Course: MUS 156 Music Theory I · Kenosis College
Instructor: Professor Hemsworth
Unit: Learning Unit 1 of 16 (Week 1) · two sessions per week
Objectives: SLO 1 · SLO 7

This file holds two pieces: (A) the Week 1 Overview page ("Start Here") and (B) the Welcome Announcement that posts when the module opens. All timing is relative — "Week N" language throughout.

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(A) Week 1 Overview — Start Here

Welcome to Unit 1: The Map

This is your home base for the unit. Read it first, then work the checklist below from top to bottom. Everything on it is linked inside this module.

Here is the whole course in one sentence, and it's about you: you already hear this — we're going to name what you already know. You arrived at this course as a musician; years of playing, singing, and listening have trained your ear to know things it has no words for yet. This first unit hands you the words: every note gets an exact address (middle C = C4), the keyboard becomes a map you can read at a glance, and the staff becomes the written version of that same map. Units 1–7 are the Foundations arc, and the midterm in week 8 certifies the whole vocabulary — a real finish line, visible from day one.

The unit's big question

"Every note you've ever played has an exact address. What is it — and why does the spelling matter?"

By the end of this unit, you can…

Use this as a checklist. If you can do all five out loud, the quiz will feel like confirmation.

• [ ] Name every white key on a keyboard from the black-key pattern alone.
• [ ] Give any note its full scientific address — letter + accidental + octave number, typed like F#4 — and know that the octave number changes only at C (B3 → C4).
• [ ] Find named notes on the treble staff, the bass staff, and the grand staff, including middle C on its ledger line between the staves.
• [ ] Tell a half step from a whole step on the keyboard — and know the two white-key half steps, E–F and B–C.
• [ ] Read all five accidentals, and explain why G♯4 and A♭4 share one key but are two different written notes.

What to do this unit, in order

The table below lists the unit's items in working order, with points and due dates.

#	Do this	Type	Points	Due
1	Read the Week 1 chapter — the unit's primary reading, and the place the course's notation convention is defined	Chapter (ungraded prep)	—	Before the first session if you can
2	Browse the Readings & Resources links that interest you	Prep (ungraded)	—	Alongside class
3	Tutorial 1 — The Map (AI tutor + audit) — your chatbot teaches, you learn, then you audit it against a vetted answer sheet; submit share link + summary + audit	Tutorial · graded	10	before Week 1's second session — before the studio, which builds on it
4	Studio 1 — "Find it on the keyboard" — in class, session 2: hear it, find it, name it, write it; build the grand-staff card you'll keep all term	Studio · graded in session	20	In session, Week 1's second session (async make-up at full credit by the end of Week 1)
5	Practice 1 (AI coach) — six quick reps before the quiz	Practice · graded (completion)	5	the end of Week 1
6	Quiz 1 — The Map — 10 questions, 15-minute timer, one attempt, closed to AI	Quiz · graded	10	the end of Week 1
7	Discussion 1 — "What Your Ear Already Knows" — a dialogue with your AI about a song you play by ear; post the summary + share link (that post is the whole submission)	Discussion · graded	10	the end of Week 1
8	Assignment 1 — "Twenty Addresses" — twenty described notes, answered with exact addresses; the coach's report (score on line 1) + share link	Assignment · graded	100	the end of Week 1

Also in the second session, after the studio: the Week-1 diagnostic — ten short ungraded items. It never touches the gradebook; it tells Professor Hemsworth on day two who already reads music, so the coming units can meet the room where it is. Guess freely.

The late-work policy is in the syllabus.

How to succeed this unit

• Let your ear go first, every time. Every activity here runs sound → name → notation. If a written question feels abstract, put your finger on a keyboard (paper or real) — the map settles arguments.
• Memorize two facts cold: middle C = C4, and the octave number changes only at C (the note below C4 is B3). Those two settle half the unit.
• Type addresses the course way: letter, accidental, octave — F#4, Bb3. You'll use that form in every quiz and AI session all term.
• Treat your chatbot as a smart intern, not an oracle. It will confidently call G♯4 and A♭4 "the same note." Catching that is graded work this week — twice.
• Do the tutorial before the second session. The studio assumes it; the pre-studio deadline is the one mid-week deadline this course ever asks of you, and it's the same every week.

No prior music-reading experience is assumed in this course — that's by design, not by accident. Come to the first session with your ears; everything else is provided.

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(B) Welcome Announcement — Week 1

Release: posts on the module's opening day (drip — not before). Ships workflow_state=active with side_comment discussion; see placement block.

Subject: Welcome to Music Theory — you already hear this

Hi everyone, and welcome to MUS 156!

Quick claim before we've even met: you already know most of what this course teaches. You've just never been handed the names. You can hear when a note is higher, when two notes are close, when someone plays the wrong chord — that's real musical knowledge, and this course exists to give it a written address. Our motto, all sixteen units: you already hear this; we're going to name what you already know.

This unit — The Map — we give every note its address. Middle C is C4. The keyboard is a map you'll learn to read in one class. And by the end of the week you'll be writing down notes you hear — which means the riff you figure out at midnight can still exist in the morning.

Three things not to miss:

1. Read the Week 1 chapter first — it defines how this course writes music down, and everything else assumes it.
2. Tutorial 1 is due before the second session (before Week 1's second session) — your AI tutor session plus the audit step where you catch the chatbot's mistakes. The studio builds right on top of it.
3. The second session is a doing class: the "Find it on the keyboard" studio (20 points, in session), then a short ungraded diagnostic that never touches the gradebook — it just tells me who already reads, so I can teach the room I actually have.

Everything else — practice set, quiz, discussion, and the Twenty Addresses assignment — closes the end of Week 1. The Start Here page in this module lays it all out in order with points.

Bring your ears to the first session. They're more prepared than you think.

See you in this class,
Professor Hemsworth

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Canvas placement block

# (A) Overview page
canvas_object    = Page
title            = "Week 1 Overview — Start Here · The Map"
published        = true
module_position  = first item in the Week 1 module

# (B) Welcome announcement
canvas_object    = Announcement
title            = "Welcome to Music Theory — you already hear this"
workflow_state   = active
discussion_type  = side_comment
delayed_post_at  = module opening day (drip; offset 0 from module start)
# Announcements are NEVER module items — Canvas rejects them as module content.
# They live in the Announcements stream only; do not add this to the Week 1 module.

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