Week 11 — Drill Plan · Harmonic Listening I
Course: MUS 155 Aural Skills I · Kenosis College
Instructor: Professor Hemsworth
Unit: Learning Unit 11 of 15 (Week 11) · two sessions per week
Objectives: SLO 1 · SLO 2 · SLO 3 · SLO 4
Sessions: session 1 · session 2 (Skills Check 11 in the last quarter hour of session 2)
Instructor-facing. Excluded from the student cartridge. Every stimulus named below is notated, with its performance script, in
_keys/KEY-stimulus-sheet-week-11.md— nothing musical is spelled out here.
Named in Music Theory I: Roman numerals in major and minor, the three function families and the T–PD–D–T cycle, figures in analysis, V7 and viio, the sevenths in minor — viio7's diatonic home — and harmonic rhythm. The numbers are finally legal; an hour later the ear starts filing progressions under them.
First time teaching this
The point of the LU: harmonic listening opens today, and it opens from the bottom. For ten weeks the ear has tracked one line; this week it learns that when chords play, the bass IS the line — the harmony's spine, not "just low notes." Everything runs through the bass: sing it under played chords, arpeggiate the functional cycle, name gig loops by Roman numeral, and take the term's first bass-line dictation — which is also the first time these students write in the bass clef. The theory class has read that clef since Unit 1; today their hands catch up here.
The one thing that must land: do–fa–sol–do under I–IV–V–I. A student who can sing the roots while the chords sound owns the cycle as a line, and every later harmonic skill — cadences next week, Nashville numbers in the finale — hangs off that line.
The most common way it goes wrong: letting the week become an analysis lecture. The theory session already named everything; here nothing is named until it has been sung. Play more, label after. Second trap: the bass clef. Do not teach it from scratch — they spelled it in theory back in week 1. Hand out the pre-lined bass-staff cards, say "two dots hug the F line, F3 — count from there," and let the first dictation teach the rest.
The do ritual
Every session and every key change opens with it, defined in full in Unit 1's plan: play I–IV–V–I, sing do, the class sings do–mi–sol–mi–do back (do–me–sol–me–do in minor). This week the ritual gets a delicious reveal — say it in session 1, minute one: "You have sung along to this chord pattern all semester. In this morning's theory session you finally learned its name: I–IV–V–I. Today you meet it from underneath."
Drill sequence
Session 1 — minute markers, stimuli by keys-sheet name, tempi, repetitions, words to say.
| Time | Segment | Stimulus / tempo | Reps | Words to say |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0:00–0:03 | The do ritual + the reveal | C major, 76 BPM | 1 cycle | reveal script above |
| 0:03–0:12 | Bass-line singing under chords | BL-A at 66→72 BPM | 3 full passes | "I play the chords; you sing the floor they stand on. Lowest note of each chord, on syllables: do–fa–sol–do. Any octave that fits." |
| 0:12–0:22 | Functional-cycle arpeggiation | FC1–FC3 at 69→76 BPM, then the cycle linked | 2 cycles | "Home, away, pull, home. do–mi–sol, fa–la–do, sol–ti–re — then everybody falls back to do. That's the whole engine of tonal music, in your mouth." |
| 0:22–0:34 | Gig loops + progression ID | BL-B at 72→76 BPM; alternate with BL-A, shuffled | 2 hearings per call | "Two loops, numbers not letters. Is the second chord IV or V? Sing the bass first, THEN vote. I–IV–V–I or I–V–vi–IV." |
| 0:34–0:46 | Minor loops + the raised-7 payoff | ritual in a minor; BL-C at 66→72; ritual in d minor; BL-D at 66→72 | 2 passes each | "Minor now: i–VI–III–VII, all natural, te stays dark. Then i–iv–V7–i — hear the lift? That ti inside V7 is the raised 7 your ear flagged back in Unit 5. This morning it finally got its harmonic reason." |
| 0:46–0:58 | First bass-line dictation (bass clef) | BD1 at 66 BPM, four hearings per script | scripted | "Bass-staff cards out — first time writing in this clef. Two dots hug the F line: that's F3. Chords will play; you write ONLY the lowest line. Four hearings, same protocol as every dictation." |
| 0:58–1:08 | Harmonic-rhythm tapping | HR-A at 76→84, HR-B at 76→84 | 2 passes each | "Left hand taps when the CHORD changes, right hand taps the tune's rhythm. Two different clocks — feel them disagree." |
| 1:08–1:15 | Close + assignments | — | — | "Tutorial before session 2; recordings close at the end of the week. This week you started hearing the engine under the song." |
Session 2 — the cycle in minor, the 8-bar dictation, then the check.
| Time | Segment | Stimulus / tempo | Reps | Words to say |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0:00–0:03 | The do ritual | G major, 76 BPM | 1 cycle | "Same door. Now you know its number." |
| 0:03–0:15 | Cycle arpeggiation, both colors | FC1–FC3 at 76 BPM, then FC4–FC6 (e minor) at 69→76 BPM | 2 cycles each | "Major cycle, then minor: do–me–sol, fa–le–do, sol–ti–re. The V is bright in BOTH — that's the borrowed ti doing dominant work." |
| 0:15–0:30 | 8-bar bass-line dictation | BD2 at 76 BPM, four hearings per script | scripted | "Eight bars — double last month's phrase, and easier than it sounds: it's one four-chord loop played twice. Catch the loop the first time; the second half writes itself." |
| 0:30–0:42 | Minor dictation + mixed progression ID | BD3 at 69 BPM; BL loops shuffled at 72–76 | scripted + 1 hearing per call | "One hearing per loop now. Commit to a number. Bass first, always." |
| 0:42–0:52 | Harmonic vs surface rhythm + check warm-up | HR-A/HR-B revisited at 84 BPM | 2 passes | "One more time, both hands. On the check you'll answer with how OFTEN the harmony moves." |
| 0:52–0:55 | Check setup | — | — | administration script, keys sheet |
| 0:55–1:09 | Skills Check 11 | Stimuli 1–8 per script, 66–84 BPM | scripted | script only — identical administration matters |
| 1:09–1:15 | Close | ritual, once, all together | 1 | "You called progressions by number today after two hearings. That's a gig skill. Recordings and practice close at the end of the week." |
When they miss it
Per drill: what the miss sounds like, and the immediate corrective — a specific next sound, never a re-explanation.
| Drill | Error mode — what it sounds like | Immediate corrective |
|---|---|---|
| Bass-line singing | Can't find the floor — they sing an inner note of the chord, usually the top | Play the chord, then the bass note ALONE, then the chord again with the bass doubled loud in octaves. Two chords of that and the ear drops. |
| Bass-line singing | Contour right, leap mis-sized — do–fa sung as do–sol (or the reverse) | Isolate the pair: sing do–fa (up a 4th), then do–sol (up a 5th), alternating twice; then replay the progression and re-enter at the miss. |
| Progression ID | Wrong mode call — a minor loop filed as major (or vi heard as i) | Stop, run the do ritual in the actual key, replay the loop's first two chords only. Home color first, then numbers. |
| Cycle arpeggiation | te sung where ti belongs in the minor V — the dominant loses its lift | Play the V chord twice: once with te, once with ti. Ask which one pulls. Then sing sol–ti–re alone and re-link the cycle. |
| Bass-line dictation | Right sounds, wrong lines — the bass clef betrays them; F3 lands on the treble F line | Hold up the card: "two dots hug F3." Have them mark F3 on every staff before hearing three. The ear is fine; only the map slipped. |
| Harmonic-rhythm tapping | Both hands tap the tune — surface rhythm swallows the chord clock | Kill the melody: play the progression as plain block chords, tap changes only. Then add the tune back on top while they keep the slow hand. |
Escalation path
Drop one layer, never the week: progression ID falls back to function ID ("home, away, or pull?" — three answers, not four numbers); function ID falls back to bass-line singing (BL-A alone); the 8-bar dictation falls back to its first four bars (BD2 is one loop twice — write the loop once); bass-clef writing falls back to arrows on the card (up/down contour) with letter names added on the last hearing. Re-establish tonic the same way every time: stop, run the do ritual in the working key, resume. Abandon criterion: a segment still failing after two escalated attempts gets banked — say "your ear has the sound; the label catches up next week" — and log it. The named pick-up hook: every Unit 11 drill re-enters Unit 12 at floor difficulty — cadence hearing IS two-chord bass-line hearing (sol–do, sol–la, fa–do), the "where does it land" game re-runs progression ID with the last chord withheld, and bass-line dictation continues all the way to the final. Nothing is lost.
Tempo table
| Drill | First pass | Target |
|---|---|---|
| The do ritual | 76 BPM | 76 BPM (never varies) |
| Bass-line singing BL-A–BL-D | 66 BPM | 72–76 BPM |
| Cycle arpeggiation FC1–FC6 | 69 BPM | 76 BPM |
| Progression ID (loops shuffled) | 72 BPM | 76 BPM |
| Bass-line dictation BD1 | 66 BPM | 66 BPM (fixed by script) |
| Bass-line dictation BD2–BD3 | 69–76 BPM | fixed by script |
| Harmonic-rhythm tapping HR-A/HR-B | 76 BPM | 84 BPM |
| Skills-check stimuli | as scripted, 66–84 BPM | fixed by script |
Rotation note (P states it to students): solo hearings continue inside the bass-line singing and cycle segments — 6 to 8 quick individual turns per session (one loop or one cycle rung, ~20 seconds) keeps the standing rotation on pace: every voice heard solo roughly every two and a half weeks at a full section of 36; everyone, every session, in a small room.
~ Professor Hemsworth's edition · Kenosis College · built with thecoursemaker.com