accept my opponent's definitions. ï¿½I would like to clarify her definition of solfege to include the specific syllables, "do" (some systems use "ut" for the first syllable), "re, mi, fa, so" (or sol) "la," and "ti. " ï¿½The solfege syllables came from the Latin hymn, Ut Queant Laxis. ï¿½Guido d' Arezzo, a music theorist of the 11th century, noticed that the first syllables of each stanza of the hymn formed a major scale, and used those syllables to teach the scale. [1] Rebuttal: My opponent has quoted studies that determined the value of solfege and numbers to be equal in teaching sight-singing. ï¿½Let me remind the reader of the original premise of this debate in the first paragraph of the first round: "I would like to debate…concerning the method that is the best for teaching sight-singing and general musicianship. " Solfege has no value to the musician or music teacher outside of sight-singing. ï¿½ For example: I am currently teaching elementary music. ï¿½This year I focused on teaching theory to my kindergarten students. ï¿½They know lines and spaces on both treble and bass clefs. ï¿½They know all 15 major key signatures. ï¿½They name all 13 intervals in the octave (including perfect unison) every time they come to class. ï¿½They know the four types of major triads and can identify them on a keyboard. ï¿½They can define the diatonic, pentatonic, chromatic, and whole-tone scales. ï¿½They know that the major scale consists of all perfect intervals and all major intervals (PU, M2, M3, P4, P5, M6, M7, and P8). ï¿½They also know that all triads have a root (1) a third (3) and a fifth (5). ï¿½In the last quarter of the year, I began teaching sight-singing using numbers. ï¿½My students quickly learned and were doing exceptionally well. ï¿½My students instantly knew that the "3" in the scale was the same as the "major third" in their intervals and the "third" in the major triad. ï¿½Solfege would not afford them that opportunity. ï¿½Next year, I hope to teach roman numeral analysis of chords which will also correlate with their sight-singing numbers. ï¿½Solfege would be a foreign language to my students. Now, I have a question for my opponent: ï¿½Do you know as much about music theory as my kindergarten students, or does your teacher spend so much time teaching solfege, he/she doesn't have time for other things? ï¿½ Answers to my opponent's rebuttal My opponent: "Contrary to my opponent's claims, the solfï¿½ge system is not inherently complicated. Beginning students only need to be familiar with the seven main syllables: do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, and ti. Learning this simple system takes only a very short period of time. " Response:ï¿½ My original point was that solfege involves NEW learning, numbers do not. ï¿½My kindergarten students did not have to learn what syllables to sing, they knew the before they came to my class. My opponent: "When a student begins using a counting system to describe pitches, there may be some uncertainty as to which usage of numbers is intended: rhythm, pitch, volume, or something else. " Response: That is why I use "ta" and "ti" to count rhythm. ï¿½("Ta" =quarter, "ti"=eighth). [1] Grout, Donald, A History of Western Music, 1964 p. 28