do re mi or C D E?

Question

I'm Japanese. In Japan we usually use "do re mi" as a musical scale.I hear people in US usually use "C D E", and seldom use "do re mi".Is that true?Thanks a lot.

BarbaraPA · Accepted Answer

The C-major scale goes C D E F G A B C - but if you sing it, it's do re mi fa so la ti do. (Thank you, Julie Andrews.)

The G-major scale goes G A B C D E F# G - I don't think we have "fa-sharp"

CalifJim · Answer

C D E ... is for the absolute pitches. do re mi ... is for relative pitches, not for absolute pitches as they are used in some countries. do re mi is F G A, for example, in the key of F major, but do re mi is Ab Bb C in the key of Ab major, and so on.

The French, for example, talk about a symphony in re mineur (re minor), but in American English we would always call this a symphony in D minor, because the absolute pitch is D.

And there are names for the sharp and flat versions of the do re mi syllables. For example, the fourth degree of a scale raised a half step is fi, the second step lowered is ra, etc.

The school I went to used 1 2 3 instead of do re mi.

CJ

BarbaraPA · Answer

CJ, I learned something new here. I thought "do" was always C.

CalifJim · Answer

Yes, the syllable names have been "movable" to different scales ever since the day they were invented by Guido d'Arezzo in the first half of the eleventh century!

CJ

BarbaraPA · Answer

As always, the breadth of your knowledge is astonishing!

Yankee · Answer

Grammar Geek... C D E F G A B C ...

When I went to Germany, I was amazed to discover that they also use "H".

CalifJim · Answer

Yes, their H is our B. Their B is our Bb. They also have a few other unusual ones, like S (Es) for Eb.

Good thing they had H -- it enabled Bach to write a few passages on the theme B A C H, thus cleverly "signing" his name within the melody itself! Other composers have used the same four-note figure in music written in homage to Bach. (Much later, Dmitri Shostakovich, spelling in German, used the same technique with the theme D S C H in his Symphony No. 10.)

The whole idea of "flats" started with the B -- the first and, for some time, the only note allowed to have a flat. That's why the flat sign looks like a b. To distinguish them, they wrote a b in a very curved style (for modern Bb) and a B in a very squared-off style (for modern B). The squared-off form looked almost like two rectangles, one above the other -- which, with a little modification, became an H. The sharp and natural signs are also both derivatives of the squarish B.

CJ

Sorry to be so off-topic.

Anonymous · Answer

is there any place I can find the U.S. equivalentes to European notes
do re mi fa sol la si.... I want to teach my son both...

BarbaraPA · Answer

You could, for example, read this thread.

CalifJim · Answer

Anonymousthe U.S. equivalentes to European notes
do re mi fa sol la si....

Grammar Geek has already answered this. U.S. CDEFGAB = European do re mi fa sol la si

(That last one is ti in English, but you guys have si there.)

CJ

do re mi or C D E?

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