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2009.02.07 - Tonic Sol-fa

As you know well, in English, the Si of Do Re Mi Fa So La Si Do becomes Ti. So it's Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do in US, UK and other English-speaking countries.

The older So la Si Do system was created in Italy in the 11th century and has been in use throughout Europe, but a new system called Tonic Solfa was invented in the 19th century in Britain. And the new system uses Ti instead of Si.

Here's why they changed Si to Ti.

In Tonic Solfa, you have a name for each note of not only the white keys but also the black keys of piano. For instance, Do with a sharp is Di, and So with a flat is Se. Sharpened notes take the i vowel and flatted notes take the e vowel.



The flatted Re is Ra. As mentioned, the rule is to change the vowel to e when flatted, but it's inappropriate in Re's case since it already has the e sound. So it takes the a vowel instead.

Sharpened So becomes Si, as you see above, and this causes a problem with the old system. Because the note right before Do is also Si. Therefore they renamed the latter one Ti.

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