Solfeggio and harmony: why study them?

From this article you will learn why some music students do not like solfeggio and harmony, why it is so important to love these teachings and practice them regularly, and what results are achieved by those who wisely approach the study of these disciplines with patience and humility.

Many musicians admit that during their years of study they did not like theoretical disciplines, simply considering them superfluous, unnecessary subjects in the program. As a rule, in a music school, solfeggio takes on such a crown: due to the intensity of the school solfeggio course, children’s music school students (especially truants) often do not have time in this subject.

At school, the situation is changing: solfeggio here appears in a “transformed” form and is liked by most students, and all the former indignation falls on harmony – a subject incomprehensible to those who failed to cope with elementary theory in the first year. Of course, it cannot be said that such statistics are accurate and characterize the attitude towards learning of the majority of students, but one thing can be said for sure: the situation of underestimation of music theoretical disciplines is extremely common.

Why is this happening? The main reason is ordinary laziness, or, to put it more decently, labor intensity. Courses in elementary music theory and harmony are built on the basis of a very rich program that must be mastered in an extremely small number of hours. This results in the intensive nature of the training and the heavy load on each lesson. None of the topics can be left without elaboration, otherwise you will not understand everything that follows, which certainly happens to those who allow themselves to skip classes or not do their homework.

The accumulation of gaps in knowledge and the constant postponement of solving pressing problems until later leads to complete confusion, which only the most desperate student will be able to sort out (and will gain a lot as a result). Thus, laziness leads to blocking the professional growth of a pupil or student due to the inclusion of inhibitory principles, for example, of this type: “Why analyze what is not clear – it’s better to reject it” or “Harmony is complete nonsense and no one except extravagant theorists needs it.” “

Meanwhile, the study of music theory in its various forms plays a huge role in the development of a musician. Thus, solfeggio classes are aimed at developing and training a musician’s most important professional instrument – ​​his ear for music. The two main components of solfeggio – singing from notes and recognition by ear – help to master two main skills:

–       see the notes and understand what kind of music is written in them;

–       hear music and know how to write it down in notes.

Elementary theory could be called the ABC of music, and harmony its physics. If theoretical knowledge allows us to identify and analyze any particles that make up music, then harmony reveals the principles of the interconnection of all these particles, tells us how music is structured from the inside, how it is organized in space and time.

Look through several biographies of any composers of the past, you will definitely find references there to those people who taught them general bass (harmony) and counterpoint (polyphony). In the matter of training composers, these teachings were considered the most important and necessary. Now this knowledge gives a solid foundation to the musician in his daily work: he knows exactly how to choose chords for songs, how to harmonize any melody, how to formulate his musical thoughts, how not to play or sing a false note, how to learn a musical text by heart very quickly, etc.

Now you know why it is so important to study harmony and solfeggio with complete dedication if you decide to become a real musician. It remains to add that learning solfeggio and harmony is pleasant, exciting and interesting.

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