Grade 2 Tells You: What is Conversational Solfege?

You may hear students speaking a strange musical language while they walk, skip, and run around at recess, or enter and leave the music classroom here at TIS. You may have heard students speaking rhythm syllables "du, du-de", or "du, du-da-di," "du-di." You may have heard students singing "Do Re Mi." What you may not know is that our students in Grades 1-5 here at TIS follow a 12-step process for becoming musically literate, and these rhythm syllables and pitch solfege syllables pave the way towards their music reading and writing. Students in these grade levels have participated in Conversational Solfege Units 1-4 throughout the last three years, depending on how long they have been students at TIS. We want to give you a picture of what the learning experiences entail from start to finish when using the Conversational Solfege strategy and method. Please enjoy the following video, taken earlier in the year during Grade 2's Unit 2 inquiry, to learn more about how our children learn music literacy.