Music Theory I

Adopting note: complete the bracketed fields below and map the 16 relative weeks onto your term calendar; nothing else needs editing to go live.

Course	MUS 156 Music Theory I
Institution	Kenosis College
Term	[Term] — 16 relative weeks: 15 instructional + a finals week
Units	3
Meets	[Meeting days/times] — two 75-minute sessions per week, in person · [Room]
Final exam	[Final exam date/time — a 120-minute block]
Instructor	Professor Hemsworth
Call me	Professor Hemsworth
Contact	[Contact info]
Office hours	[Office hours]
Corequisite	MUS-155 Aural Skills I — the paired course: same students, same weeks, scheduled back-to-back

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What this course is

You already hear this. We're going to name what you already know.

You can find a harmony by ear. You can tell when the band lands a chord and when it doesn't. You
already own the skill this course is about — what you may not own yet is the vocabulary: the
staff, the key signatures, the chord symbols, the names that let you write down what you hear and
read what someone hands you. That's what we build this semester, and we build it in the order your
ear already knows it: sound first, notation second, term last. Every unit opens with something
you can sing, clap or recognize, and only then attaches the writing.

No prior music-reading experience is assumed — by design. This course is written for
musicians who play by ear, and Units 1–7 (Foundations) build reading and writing from the
first note. The midterm in Week 8 is the finish line for that half: it certifies your
notation literacy, on paper, before we spend the back half of the term on harmony — triads,
seventh chords, Roman numerals, cadences, two-voice writing — and finally on the real-world
payoff: transposing, reading lead sheets, and writing a chart another musician can actually play
from. That last one isn't hypothetical: across the second half you'll build "The Chart" — a
lead sheet, analysis and transposition of a song you already play by ear, finished in week 15.

Everything here is aimed at one thing: making you a better musician — on the worship team, in the
band, in the choir, at the jam — not a better test-taker. If you can already hear it, by the end of the term
you'll be able to name it, spell it, write it and hand it to someone else.

MUS-155 moves with us

Almost everyone in this room is also in MUS-155 Aural Skills I — the paired course,
scheduled back-to-back with this one, with the same people. The two courses are built as a
pair and move in lockstep: what we spell on the board here, you sing and hear there the same
week. If you're deciding between section times in a future term, know that this pairing is
deliberate and worth protecting.

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What you'll be able to do (learning outcomes)

By the end of MUS-156 you will be able to:

1. Read and notate pitch and rhythm in treble and bass clef — accidentals, meter, beat
   division — accurately enough to write down what you hear and play what you read.
2. Build and identify all fifteen major and fifteen minor keys, their signatures and their
   scales (natural, harmonic and melodic), and place any key on the circle of fifths.
3. Identify, spell and invert intervals by size and quality, simple and compound.
4. Spell and identify triads and seventh chords in every quality and inversion, from notation
   and from chord symbols.
5. Analyze diatonic harmony with Roman numerals and figured bass, and identify cadences and
   phrase structure.
6. Write and analyze two independent voices — a harmony vocal, a countermelody, a bass line
   that stands on its own — following standard voice-leading norms.
7. Translate what you already hear into correct notation and terminology — name it, spell it,
   write it down. (This is the whole course in one line.)
8. Apply theory in performance — transpose on the spot, read and realize a lead sheet, and
   talk about harmony with other musicians in the terms working musicians use.

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Required materials — nothing to buy

There is no textbook, and you will pay nothing for course materials. Your primary reading is
the Chapter written for this course and posted in each unit's module. Supplemental readings,
recordings and videos are links to free external resources.

• A keyboard is not required. Some activities use one when it's handy, but every single
  activity has a path that works on your own instrument or your voice. Guitarists, singers,
  drummers, horn players: you are not at a disadvantage here.
• Notation: MuseScore (free) or handwriting. When an assignment asks for notation, you may
  use MuseScore (free notation software) or write it by hand and photograph it — either
  is fully accepted, always. Unit 1 includes a one-page MuseScore setup guide if you want it.
• An AI chatbot for the tutorials, practice sets, discussions and assignments — any chatbot
  you like, and free tiers are fine. See the AI-Use Policy below.
• A device with a web browser for Canvas, and a way to photograph handwritten work (your phone).

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Grading

Your grade is the weighted total of the groups below. Weights sum to 100%.

Group	Weight	What it is
Studios	24%	14 hands-on studio sessions (20 points each) — the week's payoff, done live, in the room. Miss one and there's an asynchronous make-up at full credit: the same task done on your own, submitted as a recording plus the written work by the end of that week.
Adaptive assignments	22%	14 AI-coached assignments, one per content unit (100 points each). Unit 15's assignment is "The Chart," with milestones along the way (choose your song in week 10, progression in week 11, lead sheet in week 13).
Final exam	16%	The Week 16 exam session, in our room — cumulative, weighted toward Units 9–15, written for the full 120-minute block.
Quizzes	14%	14 weekly online quizzes (10 points each) — 15-minute timer, one attempt, closed to AI. Your lowest two quiz scores are dropped.
AI tutorials + practice	8%	14 tutorials (due before each studio session, because the studio builds on them) + 14 practice sets (due at week's end).
Adaptive discussions	8%	15 discussions — one per content unit plus the midterm debrief. Your AI-dialogue summary and share link are the whole submission; there are no required replies to classmates.
Midterm exam	8%	Week 8, in class, proctored — covers Units 1–7. This is the Foundations finish line.
Total	100%

Ungraded, for your benefit: the practice exams before the midterm and the final (unlimited
attempts), and a short week-1 diagnostic that never touches the gradebook.

Why the exams here carry more weight than in Professor Hemsworth's online courses — printed so you
don't have to wonder: this is the one course in her set where exams are actually proctored, in
person, in a room. A supervised exam is a stronger measurement than an unsupervised one, so it
earns more weight — and even so, most of your grade (62%) lives in the work you produce week by
week, not in timed testing.

The weekly rhythm

Two deadlines a week, always the same two:

• Before the second session each week — the AI tutorial summary, so the studio builds on
  it instead of repeating it.
• The end of the week — practice set, quiz, discussion, assignment (and any studio make-up).

The one exception: week 15's work closes a day early, so the days before the final
stay clear.

Letter grades

Grade	Range
A	90–100%
B	80–89.9%
C	70–79.9%
D	60–69.9%
F	below 60%

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Week-by-week schedule

Timing is relative — map Week 1 through Week 16 onto your own term calendar. Every content week
carries the same graded set — tutorial, practice set, studio, quiz, discussion, assignment — so
the table lists each week's focus and anything unusual.

Wk	Unit	Session 1	Session 2	Due at week's end
1	1 · The map	first class	studio + short ungraded diagnostic	the weekly set
2	2 · Pulse and page	teach	studio	the weekly set
3	3 · Dividing the beat	teach	studio	the weekly set
4	4 · Major	teach	studio	the weekly set
5	5 · Minor, three ways	teach	studio	the weekly set
6	6 · Intervals I	teach	studio; midterm study guide, prep tutorial and practice exam released	the weekly set
7	7 · Intervals II	teach	studio + cumulative midterm review	the weekly set
8	8 · MIDTERM	midterm, in class	no second session — exam week	midterm debrief discussion
9	9 · Triads	teach	studio	the weekly set
10	10 · Seventh chords	teach	studio	the weekly set + Chart milestone: choose your song
11	11 · Roman numerals and function	teach	studio	the weekly set + Chart milestone: progression drafted
12	12 · Cadences and phrases	teach	studio	the weekly set
13	13 · Two independent voices	teach	studio	the weekly set + Chart milestone: lead sheet drafted
14	14 · Melody and non-chord tones	teach	studio; the final's full review packet is released	the weekly set
—	mid-term break — no classes
15	15 · Charts, keys, and the real world	teach	studio	"The Chart" due + all week-15 work (closes a day early)
16	16 · FINAL	final exam — the 120-minute block

Instruction ends with Week 15. Note that the final's complete review packet — outline, review
deck, study guide, prep tutorial, practice exam — is in your hands by the end of Week 14,
because there is no study week between the last class and the exam. Start there, not on the eve
of the final.

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Exams — the two sessions to protect

• Midterm: Week 8, in class. Covers Units 1–7. Week 8 is exam week, with only one
  class meeting — which is exactly why the review session happens the week before, in Week 7,
  and your prep materials arrive in Week 6.
• Final: the Week 16 exam session, in our regular room. Cumulative, weighted toward
  Units 9–15, and written for the full 120-minute block — plan for two hours, not a class period.

Both exams are proctored, on paper, in the room, and closed to AI.

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AI-Use Policy

This course builds AI into the coursework as a learning partner, and draws a clear line
around everything else. Read this carefully — it's course policy, not a suggestion.

Which chatbots

Any AI chatbot is allowed, and free tiers are fine. Pick one you like and use it
consistently; every AI activity below works the same way in any of them.

The AI-based activities

Your tutorials, practice sets, discussions and assignments are completed with your chatbot
— the conversation is the activity — and the studios include AI-assisted steps where the
session directs:

• Tutorials (weekly). Paste the course-provided tutor prompt, work through the unit's ideas
  in conversation, and submit the chat share link plus the completion summary — due before the
  studio session, because the studio builds on it.
• Practice sets. Same pattern, at your own pace, due at week's end.
• Discussions (adaptive). Hold a real-time dialogue with your chatbot on the unit's prompt,
  then post the AI-generated summary plus your chat share link. That is the entire
  submission — there are no required peer replies.
• Assignments (adaptive). Work the problems with a chatbot coach that grades against an
  embedded rubric, then submit the coach's self-scored report (the line beginning
  STUDENT'S SCORE:) plus your chat share link.

For all of these, the share link is part of your submission — treat the conversation as your
work, keep it on topic, and do your own thinking inside it.

Your chatbot will get music theory wrong — that's part of the course

Chatbots are genuinely unreliable at notation and interval arithmetic. Yours may tell you C to
E♯ is a perfect fourth (it isn't), treat G♯ and A♭ as the same note (they aren't, on paper),
misspell a scale, mis-count a 6/8 bar, or invent a figured-bass symbol that doesn't exist. So
every tutorial and practice set includes a scored tutor-audit step: find and correct at least
one error your tutor made — or state, with reasoning, that it was right throughout. Catching an
authoritative-sounding wrong answer is real theoretical competence, and it's graded as such.
In the early units you'll audit against a provided answer sheet; later, against your own
knowledge. Every tutorial ends with a verified answer key or points to the studio where we
resolve it together — an unaudited AI answer is never the final word.

Permitted vs. not permitted

• AI may be used on your coursework: the tutorials, practice sets, discussions, assignments,
  the AI steps in the studios, and any ungraded practice (including the practice exams).
• AI may not be used on the quizzes, the midterm, or the final. Those are closed to AI
  and must be entirely your own work, unless an item explicitly says otherwise.

Disclosure

The AI-based activities need no separate disclosure — your share link already documents the AI
work. If you use an AI tool to help you think about any other graded work, add a one-line
note saying which tool and how.

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Academic Integrity

You are expected to do your own work and represent it honestly, under Kenosis College's academic integrity
standard. Using AI exactly as described above is encouraged and fully consistent with that
standard. In this course, the integrity violations to understand are specific: fabricating or
doctoring a chat you submit (the share link is your work product — editing or staging it is
falsification), and using AI on the closed assessments — the quizzes, the midterm, and the
final. Collaboration is welcome wherever an activity invites it; when in doubt about what's
allowed, ask before you submit.

[Institutional boilerplate: academic integrity policy statement]

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Late Work

This is the same policy, in the same words, across all of Professor Hemsworth's courses:

Late work

I would rather have you do the work and learn from it than not do the work because it is late. If
you miss a deadline, do it anyway and turn it in. I am not strict about this. A discussion post
that is a day late is not something I am going to care about.

So that you are never guessing, here is how that actually works:

• Everything except the exams is accepted for full credit through the end of the following
  week. No form, no email, no explanation. Just submit it.
• After that, message me. I will almost always say yes. What helps me is a plan with a date in
  it, not an apology.
• The exams and the timed checks are the exception, because they are scheduled events and a
  late one stops being the same instrument. If something real happens — illness, work, family —
  tell me before it, or as soon as you can afterward, and we will arrange something. That is not a
  favor. That is how this works.
• Nothing can be accepted after [last day of instruction — set by your registrar], because grades are due after that.
  That is the only hard wall on this page, and it is the registrar's, not mine.

If you are behind and it has started to feel like too much to face, message me. That is the single
most useful thing you can do, and it is the thing people do least.

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Accessibility and Disability Services

Students arrange academic accommodations through the college's disability access office. If you have
— or think you may have — a disability that affects your work in this course, contact that
office to set up accommodations, and let Professor Hemsworth know early in the term so supports are in
place when you need them, not after. Every course material here ships in accessible form: every
musical example appears in notation and in a written prose description, and no activity
requires you to see a staff to participate.

[Institutional boilerplate: disability services statement]

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