I really shocked my Bass Teacher, when I just opened my mouth and SANG them. [snip] Even though Steve was an Excellent Musician and Bassist (Played with Peter Frampton for ten years!), he still found it amazing and amusing that I could sing the weirder modes without thinking about it first.
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My teacher (who studied with Coltrane’s teacher - just wanted to drop that in there) simply applied the do re mi syllables to modes, so to sing the aeolian mode, you’re just singing the major scale (ionian mode) starting with la.
But having memorized the modes and singing them without thought, it’s pretty impressive.
Now if you can sing diabolus in musica out of the air ...
Solfeggio is a brilliant system for teaching melody (and sight-singing).
Brother Guido did a good job!
It is so exciting that we have had teachers who are connected with the Giants! My Voice teacher with whom I studied for 15 years, studied with Marjorie Lawrence and Renata Scotto.
So we have been in GOOD company! :-)