Solfa (also called “Solfége”) boils down to a nice accessible way of learning to sing and recognise musical patterns. There’s a whole history and theory behind it, which you can find on Google.
The main point here is learning to sing “do re mi” with the hand signs. Scroll down to the demonstration video below if you want to skip straight to that part.
In essence, Do will be the first note of our scale (the “tonic”). Do changes depending on what scale we are playing so if we are in D major it will be D. If we are in G major it will be G and so on.
At the beginner level, we do almost everything in the key of D Major so our Do will be D.
Hand Signs
Each note in the “tone ladder” below has a hand sign associated with it. Start at the Bottom of the ladder and work your way up. As you go up the ladder, the pitch gets higher.
Demonstration
Writing about it makes it sound like more of a big deal than it is so here’s a video to demonstrate. Sing along and try the hand signs!
Sound of Music
Probably the most famous or recognisable example is the “Do Re Mi” song from Sound of Music. It’s fun to sing!