Note 17 — Chapter VIII · Scales (Continued)

A considerable number of teachers (particularly those who did not learn to sing by syllable in childhood) object to calling the tonic of the minor scale la, insisting that both major and minor tonic should be called do. According to this plan the syllables used in singing the harmonic minor scale would be: DO, RE, ME, FA, SOL, LE, TI, DO.

There is no particular basis for this theory, for although all scales must of course begin with the key-tone or tonic, this tonic may be referred to by any syllable which will serve as a basis for an association process enabling one to feel the force of the tone as a closing point—a home tone. Thus in the Dorian mode the tonic would be RE, in the Phrygian, MI, etc.