Ikuko (my amazing wife) is an excellent pianist. Her fingers wizzing all over the keys playing intricate classical pieces. She is teaching our young daughters piano now, and something just happened that blew my mind.
She learned piano in Japan. I learned piano (the tiny bit that I know) in the US. It turns out that we learn "do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti-do" completely differently. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solfège
She asked me, "is there an 'I' (letter i)".
Me: "What?"
"Like 'do' is C, 're' is D... is there an I?"
"Um. 'do' can be whatever the root is.
"No, it can't be. It's always C."
"Um, right here on wikipedia, it says that you shift it."
"Wikipedia's wrong. It is always C."
"Okay, maybe this is a difference in how we learn music between Japan and the US."
"No, what I'm explaining is German."
"Okay, but anyways, I still don't understand."
"If do is C, and re is D, then..."
"Then it's C-D-E-F-G-A-B. It starts over."
I went over to the piano and said the letters that correspond to each key. She immediately understood and went on with the lesson for our daughter.
It blew my mind that she never connected notes of the scale to letters. I guess they just use the "do-re-mi" scale, always referenced to C, and that's how they learn music. Totally logical in retrospect. But it just blew my mind that piano-simpleton me got to teach my piano-brilliant wife the names of the notes.
Spencer LaVere Smith
npub1yl…dq722
2025-04-12 16:08:46 UTC
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"content": "Ikuko (my amazing wife) is an excellent pianist. Her fingers wizzing all over the keys playing intricate classical pieces. She is teaching our young daughters piano now, and something just happened that blew my mind.\n\nShe learned piano in Japan. I learned piano (the tiny bit that I know) in the US. It turns out that we learn \"do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti-do\" completely differently. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solfège \n\nShe asked me, \"is there an 'I' (letter i)\".\nMe: \"What?\" \n\"Like 'do' is C, 're' is D... is there an I?\" \n\"Um. 'do' can be whatever the root is.\n\"No, it can't be. It's always C.\"\n\"Um, right here on wikipedia, it says that you shift it.\"\n\"Wikipedia's wrong. It is always C.\"\n\"Okay, maybe this is a difference in how we learn music between Japan and the US.\"\n\"No, what I'm explaining is German.\"\n\"Okay, but anyways, I still don't understand.\"\n\"If do is C, and re is D, then...\"\n\"Then it's C-D-E-F-G-A-B. It starts over.\"\nI went over to the piano and said the letters that correspond to each key. She immediately understood and went on with the lesson for our daughter.\n\nIt blew my mind that she never connected notes of the scale to letters. I guess they just use the \"do-re-mi\" scale, always referenced to C, and that's how they learn music. Totally logical in retrospect. But it just blew my mind that piano-simpleton me got to teach my piano-brilliant wife the names of the notes.",
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