In Church ministry, reading music is typically viewed as a skill few people have. The questions is then: how many parishioners would have it if training was available to them: 1%? 10%?… more? We believe that by practicing the solfege exercises we have here 30 to 50 minutes each week, 100% of those who pass the below test can learn to read music in less than six months (see testimonials and acknowledgments below). Would you like to test yourself and see if you can help be a vessel of the church music tradition?

We will call this first melody “1-2-3-4-5”. Listen to it carefully (5 seconds only!). Try repeating it “in your head” silently to better remember it.

Now listen carefully to these other 6 melodies (5 seconds each), and answer the quiz:

Go to Introduction to reading the music of the mass , or directly to MOVABLE DO EXERCISES – SUM UP

Testimonials:

• This page was published on May 23rd, 2023, organizing material similar to what was used before to teach sight-reading to the children schola at the St JPII Polish Center in Yorba Linda, CA in the Winter 2022-23. The author of these pages learned to read music fluently, using square notes while in his forties.

It is true that many children and willing adults can easily pick up the Mass ordinary melodies and many of the common antiphons (e.g. season Marian antiphons and general chants) by rote, but solfege does allow a group of singers to learn more advanced repertoire more quickly.

Additionally I can think of these advantages in support of using solfege (as I do everyday with my students:

1. It helps singers sing more in tune. (I’ve had “tin-eared” students unable to match a melody using a random vowel, but immediately match the melody with solfege).
2. It helps schola members stay together when practicing the chants. The elastic rhythm and phrasing of the speech-like chant melodies can be more easily executed when all those singing know where each note is placed.
3. It helps singers understand the modes and tonailies they are singing in, which again helps with in-tune singing.
4. It reinforces good Latin vowel formation.
5. It is a method that has been taught in music conservatories for the last two millennia up until today.
6. It is easier than reading modern music in that it does not require the knowledge of key signatures in order to read in lower or higher ranges.
7. It helps singers recognize patterns and formulae in chant, which helps them become more proficient at singing the notes, thus allowing them to think about other things like praying the text.

Chant, polyphony and voice professor at FSSP seminary, answering on May 10th my request for advice about increasing the use of solfege in rehearsing choirs.

I’ve practiced with these files yesterday and today.  These exercises are amazing!   I can see why you are excited about them.  Not at level 2 yet haha but I can see that it is possible with the progression of these exercises to get there.  Thanks for putting these together.

A member of St JPII Polish Center adult schola, May 29th 2023

• On May 29th, a singer searched on a Catholic Facebook group for a popular hymn in square notes. I answered and shared this page of Movable Do exercises. Several music directors were surprised that such a combination (hymns and square notes) was even a need. Yet, 3 days after the post, this exercise page has experienced this website’s highest ever traffic and engagement, and the Facebook answer has been shared over 25 times on other Catholic music groups, especially by hymn publishers.

Acknowledgements:

This Movable Do online curriculum came to fruition by the coincidence of unlikely occurrences:

• I am a singer who became a choir director by chance, with no music degree, no piano skills, and no time to rehearse said choir more than once or twice a month. Thank you Father Benedict, Father Zibi and David L. for putting me in that position!
• Thank you to the choirmembers at the St JPII polish center who understood that singing the mass requires preparation.
• Source and Summit makes available on line a FREE software to create music sheet with square notes. Thank you Source & Summit!
• Nicholas Lemme directed me to the treasure that are the solfege sound files for Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary. Thank you to both Nicholas and the seminary!
• Chris Munce and the Choralosophy Podcast have been invaluable resources to convince me that, yes, a-cappella rehearsals are not only possible, but better for beginning choirs. Thank you Chris! I however disagree with you that church choirs do not want to learn to sight read 😉