Weeks 3-4 · ear · three-degree solfège with established tonic
Add La. Three solfège pitches under one tonic.
The rule
pass: PAT-A on 8 of 10 (each note ≤ 45¢, contour exact)
Three lanes — La, Sol, Mi — each with its own ±45¢ band. Every trial sends one dot to each lane; the trial passes only if all three dots are in the band andtheir order matches the prompt. The common failure is collapsing La to Sol (singing “close enough” instead of the extra whole step up) — that’s a contour fail even if each note’s cent error is small.
Hear it first
Three references at the same tonic: La-Sol-Mi walking down (resolution feel), Mi-Sol-La walking up (opening feel), and a Sol-La-Mi mixed pattern. La sits a whole-step above Sol — that’s the new step you’re adding to the vocabulary from so-mi.
What’s happening.Sol-Mi was one interval (minor third). La adds a second relationship: La-Sol is a whole step, and La-Mi is a perfect fourth. With three degrees you’re no longer echoing a single gap — you’re holding a small scale in your head and producing arbitrary orderings of it. Untrained singers can echo two-note shapes fine but stumble at three — the second interval drifts toward whichever is more familiar.
Why three notes, why these three. Sol, La, and Mi are the highest-frequency degrees in folk repertoire (counts across children’s songs put them above 60% of all notes). They’re also the degrees that sit comfortably in untrained speaking range without forcing the passaggio. 45¢ per note plus a 2.0-second hold guarantees you’re tuning, not gliding through. Contour-exact rules out fudging the second pitch by drifting toward the third — every step must commit.
Why this is the bridge.This is the smallest pattern that’s recognizably a melody. Every downstream lesson — degree-prompts-from-tonic, major-pentachord, third-echo with mixed quality, melodic dictation — assumes you can move between three named degrees under one anchor. Lock the three-note vocabulary here and the diatonic scale slots on top without re-learning each step.
Session ahead
10 prompts · tonic arpeggio cue then three-note La/Sol/Mi pattern · hold each note inside ±45¢ for 2.0s · 8/10 with contour exact promotes.