The Recovering Choir Director

A reader inquired about how he could use the GNU Solfege freeware ear-training program to help acquire foundational skills required to learn Gregorian Chant. This is an interesting question; GNU Solfege covers a lot of material beyond the minimum required for Gregorian Chant, and yet lacks features best addressed by actually singing in a schola cantorum or at a Mass where singing of the chant is regularly employed.

This tutorial will show the student of chant how to use GNU Solfege to solidify recognition of the subset of melodic intervals employed in Gregorian chant. The only prerequisite to this tutorial is that the student can recognize pitches. Terminology unfamiliar to the student will become more familiar once he begins to assimilate the tutorial into his mind’s ear.

Students and teachers who wish to follow this tutorial step-by-step are encouraged to download and install GNU Solfege and its supporting programs on their computer before continuing with the rest of the tutorial.

Melodic intervals

Without getting into too much detail, the term “interval” is used to describe the difference in pitch between two given notes. “Melody” can be defined as a succession of notes, varying in pitch and rhythm, that the mind perceives as a unity. For the purposes of this tutorial, a “melodic interval” is a melody of two notes.

Gregorian chant employs the following melodic intervals (solmization syllables in parentheses):

• Unisons (do-do, re-re, mi-mi, fa-fa, sol-sol, la-la, ti-ti)
• Ascending intervals
  • Minor seconds (mi-fa, la-te*, ti-do)
  • Major seconds (do-re, re-mi, fa-sol, sol-la, te-do)
  • Minor thirds (re-fa, mi-sol, sol-te, la-do, ti-re)
  • Major thirds (do-mi, fa-la, sol-ti, te-re)
  • Perfect fourths (do-fa, re-sol, mi-la, sol-do, la-re, ti-mi)
  • Perfect fifths (do-sol, re-la, mi-ti, fa-do, sol-re, la-mi)
• Descending intervals
  • Minor seconds (do-ti, te-la, fa-mi)
  • Major seconds (la-sol, sol-fa, mi-re, re-do)
  • Minor thirds (re-ti, do-la, sol-mi, fa-re)
  • Major thirds (re-te, ti-sol, la-fa, mi-do)
  • Perfect fourths (mi-ti, re-la, do-sol, la-mi, sol-re, fa-do)
  • Perfect fifths (mi-la, re-sol, do-fa, ti-mi, la-re, sol-do)

*”te” is used for the B-flat.

With that bit of information out of the way, we can now dive into this tutorial.

Part I: Ascending Melodic Intervals

1. Open GNU Solfege.
2. Select “Intervals > Ascending Melodic Intervals…” Choose one of the following options:
   • Seconds
   • Thirds
   • Fourths and fifths
   • Seconds and thirds
3. Press the “New Interval” button to hear a melodic interval. If you need to hear the melodic interval a second time, press the “Repeat” button. It may be a good idea to hum the melodic interval to yourself.
4. Under the “Identify the Interval” heading, you will find sixteen buttons, only two to four of which are operational. Press one to give your answer (or guess) to the program.
5. If your answer is incorrect, GNU Solfege will tell you so. Repeat the melodic interval, sing it to yourself, and then press the correct option. If your answer is correct, GNU Solfege will confirm your answer as such and permit you to request another interval. It may be a good idea to sing the correctly identified melodic interval to one of more pairs of the solmization syllables proper to the interval before requesting a new melodic interval.
6. Repeat steps 3-5 as desired or instructed by your choir director or teacher.

Part II: Descending Melodic Intervals

1. Open GNU Solfege.
2. Select “Intervals > Descending Melodic Intervals…” Choose one of the following options:
   • Seconds
   • Thirds
   • Fourths and fifths
   • Seconds and thirds
3. Press the “New Interval” button to hear a melodic interval. If you need to hear the melodic interval a second time, press the “Repeat” button. It may be a good idea to hum the melodic interval to yourself.
4. Under the “Identify the Interval” heading, you will find sixteen buttons, only two to four of which are operational. Press one to give your answer (or guess) to the program.
5. If your answer is incorrect, GNU Solfege will tell you so. Repeat the melodic interval, sing it to yourself, and then press the correct option. If your answer is correct, GNU Solfege will confirm your answer as such and permit you to request another interval. It may be a good idea to sing the correctly identified melodic interval to one of more pairs of the solmization syllables proper to the intervalbefore requesting a new melodic interval.
6. Repeat steps 3-5 as desired or instructed by your choir director or teacher.

Part III: Ascending and Descending Melodic Intervals

1. Open GNU Solfege.
2. Select “Intervals > Melodic Intervals…” Choose one of the following options:
   • Seconds
   • Thirds
   • Fourths and fifths
   • Seconds and thirds
3. Press the “New Interval” button to hear a melodic interval. If you need to hear the melodic interval a second time, press the “Repeat” button. It may be a good idea to hum the melodic interval to yourself.
4. Under the “Identify the Interval” heading, you will find sixteen buttons, only two to four of which are operational. Press one to give your answer (or guess) to the program. Note that you need not identify an interval as ascending or descending.
5. If your answer is incorrect, GNU Solfege will tell you so. Repeat the melodic interval, sing it to yourself, and then press the correct option. If your answer is correct, GNU Solfege will confirm your answer as such and permit you to request another interval. It may be a good idea to sing the correctly identified melodic interval to one of more pairs of the solmization syllables proper to the intervalbefore requesting a new melodic interval.
6. Repeat steps 3-5 as desired or instructed by your choir director or teacher.

Keyboard-based input

You can easily change the input method from text buttons to a keyboard-style input.

1. Within any of the above exercises, press the “Config” tab underneath the menu bar.
2. Press the “Input interface” dropdown menu. Select “Piano”.
3. Click on the “Practise” tab to return to the exercise.
4. The program now places a green dot on the beginning pitch. To answer the question, the student must press the key that completes the interval relative to the beginning pitch.

Statistics

GNU Solfege allows its user to view his statistical progress over different periods of time:

• Session
• Today
• Last 7 days
• Total

Within an exercise, under the main menu bar click on the “Statistics” tab to see your performance over these time periods.

To-do

This tutorial eventually will include screenshots of GNU Solfege as well as visual examples of each of these intervals.

Feedback

I hope this tutorial is useful to both teachers and students of the chant. Constructive criticism of this tutorial is welcomed; feel free to provide feedback in the comments.

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