How to Type Tonic Solfa on a Computer: 6 Key Symbols

You have a new hymn for Sunday, a handwritten solfa sheet that half the altos squint at, and a photocopier that turns your pencil marks into grey smudges. Typing it looks like the obvious fix, until your word processor capitalises every doh, curls every apostrophe and turns your two dashes into one long line.

Here is how to type tonic solfa on a computer: use a plain word processor with a monospaced font, a table with one cell per beat, and AutoCorrect switched off, so colons, dashes and octave marks stay exactly as you type them. Or skip the typing and generate the sheet from a recording or hum, then share it.

This post covers both routes. First, the symbols a typed sheet must get right, because a neat sheet with a missing octave mark is worse than a messy one that is correct. Then the exact settings that stop Word fighting you, how to handle minor keys and chromatic notes, and a proofreading routine you can run before the sheet goes to the choir.

Which symbols must a typed solfa sheet get right?

Every typed solfa sheet, whether it comes from a keyboard or from software, needs these six things. If you are still finding your feet with the notation itself, read how to read Tonic Solfa first and come back.

1. The key line. Top left, before any music: the key and where doh sits, for example 'Key G, Doh is G'. In a minor key you still name the doh, so A minor reads 'Doh is C'. Without this line the organist cannot give the note and nobody can find their way back after a modulation.
2. The time signature. 3/4, 4/4, 6/8 and so on, next to the key line.
3. Lowercase syllables. d r m f s l t, always lowercase. A capital D looks like a different symbol to a nervous sight-reader, and some older books use capitals for other purposes.
4. Octave marks. A comma straight after the syllable for the octave below (s,) and an apostrophe straight after it for the octave above (d'). No space between the letter and the mark.
5. Bar lines and beat marks. A vertical bar | at every bar line. In the traditional hymn-book layout, a colon separates the beats inside a bar, a dot splits a beat in half and a dash holds the note on. The rules are set out in how to read rhythm in Tonic Solfa.
6. Chromatic syllables. Raised and lowered notes get their own names, such as fe, se and ta. Never type 'f#' on a solfa sheet.

Here is what those symbols look like when they are right. This is the opening of Amazing Grace in G, where doh is G:

Doh is G3/4

s,A--

dmaz----mingd_

mgrace!---rhow-

dsweet---l,the-

s,sound,---s,That-

Look at three details. The pickup is s, with its comma, so the first sung note is the soh below doh, not the one above. In bar 4 the l, also carries a comma: drop it and the line leaps up where it should step down. And in bar 2, the m and d squeezed together share one beat, while the dashes after the first d hold it on. Each of those is a single keystroke, and each is easy to lose when typing quickly.

The opposite problem shows in A Charge to Keep I Have, in C major and 3/4:

Doh is C3/4

sA-

mchargeftoskeep-lI-

shave,---d'A-

d'Godttolglo--lri--

sfy,---sA-

The climb to d' in bar 3 needs its apostrophe. Typed as a plain d, your sopranos will drop a whole octave on 'glorify'. If you want more on these marks, see octave marks in Tonic Solfa explained.

One quirk catches everyone who types the traditional layout: the comma does two jobs. It marks the lower octave, and in hymn-book rhythm it also divides a half beat into quarters. On a handwritten sheet, position tells them apart. On a typed sheet, keep the octave comma glued to its syllable and put any rhythm comma after a space or in its own position, so the two never blur.

Got a recording? Get it in solfa →

Can you write solfa notation in Word?

Yes, you can write solfa notation in Word, Google Docs or LibreOffice, but only after you stop the program correcting you. Do this setup once and save the file as a template.

Switch off the AutoCorrect traps

In Word, go to File, then Options, then Proofing, then AutoCorrect Options. The settings that damage solfa sit under both the AutoCorrect and the AutoFormat As You Type tabs.

Google Docs has a similar list under Tools, then Preferences. Switch off automatic capitalisation and smart quotes there.

Pick a font that keeps the beats in line

Use a monospaced font such as Courier New or Consolas, where every character is the same width. In an ordinary font an m is wider than an l, so beats drift out of line along the bar and the alto under the soprano stops sitting under the right note. Twelve or fourteen point prints clearly on a music stand.

Line up the parts with a table

For anything in more than one part, insert a table instead of relying on spaces:

1. Make one row for the key and time line, then one row each for soprano, alto, tenor and bass, and a row for the words.
2. Give each beat its own column. A 4/4 hymn with eight bars needs 32 beat columns, so split it across several tables, one per line of the hymn.
3. Type the bar lines into the first cell of each bar, or turn on a thicker left border for those cells.
4. When everything lines up, set the table borders to none. The singers see clean columns and never notice the grid.

This is slow the first time. The reward is that every later sheet starts from your template, and transposing becomes a one-line edit: in movable doh the syllables stay the same in every key, so you change 'Doh is G' to 'Doh is F' and the rest of the sheet is untouched.

Typing minor keys and chromatic notes

Minor keys are where typed sheets most often go wrong, because the person typing tries to make doh the home note. In la-based minor, doh stays where the key signature puts it and lah is home. Bread of Heaven, on Thee We Feed is in G minor, so the key line reads 'Doh is Bb':

Doh is Bb4/4

m,Bread-l,of-l,heav’nse,_fe,onm,_

l,Thee-t,we-dfeed,---

The first bar shows why spelling matters. The line runs l, se, fe, m, with every note in the lower octave and two chromatic syllables in a row. Type 's' where it says se and your altos will sing a semitone flat on 'Thee'. Keep the chromatic names in full, lowercase, with the octave comma after the whole syllable (se,) and never in the middle of it. Our guide to chromatic notes in Tonic Solfa lists the rest.

If the music you are copying is printed in staff notation, work out the solfa on paper before you type. Typing and transcribing at the same time doubles your mistakes. The method is in how to convert staff notation to Tonic Solfa.

The second route: generate the sheet from a recording or hum

Typing by hand makes sense when you already have the solfa in front of you. When all you have is a recording, a tune in your head or a song the worship team sent as a link, typing means transcribing by ear first, and that is where most of the evening goes.

This is the job I built NoteFusion for. You hum or sing the tune, upload a recording, or paste a YouTube, Spotify or Apple Music link, and it writes the melody in movable-doh Tonic Solfa, la-based for minor keys, with staff notation alongside. When a melody could sit in two keys it asks 'Which doh is it?' instead of guessing, which is the same question you would otherwise puzzle over yourself. You can play the tune back on a piano, slower or looped, to check it against what your choir actually sings, and 'Transpose for my choir' moves the doh and shows whether each part sits comfortably. Then you save the sheet and share it with a link.

Whichever route you take, the checklist above still applies. Check the key line, every octave mark and every chromatic syllable by ear before the sheet reaches your singers.

How do you print tonic solfa sheets for choir?

To print tonic solfa sheets for choir that people can read in a dim church, keep the layout boring and consistent:

• Key line and time signature at the top of every page, not just the first. Choristers lose page one.
• One line of the hymn per system. Never split a phrase across a line break or, worse, a page turn.
• Number the bars at the start of each line, so you can say 'from bar 9' in rehearsal.
• Words directly under their notes, with hyphens for split syllables.
• Leave a wide margin for pencil breath marks.
• Print one copy first and hand it to your least confident reader. If they hesitate anywhere, fix the layout there.

A proofreading routine before the sheet goes out

A typed sheet looks authoritative, so a mistake on it gets learned faithfully. Before you print or send it, run this five-minute check:

1. Read the key line aloud and confirm doh against the original.
2. Count the beats in every bar against the time signature. A 3/4 bar with four beats means a missing dot or an extra dash.
3. Hunt the octave marks. Run your eye along each part looking only for commas and apostrophes, then compare with the source.
4. Sing the tune from your sheet, not from memory. Where your voice wants to go somewhere the sheet does not, one of them is wrong.
5. Check the minor-key spelling: lah as home, se and fe written out in full.

For a well-known hymn you can compare against the solfa pages in our hymns in Tonic Solfa collection.

If your next sheet is coming from a recording or a tune someone hummed at you after the service, try NoteFusion in your browser or on Android: it writes the solfa, lets you hear it back slowly, and gives you a link to share with the choir.