Week 10 — Drill Studio · Sevenths by Ear

Course: MUS 155 Aural Skills I · Kenosis College
Instructor: Professor Hemsworth
Unit: Learning Unit 10 of 15 (Week 10) · two sessions per week
Objectives: SLO 1 · SLO 3 · SLO 4
Drill Studio 10 · 20 points · Drill-studio group · In session, both meetings (session 1 and session 2) · documented make-up path below, full credit, submit by the end of the week
Format: voice, ears, pencil, and the chord cards below. Bring your Tutorial 10 symbol work; the studio stands on it.

Named in Music Theory I: the five seventh-chord qualities, the diatonic sevenths in major (viiø7 — half-diminished, never viio7 in major), inversions with their slash figures, seventh-chord symbols, slash chords. An hour later, the stacks become arpeggios your voice can walk.

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Part 1 — The big picture

Last week the do–mi–sol shape finally got its name. This week the stack grows one third taller, and something better than a bigger chord happens: the suffixes on every chart you've ever read — maj7, 7, m7 — become instructions to your ear. Four of the five seventh qualities live inside the major key you already sing, at addresses you already own: the chord on do, on re, on sol, on ti. Sing the address on solfège and the quality arrives free of charge. The fifth quality visits as pure color, and we'll be honest about where it actually lives.

Part 2 — What we do

The do ritual (every session, as always). Before dictation, one extension: the day's target chord gets arpeggiated once inside the established key, so the new fourth note enters your ear with an address attached.

The seventh ladder (both days). The week's home shape — the chord on do with its seventh, up and back. The top note is the whole idea: a half step shy of home, close enough to shimmer. Sing it lightly; don't let it round up to do.

KEY: C major    METER: 4/4    CLEF: treble
| C4/q E4/q G4/q B4/q | C5/h B4/h | G4/q E4/q C4/h |

The four stations (session 1). Professor Hemsworth plays; you sing back on solfège: the chord on do (do–mi–sol–ti — major seventh), the chord on re (re–fa–la–do — minor seventh), the chord on sol (sol–ti–re–fa — the dominant), and the chord on ti (ti–re–fa–la — half-diminished, the one your theory page writes viiø7). Four stations, four qualities, no accidentals anywhere — that's the gift of singing diatonic addresses.

Quality ID (both days). Chords played blocked, then rolled. Two tells, always in this order: the bottom third (bright or dark?), then the seventh (a half step under the octave, or a whole step?). The classic test case: Cmaj7 vs C7 — same root, same bright bottom, one note different, entirely different job.

The color visitor (session 1). One seventh quality holds no address in any major key: take the ti-chord and pull its top note down a half step, and every interval inside becomes a minor third — the fully diminished seventh. We hear it and echo it on "loo," as color, no syllables. Its actual home is harmonic minor, which the theory class reaches next week — this is a preview, not a resident.

The pull (session 1, and forever). The dominant seventh earns its keep: inside sol–ti–re–fa live the two most restless notes in the key — ti and fa, Unit 7's tritone wearing a chord. Sing the line below and feel both resolve: ti climbs home, fa falls to mi. Every amen, every turnaround, every final chord change you've ever anticipated is this.

KEY: F major    METER: 4/4    CLEF: treble
| C4/q E4/q G4/q Bb4/q | E4/q F4/q Bb4/q A4/q | F4/w |

Chord-tone singing (both days). The root sounds and holds; you sing the member called for — "the third… the seventh… the fifth" — on syllables. In session 1 you may climb the ladder out loud to get there; in session 2 the climb goes silent.

The snap figure (session 2). A rhythm move returns from Unit 4: the dotted-eighth-plus-sixteenth — a long lean and a late snap, counted "1 … a." It shows up in the echoes, the dictation, and two check items.

Dictation with skips (session 2). Two bars, three hearings, the standing protocol: hearing one, hands catch the rhythm; two, sing it inside on syllables; three, write. New this week: the line arpeggiates a chord you know — when you hear a stack of leaps, name the chord in your head and the pitches write themselves.

Sight-singing (both days). The week's set below. Every leap in these four melodies is a chord member. Audiate the chord before the leap and the leap sings itself.

SS1 — C major: the ladder becomes melody — up the chord on do, then home by way of re's chord:

KEY: C major    METER: 4/4    CLEF: treble
| C4/q E4/q G4/q B4/q | C5/h B4/q G4/q | A4/q F4/q D4/q F4/q | E4/q D4/q C4/h |

SS2 — G major, in three: the dominant's arpeggio from sol, leaning home through ti:

KEY: G major    METER: 3/4    CLEF: treble
| D4/q. E4/e F#4/q | A4/q C5/q B4/q | G4/q A4/q F#4/q | G4/h. |

SS3 — F major, and the snap figure lands on the page — the long lean, the late snap, then a stepwise settle:

KEY: F major    METER: 4/4    CLEF: treble
| F4/q A4/q C5/q E5/q | D5/e. C5/s A4/q G4/h | F4/q. G4/e A4/q F4/q | G4/q E4/q F4/h |

SS4 — D major, in 6/8: the lilt from Unit 3 carries the week's new ladder:

KEY: D major    METER: 6/8    CLEF: treble
| D4/q. F#4/q A4/e | C#5/q. D5/q. | B4/e A4/e F#4/e A4/e G4/e E4/e | D4/h. |

Solo hearings. The rotation continues inside chord-tone singing and the sight-singing circle: 6–8 solo turns per session, so at a full section of 36 every voice is heard solo about once every two and a half weeks; in a smaller room, everyone, every time.

Part 3 — Before session 1 (the prep step)

Run Tutorial 10 first. It drills the conversion this week runs on — chord symbol to spelling to sound expectation — so that when a suffix appears in the studio, your ear already knows what it promises. The studio assumes it.

Part 4 — What counts, and how

Criterion weights: perception 50 · realization 35 · labeling 15

A student who sings the right pitches with the wrong syllables loses only the labeling points. A student who sings the right syllables on the wrong pitches fails the item.

Criterion	Full	Partial	None
Perception — quality calls track structure, not mood; dictation attempts track what sounded; the classic pair reliably told apart (10)	9–10	5–8	0–4
Realization — ladders, stations, and sight-singing land in tune and in time, any octave that fits, sung or played; the pull resolves the right directions (7)	7	4–6	0–3
Labeling — quality names, member names, syllables, and counts correctly attached to what you sang and heard (3)	3	2	0–1

Part 5 — Missed a session? The make-up path

Full credit, no penalty, by the end of the week. At home: (1) run the practice page's daily loop for the missed days; (2) record the seventh ladder in two keys and one melody from SS1–SS4, audiation pause included; (3) write three sentences naming, in the error classes, what went right or wrong. Submit clips + sentences in Canvas under this studio's make-up assignment.

Why this makes you a better musician

Chart literacy for the ear: after this week, Cmaj7, C7, and Cm7 stop being fonts and start being three different sounds you pre-hear before your hand moves. That's the gap between reading chords and knowing them — and it's also the door into next week, where these same chords line up into the progressions every song you play is made of.

Canvas placement block

canvas_object    = Assignment
title            = "Unit 10 Drill Studio — Sevenths by Ear"
assignment_group = "Drill studios"
points_possible  = 20
grading_type     = points
submission_types = [on_paper]        # graded in session; make-up: online_upload (clips + sentences)
due              = in session, both meetings; make-up by the end of the week
published        = true

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