Thanks, Mal. I guess I should have paid more attention to those sol-fa threads as they went by. It seemed at the time (still does) that sol-fa notation fills a badly needed void :-)

Maybe OK as a shorthand exchange notation, especially before computers, but what's the point of printing it above the staff containing the actual dots?

As a demi-trained, and only half-serious music student, I can't imagine the rationale of singing (or learning to sing) from this notation, or shape notes, for that matter.

Same way I can't understand how a professed piano player says he can't play even a simple tune without sheet music.