Solfege Chart (Free Printable)
Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti with the scale degree and interval each syllable stands for, the Curwen / Kodály hand sign for every one drawn out, and moveable do next to fixed do in whichever key you teach in. Switch to the hand sign flash cards for a cut-apart set. Hit Print or Download PDF for either sheet on one US Letter page — no signup. The scale each syllable is sitting on is on the piano scales chart.
Prints on one US Letter page. Set margins to "None" for the sharpest result.
Solfege Chart
The major scale sung in syllables · moveable do set to C major · Curwen / Kodály hand signs
The seven syllables
| Sign | Syllable | Deg. | Degree name | From do | In C | Fixed do | Making the sign |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Do (doh) | 1 | Tonic | Unison — home | C | Do | Closed fist, palm down, held at waist height | |
| Re (ray) | 2 | Supertonic | Major 2nd | D | Re | Flat hand, palm down, angled up about 45° | |
| Mi (mee) | 3 | Mediant | Major 3rd | E | Mi | Flat hand held level, palm facing the floor | |
| Fa (fah) | 4 | Subdominant | Perfect 4th | F | Fa | Fist with the thumb pointing straight down | |
| Sol (soh) | 5 | Dominant | Perfect 5th | G | Sol | Flat hand turned vertical, palm facing you | |
| La (lah) | 6 | Submediant | Major 6th | A | La | Relaxed hand, palm down, fingers hanging | |
| Ti (tee) | 7 | Leading tone | Major 7th | B | Si | Fist with the index finger pointing up at do | |
| Do (doh) | 8 | Tonic, octave up | Perfect octave | C | Do | The fist again, now up at eye level |
Where each sign sits in front of you
The signs climb as the scale climbs, so the singer sees the distance as well as hearing it. Keep them out in front of your body where the whole room can see the shape.
Moveable do vs fixed do
Do is the note the key calls home, so the syllables move with the key: in C major, Do = C and Sol = G. The syllable names the note’s job, so a tune sung in one key transfers straight to any other. This is the system behind Kodály teaching, ear training and sight-singing.
Minor keys are usually la-based: natural minor runs La Ti Do Re Mi Fa Sol La and shares its relative major’s syllables. Some programs use do-based minor instead: Do Re Me Fa Sol Le Te Do.
Do is always C, in every key. C = Do, D = Re, E = Mi, F = Fa, G = Sol, A = La, B = Si. Sharps and flats keep the syllable — F and F♯ are both Fa — so the syllable is a name for the letter, not for the scale degree.
Standard in France, Italy, Spain and Latin America and at many conservatories. Faster for reading in lots of keys, weaker for hearing what a note is doing. In C major the two systems agree — change the key to watch them come apart.
Chromatic syllables
Di, Ri, Fi, Si, Li are said dee, ree, fee, see, lee · Te, Le, Se, Me are said tay, lay, say, may · Ra is said rah.
printablepolly.com/solfege-chart
How to Use a Solfege Chart
1. The syllable names the job, not the note
Do is home, Sol is the note that leans back toward it, and Ti is the one that cannot wait to resolve up. That is why a class can sing a tune in F on Monday and in D on Tuesday using the same syllables — the sound of Do to Sol is a perfect fifth in every key. The distances behind the syllables are laid out on the music theory basics chart, which covers intervals, scales and dynamics on one page.
2. Add the hand signs before you add the staff
Curwen’s eight shapes give a young singer somewhere to put the pitch before they can read one. Start with Sol and Mi — the two most children sing naturally — then add La, then Do and Re. Keep the signs out in front of your body and let them climb as the scale climbs: Do at the waist, the octave Do up at eye level. Sing the syllable every time you make the sign; the sign on its own teaches nothing.
3. Decide moveable or fixed once, then be consistent
Moveable do teaches the ear what a scale degree feels like; fixed do teaches the eye a second name for every letter. Both are legitimate and neither converts to the other mid-lesson. If your students will be doing ear training and singing by ear, choose moveable do — and use the key selector above to print the chart with Do already set to the key you are working in.
4. Move Do around the circle once it sticks
The moment moveable do makes sense is the moment a student sees the same syllables land on different letters. Print the chart in C, then in G, then in F, and put it next to the circle of fifths — one step clockwise moves Do up a fifth and adds one sharp, and Ti is always the sharp that the key signature just added. The key signatures chart shows what that looks like written on the staff.
5. Put the syllables against a rhythm
Solfege carries pitch only, so a Kodály lesson pairs it with rhythm syllables — ta for a quarter note, ti-ti for a pair of eighths. Which is which is on the note values chart. Once students can sing a phrase in syllables and clap it, write it down: grab blank staff paper and have them notate the tune they just sang, syllables written underneath.
Printable PDF
The chart above is the whole thing — all eight syllables with their degrees, intervals and hand signs, the moveable-do and fixed-do columns side by side, and the chromatic syllables, on one US Letter page. Print the chart for the wall and a set of the flash cards for the carpet. No signup, no watermark.
Make this chart last
Flash cards that get held up every morning want 65 lb cardstock and a laminating pouch, and the wall chart lasts longer behind lamination too. Our guide to the best printing supplies for charts and worksheets compares the cardstock, ink, laminating pouches and sheet protectors worth buying.
More Printable Music Charts
Music Theory Basics
Notes, keys, intervals & dynamics
🎯Circle of Fifths
Where do moves to in every key
🎶Note Values Chart
The rhythm side of the same lesson
🎹Piano Scales
Major, minor, pentatonic & blues
🎼Key Signatures Chart
All 15 keys in treble & bass clef
🎼Staff Paper
Blank staves to notate what you sang
🎼Bass Clef Notes
Lines, spaces & ledger notes named
🎹Chord Inversions Chart
Do-mi-sol stacked three ways
FAQ
What are the seven solfege syllables?
Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti — sung do, ray, mee, fah, soh, lah, tee — and then Do again an octave higher. They map onto scale degrees 1 through 7 of a major scale, so Do is the tonic, Sol is the fifth, and Ti is the leading tone that pulls back up to Do.
What is the difference between moveable do and fixed do?
In moveable do, Do is whatever note the key calls home: in G major Do is G, in E flat major Do is E flat. The syllable tells you the note's job in the key, which is why moveable do is the system used for ear training and sight-singing in most English-speaking classrooms. In fixed do, Do is always C no matter the key, so the syllable is simply another name for the letter — C is Do, D is Re, E is Mi, and F sharp is still Fa. Fixed do is standard in France, Italy, Spain and Latin America and at many conservatories.
Are these Kodály hand signs or Curwen hand signs?
Both names describe the same eight shapes. John Curwen built them into his Tonic Sol-fa method in nineteenth-century England, and Zoltán Kodály's method adopted them in twentieth-century Hungary, which is why a chart in a US classroom is usually labelled Kodály. The signs rise in front of the body as the scale rises — Do around the waist, the octave Do up at eye level — so the singer sees the distance between two pitches as well as hearing it.
How do you sing sharps and flats in solfege?
Altered notes get their own syllables. Going up, the raised versions end in the 'ee' sound: Di, Ri, Fi, Si, Li. Coming down, the lowered versions end in 'ay': Te, Le, Se, Me — plus Ra, which is said 'rah'. So a chromatic scale up from Do runs Do Di Re Ri Mi Fa Fi Sol Si La Li Ti Do, and back down Do Ti Te La Le Sol Se Fa Mi Me Re Ra Do.
What is the solfege for a minor scale?
Most Kodály classrooms use la-based minor: the natural minor scale is sung La Ti Do Re Mi Fa Sol La, borrowing the syllables of its relative major, so A minor and C major share one set of syllables. Some programs prefer do-based minor, which keeps Do on the tonic and alters the third, sixth and seventh: Do Re Me Fa Sol Le Te Do. Pick one and stay with it — mixing the two in the same room is what confuses students.
Why is it Ti in some charts and Si in others?
The original Italian syllables ended Sol, La, Si. Sarah Glover renamed the seventh Ti in her English sol-fa so that all seven syllables start with a different letter and can be written as single letters — d r m f s l t. Moveable-do charts therefore use Ti and keep Si free for the raised fifth, while fixed-do charts, which never need a raised-fifth syllable, still call B by its old name Si.
Is this solfege chart free to print?
Yes — pick the reference chart or the hand sign flash cards, choose the key you teach in, then click Print or Download PDF and it lands on one US Letter page. No signup, no watermark, and no limit on copies for a classroom or a studio.