# Solfa Studio

> Sing solfège and swaras in one language. A real piano plays a phrase, you echo it over a tanpura drone, and the microphone tells you whether each note landed.

- Canonical: https://solfa.nathanielschool.com/
- Publisher: Jason Zac / Nathaniel School of Music, Bangalore
- School: Nathaniel School of Music (https://nathanielschool.com), founder Jason Zac
- More free apps: https://apps.nathanielschool.com
- Free. Donation-supported. No accounts. Nothing is uploaded. The microphone is analysed on the device.
- Teaching default tonic is G, never C. Note names are plain (C, F♯, B♭), never C4.

Solfa Studio is a web instrument for daily sight-singing and ear practice. Every pitch carries three names at once: chromatic movable-Do solfège, Hindustani swaras (S r R g G m M P d D n N) and Carnatic swarasthanas (S R1 R2 G2 G3 M1 M2 P D1 D2 N2 N3, with R3 / G1 / D3 / N1 where the spelling demands). Movable Do, La-based minor and fixed Do are separate options.

## Rooms

- Today: a six-step routine in one key.
- Modes: 35 modes from six scale books (major, natural minor, melodic minor, harmonic minor, harmonic major, double harmonic major), in the order The Beato Book harmonises them.
  - See: parallel, relative and all-35 bright-to-dark boards
  - Chords: triads and sevenths, eleven voicings
  - Patterns: eighteen scale, interval and arpeggio drills
  - Listen: jam, motif tour, bright-to-dark walk
  - Modulate: Hear → Compare → Make music. Relative, parallel, borrowed chords, pivot-chord (common-chord) modulation and a shared dominant between parallel modes
  - Ear test: name the mode; name two notes of this mode; write a short phrase; hear how this mode comes home
  - Harmony: functions of this mode (home / away / pull); a short Sa (one degree tonicized with a fifth already in the mode); a two-voice round in the same seven notes
- Swaras: fourteen sarali varisai, seven janta, three dhattu, nine alankarams and ten Hindustani alankars, in any of the 35 modes or any of the 72 melakarta ragas
- Ladder: step drills up and down the scale. Each degree has a hand shape to copy.
- Reading: four metered studies and a seeded sight-singing generator (six levels)
- Changes: ii–V–I, 12-bar blues, turnaround and diatonic circle, sung as roots, guide tones, arpeggios, 1-2-3-5 or chord scales

## Sound and check

- House grand piano (one sample per minor third), synthesized tanpura on Sa and Pa (Sa and Ma when the mode has no Pa), count-in and metronome
- Sound starts only after a user action
- Echo window is as long as the phrase; the mic grades pitch class within ±50 cents, any octave
- Hear me: USB MIDI keyboard (Chrome / Edge) or the voice. Notes outside the mode are flagged. Nothing is recorded.

## Spelling law

Relative moves keep the parent collection's letters. Parallel moves respell the tonic for the mode: D♭ major, C♯ minor, G♭ Lydian, G♯ Phrygian. Key signatures come from the parent scale (parent minor for the two minor families). This is 12-TET keyboard practice, not raga intonation or gamaka.

## Deep links

Room, key, mode, drill and (in Modes) tab travel in the query string, for example:

- https://solfa.nathanielschool.com/?room=modes&tab=modulate
- https://solfa.nathanielschool.com/?room=swaras
- https://solfa.nathanielschool.com/?room=reading

Optional query keys: `key` (0–11, C=0), `family` (0–4), `mode` (0–6), `spelling`, `drill`, `book`, `tab`, `view`, `raga` (1–72), `oct` (2–5), `labels`, `solfa`.