“Moveable Do” and “Fixed Do” are two different solfege (note reading) systems used to learn musical scales. Each has its own characteristics and advantages.
Fixed Do
In “Fixed Do”, the notes Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, and Si correspond to absolute pitches (C, D, E, F, G, A, and B). For example, “Do” always refers to the note C, and “Re” refers to the note D, no matter what key it is. This system is mainly useful for training absolute pitch and for reading sheet music directly. It is particularly used in classical music education, and is suitable for cultivating the ability to instantly understand pitch by looking at sheet music.
Moveable Do
On the other hand, “Moveable Do” assigns note names based on the function of the scale. For example, “Do” in C major is C, but in G major, G is “Do”, and the note names change depending on the key. This system is effective for training relative pitch and is especially useful when transposing music in different keys. “Moveable do” is often used in pop music, jazz, and education to make music theory and harmonic progressions easier to understand.
Benefits of using movable do
The biggest benefit of “movable do” is that it allows you to intuitively understand the functions of scales and harmony. In movable do, all the notes have the same shape, so you can read them in the same way even in different keys, and it is easier to visually grasp the roles of the notes (tonic, dominant, etc.). This is an excellent effect when visually understanding melodies, memorizing them, and improvising.
It is also useful when transposing. For example, when transposing a melody from C to D, movable do allows you to sing the same note names, so you can easily transpose while maintaining the structure of the music. In contrast, fixed do requires you to relearn new pitches, which makes it more difficult. For example, when singing “Do Re Mi Song” in Eb major, it may be easier to imagine which one sounds more natural.
Furthermore, movable do is effective when learning multiple keys. When beginners learn many keys, fixed do requires them to learn a new sequence of notes for each key, but movable do allows them to apply the melody pattern they learned to all keys. From this point of view, movable do is an efficient learning method for beginners and musicians who play various genres.
As mentioned above, movable do and fixed do each have different advantages, but movable do has a great advantage in understanding musical structure, improvisation, transposition, etc., and is particularly good at developing relative pitch, so it is widely used by beginners and professionals alike.
Discomfort eliminated
Since I was a child, I have had the habit of naturally converting melodies into movable do in my head. Therefore, every time I was taught fixed do at school or in other lessons, I always felt uncomfortable. When I first learned about movable do at Berklee College of Music, all the confusion in my mind was immediately eliminated and I remember it as if it were yesterday (Berklee uses movable do).
No matter what genre of music you play, I recommend that those who are about to learn music start learning with movable do.
*This is in no way a denial of “fixed do”.