Solfège Hand Signs: Free Printable Chart and How to Teach Them

If you've ever seen a room full of kids singing "do, re, mi" while their hands climb a little invisible staircase, you've seen solfège hand signs at work. They're one of my favorite teaching tools, because they turn something you can't see (pitch) into something you can see, feel and copy. And they're free. All you need is one hand.

This guide is for music teachers and for parents teaching at the kitchen table. I'll describe each sign in plain words, show you how high to hold it, and give you a teaching order and a stack of games that kids actually ask for.

The solfège hand signs chart

Here are the eight signs of the major scale, from low do to high do. These are the Curwen shapes most American music teachers use. Make every sign with one hand, in front of your body, and hold each one a little higher than the one before.

Syllable	Hand shape	Where to hold it	Memory tip
Do	Closed fist	Waist	Do is home base. A fist is solid and strong.
Re	Flat hand, fingers together, palm down, fingertips slanting up	Just above the waist	Re is a ramp leading up and away from home.
Mi	Flat hand, palm down, level like a tabletop	Lower chest	Mi is calm and steady, like a table.
Fa	Fist with the thumb pointing down (a "thumbs down")	Chest	Fa likes to fall down to mi, so the thumb points the way.
Sol	Flat hand, palm facing your body, fingers pointing to the side	Shoulders	Sol is a big, bright wall of sound. (You'll also see it spelled "so.")
La	Relaxed hand hanging down from the wrist, palm down	Chin	La is floppy and loose, like a wet noodle.
Ti	Fist with the pointer finger pointing up at an angle	Nose	Ti points up because it wants to go up to do.
High do	Closed fist, same as low do	Eye level or just above	Same note name, same shape, just higher.

A few notes from the classroom. Teachers don't all agree on exact heights. Many start low do at the waist and end high do around eye level, while others go up to the top of the head. Pick one ladder and use it every time, because the consistency is what makes it work. You'll also see small differences in sol (some teachers point the fingers forward, some to the side) and ti (some point straight up, some at an angle toward the face). That's fine. The shapes matter more than the angles.

Get the free printable hand-sign poster

We made a colorful poster of all eight signs for music rooms and kitchen walls. Each hand is drawn in its note's color when do is C (red do, orange re, yellow mi, green fa, teal sol, purple la, pink ti), so it matches color-coded bells and Boomwhackers.

Download the free Solfege Hand-Sign Poster here. Pop in your email and we'll send the printable PDF. Print it in color and hang it at kid eye level, right where they'll be singing.

Where do solfège hand signs come from?

The signs are older than most people think. In the early 1800s, Sarah Glover, a music teacher in Norwich, England, built a system for teaching children to sing by syllables, which became known as Norwich sol-fa. A Congregationalist minister named John Curwen (1816 to 1880) adapted her system into what he called tonic sol-fa, a way to teach anyone to sing from notes, and he added a set of hand signs, one for each note of the scale. Curwen also wrote about the "mental effect" of each note, the feeling it has inside a key. You can still see that idea in the shapes: fa points down toward mi, and ti points up toward do.

In the 20th century, the Hungarian composer Zoltán Kodály and the teachers working with him adopted Curwen's signs for their singing-first approach to music education. One change they're known for is height: Kodály teachers place each sign higher or lower so children can see how high or low a pitch is. That's why you'll hear the same signs called Curwen hand signs, Kodály hand signs or simply solfège hand signs. Same hands, different names. If you want the bigger picture, here's our guide to what the Kodály method is and how to use it.

Why hand signs work so well with kids

• They make pitch visible. "Higher" and "lower" are fuzzy words for a five-year-old. A hand that moves up when the melody goes up is not.
• They add a body to the brain. Kids learn by doing. Sing, hand-sign and play gives them three ways to remember the same note.
• They help kids sing in tune. When a child reaches up for sol, they tend to aim their voice up too. If your child is still finding their singing voice, start with teaching your kids to sing in tune.
• They train the inner ear. Once kids know the signs, you can sign a melody silently and they'll hear it in their heads. That's a HUGE skill for any musician.
• They're a silent conducting tool. You can lead a whole class with one hand and no words.

In what order should you teach the hand signs?

Don't teach all eight on day one. New signs should arrive one or two at a time, inside songs kids already love. There are two good roads, and both get to the same place.

The classic Kodály order (start with sol and mi)

1. Sol and mi. The "nyah-nyah" sound kids already sing on the playground. "See Saw" is built on just these two notes, and so are lots of playground chants.
2. La. Add it on top: sol, la, sol, mi.
3. Do. Now kids have a home base.
4. Re. With do, re, mi, sol and la, kids have the five-note pentatonic scale, and a huge pile of folk songs opens up.
5. High do, low la and low sol. Stretch the range up and down.
6. Fa and ti last. These two make the half steps of the scale, which are harder for young voices to sing in tune.

The Prodigies order (start with do)

At Prodigies, we teach with fixed do, where do is always C, our red bell. So we start at home and build out from there. Our Level 1 chapters go Hello C, Low C High C, C and G Best Friends, Do Re Mi, Mi Sol La and Fa Sol La, then Major Chords and Songs. Kids learn do first, then high do, then sol (the "best friend" of do), then fill in the notes between. It works beautifully with little ones, because every new note gets its own color and its own bell. (Wondering about fixed do vs. movable do? Here's how Prodigies teaches both.)

Six steps for teaching any new sign

1. Sing it first. Kids should know a song by ear before you show the new sign.
2. Show it, then name it. "This note gets a new hand. It's called la."
3. Echo it. You sing and sign a short pattern, they copy it.
4. Put it in a song. Sing the familiar song again with signs.
5. Go silent. You sign, they sing.
6. Hand it over. A student signs, and the class sings.

If kids mix up a sign on the tenth try, that's okay. Smile, show it again and keep singing.

7 hand-sign games kids love

1. Mystery melody. Sign a short pattern without singing. The class sings it back. Start with two notes and add more as they get good.
2. Name that tune. Silently sign the opening of a song they know ("Hot Cross Buns" is mi, re, do). The first one to guess gets to sign the next one.
3. Teacher in the mirror. Pairs face each other. One partner signs and sings, the other mirrors and echoes. Then they switch.
4. Freeze sign. Play or sing a scale and stop on a random note. Everyone freezes in the sign for the last note they heard.
5. Thinking voice. Sing a known song with signs, but only sing out loud on one syllable (every "sol," for example). Kids sing the rest in their heads, which builds inner hearing fast.
6. Human ladder. Eight kids line up, each holding one sign at its height. Point to kids in any order and the class sings the notes. Then let a student be the conductor.
7. Two-hand harmony. For older kids: split the class, put one group on your left hand and one on your right, and sign two notes at once. Simple chords, instant goosebumps.

Need more? Our free Solfège Scoops flashcards make great hand-sign cards for centers, and there's a whole list of singing games you can play with students. If your kids like screens, Solfege Scoops is also a game at games.prodigies.com, where kids catch falling ice-cream scoops by solfège note to fill customers' orders. The first two levels are free.

Common hand-sign mistakes (and quick fixes)

• Mixing up re and mi. Both are flat hands. Re slants up like a ramp; mi is flat like a table.
• Mixing up do and fa. Both are fists. Fa adds the thumbs-down.
• Every sign at the same height. Without the ladder, kids lose the "seeing pitch" part. Exaggerate it at first.
• Signing without singing. The sign should ride on a sung note, so the hand and the ear learn together.
• Mirror-image confusion. When you face a class, use the same hand every time and keep it slow so kids can match you.

How hand signs fit into Prodigies

Singing and signing are part of almost every Prodigies lesson. Kids sing a note, hand-sign it, then play it on color-coded deskbells, so the note they hear, see and play all match. Prodigies Music gives your child 1,000+ guided video lessons, color-coded songbooks and printables, made for ages 2 to 12 and built around play. If you teach general music, Prodigies PK-5 brings the same singing, signing and playing into a sequenced curriculum for preschool through grade 5.

🎵 Start your membership at play.prodigies.com/join

Frequently asked questions

What are the solfège hand signs in order?

From low to high: do (a closed fist at the waist), re (a flat hand slanting up), mi (a flat hand, palm down), fa (a thumbs down), sol (a flat hand, palm facing you), la (a relaxed, drooping hand), ti (a pointer finger pointing up) and high do (a closed fist at eye level). Each sign is held a little higher than the one before.

Are Curwen hand signs and Kodály hand signs the same thing?

Yes, for the most part. John Curwen created the signs in 19th-century England for his tonic sol-fa system, and Kodály teachers in Hungary later adopted them and added the idea of holding each sign at its own height. Most teachers use the names interchangeably.

What age can kids start learning hand signs?

Preschoolers can start with one or two signs, such as do and high do, or sol and mi, inside songs they already know. By kindergarten and first grade, many kids can handle the full major scale if new signs are added slowly.

Is there a free solfège hand signs printable?

Yes. Prodigies has a free, color-coded Solfege Hand-Sign Poster at pages.prodigies.com/solfege-poster. Enter your email and we'll send the PDF to print.

Why does the fa hand sign point down and ti point up?

In a major scale, fa sits a half step above mi and tends to resolve down to it, while ti sits a half step below high do and tends to lead up to it. The thumbs-down and the pointing finger show those pulls, which helps kids sing them in tune.

Do you need to use movable do to use hand signs?

No. Hand signs work with movable do (where do is the home note of any key) and with fixed do (where do is always C). In the key of C, the two systems match exactly, so the signs are the same either way.

Thanks for helping the next generation of Young Musicians find their voices. As always, happy musicing!