Week 12 — Drill Plan · Harmonic Listening II
Course: MUS 155 Aural Skills I · Kenosis College
Instructor: Professor Hemsworth
Unit: Learning Unit 12 of 15 (Week 12) · two sessions per week
Objectives: SLO 1 · SLO 3 · SLO 4
Sessions: session 1 · session 2 (Skills Check 12 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 and Roman-numeral chord plan, in
_keys/KEY-stimulus-sheet-week-12.md— nothing musical is spelled out here.
Named in Music Theory I: PAC and IAC, the half cadence, deceptive, plagal, the cadential six-four, phrase, antecedent and consequent, period — the punctuation marks of harmony, spelled this morning, heard this hour.
First time teaching this
The point of the LU: last week the ear learned to ride the bass through a progression; this week it learns where the progression stops, and what kind of stop it is. Everything runs through one game — the instructor halts one chord early, the room sings the bass note it expects, then the real arrival lands and gets its name. Expectation first, label second: that order is the whole design.
The one thing that must land: sol–do versus sol–la. A student who can sing the expected do and then feel the sidestep to la owns the deceptive cadence forever — and with it the idea that a cadence is a promise kept, bent, or postponed.
The most common way it goes wrong: letting the vote replace the singing. If the room only votes cadence names, this becomes a vocabulary week. Every single stimulus gets a sung response — the expected bass note, out loud, on solfège — before any name is said. One aside to keep as an aside: the cadential six-four the theory class met this morning is inside the authentic formula's approach; name-drop it once if asked, and do not drill it — its drill home is a later course.
The do ritual
As every week: play I–IV–V–I, sing do, the class sings do–mi–sol–mi–do back (in minor, do–me–sol–me–do). Defined in full in Unit 1's plan. Run it in every new stimulus key this week — the game is unplayable if do is not planted first.
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 | G major, 76 BPM | 1 cycle | "Plant do. Today we learn where songs breathe." |
| 0:03–0:14 | Cadence bass-formula ladder | BF1–BF4 (studio page fences), 66 then 76 BPM | 2 passes each | "Four endings, four bass moves: sol–do, sol–la, fa–do, and the stop ON sol. Sing them till they're reflexes." |
| 0:14–0:27 | Where does it land — round 1 | WL1, WL2 at 72→76 BPM | 2 hearings each | "I stop one chord early. You sing the bass note your ear expects — then we find out if the song keeps its promise." |
| 0:27–0:38 | Where does it land — round 2 | WL3, WL4 at 72→76 BPM | 2 hearings each | "Two more. One lands home without sol. One never lands at all — that stop has a name too." |
| 0:38–0:52 | Hymn cadence-hunt I | H1 at 66 BPM, H2 at 63 BPM | 2 hearings each | "Real tunes now. Sing the last two bass notes of the phrase, then name the stop." |
| 0:52–1:04 | Question and answer | QA1a + QA1b at 76 BPM | 2 pairs | "Phrase one asks; phrase two answers. Hands: question or answer? Then we draw what we heard." |
| 1:04–1:13 | Dictation + label | DD1 at 72 BPM, four hearings | scripted | "Four bars, the usual protocol — and one new line at the bottom: name the cadence you wrote." |
| 1:13–1:15 | Close | ritual, once | 1 | "Tutorial done before session 2 if it isn't already; recordings close at the end of the week." |
Session 2 — minor color, speed, the period, then the check.
| Time | Segment | Stimulus / tempo | Reps | Words to say |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0:00–0:03 | The do ritual, minor | e minor, 76 BPM | 1 cycle | "Same door, darker room: do–me–sol–me–do." |
| 0:03–0:12 | Formula ladder at speed | BF1–BF4 at 76 BPM, mixed order | 2 passes | "I call the cadence name, you sing its bass move. No thinking time." |
| 0:12–0:25 | Where does it land — commit round | WL1–WL4 shuffled, 76 BPM | 1 hearing each | "One hearing. Sing your expected note, hold it through the arrival, then vote." |
| 0:25–0:38 | Hymn cadence-hunt II — the period | N1 + N2 at 80 BPM | 2 pairs | "Same beginning, two different endings. That pair has a name the theory class gave you this week — say it after you hear it." |
| 0:38–0:50 | Dictation + label, minor | DD2 at 72 BPM, four hearings | scripted | "Minor this time. The lifted seventh lives in my chords, not your melody — write what sounds, label the stop." |
| 0:50–0:55 | Check setup | — | — | administration script, keys sheet |
| 0:55–1:09 | Skills Check 12 | Stimuli 1–8 per script, 63–76 BPM | scripted | script only — identical administration matters |
| 1:09–1:15 | Close | ritual, once, all together | 1 | "You now hear where songs breathe. Next week you'll sing inside them — two voices at once." |
When they miss it
| Drill | Error mode — what it sounds like | Immediate corrective |
|---|---|---|
| Where does it land | Deceptive voted authentic — the bass moved, so the room calls it home | Play the two arrivals naked, twice: sol–do, then sol–la. Class sings both pairs. Then replay the stimulus. |
| Where does it land | Expected-note drift — the class sings the last note it heard (sol) instead of the note it expects (do) | Have them sing sol, hold it, then "release" it downhill to do while you stay silent. Expectation is a lean, not a memory. |
| Finished-or-not calls | Every bass do sounds finished — IAC voted as a full close | Replay the top voice alone; it stops off home. Then both together. The bass closes the door; the melody decides how far. |
| Plagal calls | Plagal voted authentic — any landing on do gets sol credit | Alternate fa–do and sol–do bass pairs at the piano; the class sings each pair and names which has the pull. |
| Half cadence | Half heard as "the music broke" — the stop on sol read as a mistake | Replay leaning into the arrival: it is a rest stop, not a breakdown. Then sing a question aloud — voice rising — and replay. |
| Question/answer | Order flips — the closed phrase called the question | Speak it: ask "coming?" then answer "coming." Then replay the pair. Ears follow speech here. |
| Dictation + label | Notes right, label guessed — the melody is written but the cadence name is a coin flip | Sing the written last two melody notes, then the two bass notes from the hearing. The label lives in that pair, not in luck. |
Escalation path
Drop one rung, never one week: the game falls back to the four bass formulas alone (BF1–BF4, slow, all voices), the hymn hunt falls back to WL1/WL2, the period falls back to a single question phrase. 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 already sings the right note; the name will catch up this week" — and log it. The named pick-up hook: every Unit 12 skill re-enters Unit 13 inside the two-voice work — cadences are where the two voices agree to stop, and the rounds land on them every eight bars; the Unit 15 final carries cadence ID outright. Nothing is lost.
Tempo table
| Drill | First pass | Target |
|---|---|---|
| The do ritual | 76 BPM | 76 BPM (never varies) |
| Bass-formula ladder BF1–BF4 | 66 BPM | 76 BPM |
| Where does it land WL1–WL4 | 72 BPM | 76 BPM |
| Hymn hunt H1 / H2 | 66 / 63 BPM | fixed (real-tune tempi) |
| Nettleton period N1–N2 | 80 BPM | 80 BPM |
| Question/answer QA1a–b | 76 BPM | 76 BPM |
| Dictation DD1–DD2 | 72 BPM | 72 BPM (fixed by script) |
| Skills-check stimuli | as scripted, 63–76 BPM | fixed by script |
Rotation note (P states it to students): solo turns run inside the formula ladder and the expected-note singing — 6–8 individual hearings per session keeps the running ledger on pace: every voice solo about every two and a half weeks at a section of 36; in a small room, everyone, every session.
~ Professor Hemsworth's edition · Kenosis College · built with thecoursemaker.com