Do/Ti Test Extensions
Daniel Stevens
The Do/Ti Test is a listening strategy that promotes linear, horizontal listening as a way to clarify and organize perceptions of vertical chords. One advantage to listening horizontally is that you can learn to hear through difficult passages without losing your sense of tonic. It isn’t necessary to hear every chord with 100% accuracy to maintain your tonal orientation (i.e. keeping scale degree 1/do) and to identify the most important harmonies (e.g. tonic, cadential chords).
While 100% accuracy isn’t necessary, when it’s helpful, the Do/Ti Test can be extended to improve our accuracy.
There are two ways to build on singing guide tones that can help you identify the chords: singing “guide-tone figurations” or singing “secondary guide tones.” The first way is useful when the harmonic rhythm is slow, but it can also be used to check your work in faster pieces.
Singing guide tone figurations involves singing a pattern of intervals around your primary guide (scale degree 1/do or 7/ti) to create chords that you know. If the chord that you know and sing matches the chord that you hear, then you’ve effectively identified the harmony. For this method to work, take some time to practice the following figurations, being sure to begin and end each figuration on a primary guide tone:
Chords in a major key:
| Chord | Primary Guide Tone | Guide-Tone Figuration (solfège) | Guide-Tone Figuration (scale degrees) |
|---|---|---|---|
| scale degree 1/do | do-mi-sol-mi-do | 1-3-5-3-1 | |
| scale degree 1/do or 2/re | do-re-do-la-fa-la-do or re-fa-la-fa-re | 1-2-1-6-4-6-1 or 2-4-6-4-2 | |
| scale degree 7/ti | ti-sol-mi-sol-ti | 7-5-3-5-7 | |
| scale degree 1/do | do-la-fa-la-do | 1-6-4-6-1 | |
| scale degree 7/ti | ti-re-ti-sol-ti | 7-2-7-5-7 | |
| scale degree 1/do | do-mi-do-la-do | 1-3-1-6-1 | |
| scale degree 7/ti | ti-re-fa-re-ti | 7-2-4-2-7 |
Chords in a minor key:
| Chord | Primary Guide Tone | Guide-Tone Figuration (solfège) | Guide-Tone Figuration (scale degrees) |
|---|---|---|---|
| scale degree 1/do | do-me-sol-me-do | 1-3-5-3-1 | |
| scale degree 1/do or 2/re | do-re-do-le-fa-le-do or re-fa-le-fa-re | 1-2-1-6-4-6-1 or 2-4-6-4-2 | |
| scale degree 7/te | te-sol-me-sol-te | 7-5-3-5-7 | |
| scale degree 1/do | do-le-fa-le-do | 1-6-4-6-1 | |
| scale degree 7/ti | ti-re-ti-sol-ti | 7-2-7-5-7 | |
| scale degree 1/do | do-me-do-le-do | 1-3-1-6-1 | |
| scale degree 7/te | te-re-fa-re-te | 7-2-4-2-7 | |
| scale degree 7/ti | ti-re-fa-re-ti | 7-2-4-2-7 |
When the harmonic rhythm gets past a certain speed, it is no longer practical to sing the patterns above while listening. At both fast and slow tempos, many listeners prefer to sing “secondary guide tones” while listening, effectively creating a mi-line (around scale degrees 3/mi or me, 4/fa, or 2/re) and sol-line (around scale degrees 5/sol, 6/la, and 4/fa). A listener who can accurately notate a mi-line and sol-line above their notated Do/Ti Line has all the information they need to identify the harmonies.
However, it is important to note that identifying harmonies by ear isn’t a skill that can be developed by focusing only on atomistic details and later deducing the harmony. Rather, we encourage you to develop a synthesizing mode of perception, in which your ears are constantly integrating every possible perception (primary guide tones, secondary guide tones, guide tone figurations, quality, and function) to identify the harmony holistically, much like we might recognize the face of a good friend at a single glance. Paying attention to multiple streams of evidence while listening can help you auto-correct when a single perception is incorrect.
Activity: Arpeggiate chords
Goal: Develop the ability to arpeggiate a heard chord.
Before you start: You’ll need a source of songs with chord progressions that are slow enough for you to sing arpeggios before they change. A series of exercises designed to facilitate such chord arpeggiation can be found at Cynthia Gonzales’s listen-sing.com, or you can use other music recordings.
Instructions: Listen to the music and choose a phrase, likely the opening phrase of the music. Start by figuring out an appropriate Do/Ti Test guide-tone line to use as a reference point; make sure you can securely sing along to this line. Then restart the phrase and arpeggiate the chords from your reference point as best you can. If necessary, you can stop the recording at a difficult-to-figure chord, trying to retain it in memory, and arpeggiate through it by trial-and-error.
Activity: Find secondary guide-tone lines
Goal: Use a series of guide-tone lines to develop a more holistic understanding of a chord progression.
Instructions:
- Listen to a song from the playlist below and choose a phrase to figure out.
- Listen to that phrase again and work out the appropriate “do/ti” guide-tone line.
- Choose another location in the scale to begin another, secondary guide-tone line, and work out the appropriate secondary guide-tone line.
- If appropriate, work out a third guide-tone line.
- Optionally, identify the chords active in the passage. If you do this, listen back through, listening for how each chord “feels” within the progression, attempting to synthesize your various perceptions of the chord progression.