So, Why Sol-Mi?

Walk into any primary grade music class in the U.S., and you will likely hear teacher and students singing a musical greeting, such as "Good morning boys and girls" (sol-mi-mi-sol-sol-mi) and the response "Good morning Miss Purdy" (sol-mi-mi-sol-mi-mi). Since about the 1970s, teachers have been beginning and ending music class for young children by singing the sol-mi interval and treating this interval as a foundation for further music study. So, why solmil?

What prompted teachers to use sol-mi as a pedagogical approach to tonal literacy? Why has it been so enthusiastically implemented? Is it a valid starting point for children's study of music?

After thirty years of using sol-mi as a first step to teaching melody to children, dialogue about this practice seems warranted. The questions and propositions in this article invite that exchange. What do you think?

Importation as Innovation

The initial practice of singing two-note sol-mi and three-note sol-mi-la songs in music classes for children coincided with at least two trends in American education in the 1960s and 1970s: (1) the country was clamoring for increased academic accountability and achievement in education and (2) methodologies developed in other countries (Suzuki, Dalcroze, Orff, Kodály) were being imported and adopted for teaching music to children.

As intense scrutiny was aimed at educational programs, we welcomed the new emphases on music study, sequence, and achievement that these foreign methods offered. Though some music educators worried about adoption without adaptation, those voices of caution are now mainly silent.

Philosophies and practices of the Kodály and Orff approaches, in particular, brought the sol-mi interval to the forefront of elementary music education. These methodologies undeniably have strengthened pedagogical understandings and practices in American music education. American music teachers have gained expertise from implementing international models, but what might we also have lost in doing so? Although the principles of these great educators seem sound, the practices developed in their names deserve reconsideration.

Over time, educational trends (e.g., rhythm and sol-fa syllables, hand signs, simplified notation, curricular sequence) often become almost seamlessly embedded in classroom content, no longer used because of their connection to a particular author, line of thinking, or methodology. Lines that delineate the origin of an idea blur, and once-new thoughts become habits of mind. The...