Do re mi fa so la ti do blah blah what does that mean?

Answer 1

Those are the original names to musical notes. Now, music notes are mainly taught by using letters (A,B,C,D,E...)

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The "do re mi" system, known as solfege, comes from a Gregorian chant called Ut Queant Laxis. The lyrics are:

Ut queant laxis

Resonare fibris,

Mira gestorum

Famuli tuorum,

Solve polluti

Labii reatum,

Sancte Johannes.

In English, it means something like: So that your servants may, with loosened voices, resound the wonders of your deeds, clean the guilt from our stained lips, O Saint John.

Each of the bold syllables falls on the next note of the major scale, which makes them convenient for rooting the notes in a singer's mind. The syllable "ut" was changed to "do" so that it would begin with a definitive consonant sound. "Sa" from "Sancte" changed to "ti" so it would be easily recognizable from "sol."

You can hear what the chant sounds like here (though it would originally have been performed with an all-male choir):