 The generic term "solmization", referring to any system of denoting pitches of a musical scale by syllables, including those used in India and Japan as well as solfège, comes from French "solmisation", from the Latin solfège syllables "sol" and "mi".The verb "to sol-fa" means to sing a passage in solfège.In eleventh-century Italy, the music theorist Guido of Arezzo invented a notational system that named the six notes of the hexachord after the first syllable of each line of the Latin hymn "Ut queant laxis", the "Hymn to St. John the Baptist", yielding "ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la".