3-4-5 note songs

Christopher Bell

The National Youth Choir of Scotland recently launched this new song book with interesting and enjoyable songs designed to give singers with only the basic building blocks of solfa the chance to immediately use what they have learnt. So is it possible to write an interesting song using only 3,4 or 5 notes? This was the challenge that Christopher set a number of composers last year.  The results are astonishing and many have been workshopped and trialled with some of the NYCoS choirs, the National Girls Training Choir and other groups across the country. 

The collection is a mixture of new compositions and arrangements of existing melodies.  They are not exercises but intended to develop a bank of song material using solfa.  Even if the children know just so, mi and la, they will be able to participate! Each song is provided with stick and stave notation on photocopiable pages, and the 'how to use this book' section outlines the process needed to help the singer recognise what is written on the page and how to read it. 

We guarantee you will enjoy trying them with your own groups.

Supported by the National Youth Choir of Scotland