Tonic solfa converter

Doh is whatever the key is. In C major, doh is C. In F major, doh is F. So the same tune has identical solfa in every key, and only the note names change.

That's the whole idea, and it's why solfa is taught the way it is: you learn the shape of a melody once, and you can sing it starting anywhere. A choir handed a piece in a key that doesn't suit them can move it without relearning anything.

It's also why the key has to be set before a conversion means anything. The same solfa maps to entirely different notes depending on what doh is.

The two systems, and why they disagree

Movable doh is what this uses, and what most choral and classroom teaching in Britain, Ireland, much of Africa and parts of Asia uses. Doh moves with the key.

Fixed doh is standard in France, Italy, Spain and much of Latin America. There, doh is always C, regardless of key, and the syllables are simply another name for the note letters.

Neither is wrong and they're genuinely different systems. Somebody trained on fixed doh reading movable doh solfa will get consistent, confident, wrong answers. If you're sharing solfa with someone, it's worth knowing which they learned.

The marks

An apostrophe after a syllable means the octave above. A comma means the octave below.

So doh is the tonic in the middle of your range, doh' is the one above it, and doh, is the one below. Two marks means two octaves.

Those are written here as an apostrophe and a comma because they survive being pasted anywhere. Printed solfa often uses a raised or lowered mark instead, and they mean the same thing.

The vowels between the notes

Sharpened and flattened notes change vowel rather than getting a symbol.

Sharpened notes take an e: doh becomes de, fah becomes fe, soh becomes se, lah becomes le.

Flattened notes take an a: ray becomes ra, me becomes ma, lah becomes la, te becomes ta.

So a rising chromatic line runs doh, de, ray, re, me, and a falling one runs te, ta, lah, la, soh. This tool assumes the rising spelling, which is the more common case in a melody.

Spelling

The syllables here are the British ones a choir actually uses: doh ray me fah soh lah te. The Continental spelling is do re mi fa sol la si, and the Americanised one uses ti rather than si for the seventh.

Both are accepted as input, because half the world writes it each way and there is no reason to be difficult about it.

Minor keys

Two conventions exist and they cause more confusion than anything else here.

La-based minor treats the relative major's lah as the tonic, so A minor uses the same syllables as C major and starts on lah. This is the traditional approach and keeps the relationship between the two keys visible.

Doh-based minor calls the minor tonic doh and flattens the third, sixth and seventh, so a minor scale runs doh ray ma fah soh la ta.

This tool converts against the major scale of the key you choose. For a piece in a minor key, choose its relative major and read the result as la-based, which is what most choral solfa does.

What it's for

Reading a melody when you were taught by solfa rather than by staff notation. Teaching a part to a choir who can hear intervals but don't read music. Transposing without rewriting anything, because the solfa doesn't change.

It converts pitch, not rhythm. Note lengths, bar lines and timing aren't part of solfa syllables and aren't handled here; bar lines you type are kept where they are so the shape stays readable.

Everything happens as you type, in your browser, and nothing is sent anywhere.