Course: MUS 156 Music Theory I · Kenosis College
Instructor: Professor Hemsworth
Unit: Learning Unit 3 of 16 (Week 3) · two sessions per week
Objectives: SLO 1 · SLO 7

This file holds two pieces: (A) the Week 3 Overview page ("Start Here") and (B) the Welcome Announcement that posts when the module opens. All timing is relative — "Week N" language throughout.

(A) Week 3 Overview — Start Here

Welcome to Unit 3: Dividing the Beat

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.

Last unit gave every note a length and every bar a count. This unit opens the beat itself: every beat you've ever tapped has an inside, and it splits either in twos or in threes. You already know the difference — you've swayed to 12/8 ballads and marched to straight-eighths rock your whole life. This week the difference gets names (simple and compound division), signatures (6/8, 9/8, 12/8), a counting system ("1 la li"), and three famous special effects: the triplet, syncopation, and the shuffle. Two units from the midterm's Foundations arc are now behind you; rhythm finishes this week, and the finish line in week 8 is still in plain view.

The unit's big question

"Every beat you tap has an inside. Does it split in two or in three — and how does the page tell you before you've heard a note?"

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.

• [ ] Tell by ear whether a beat divides in twos or threes, and name the division simple or compound.
• [ ] Read 6/8, 9/8, and 12/8: beats = top ÷ 3, the dotted quarter carries the beat, and the classifications are compound duple, triple, and quadruple.
• [ ] Count compound meter — "1 la li 2 la li" for divisions, "1 ta la ta li ta" for subdivisions — with the beat numbers where they belong.
• [ ] Explain why 6/8 and 3/4 are different meters even though both hold six eighth notes.
• [ ] Read and write an eighth-note triplet, and recognize syncopation and shuffle feel when you hear them — including where the shuffle's short note lands (on "li").

What to do this unit, in order

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

The late-work policy is in the syllabus.

How to succeed this unit

• Let your body vote first. Before you analyze anything, sway to it. Rolling = threes, marching = twos — your spine knows before your pencil does, and this course counts that as data.
• Memorize one formula cold: in a compound signature, beats = top ÷ 3, and the beat lives on the dotted quarter. That single line answers a third of the quiz.
• Say the counts out loud. "1 la li 2 la li" works as a mouth skill, not an eye skill. Ten spoken reps beat a hundred silent readings.
• Treat your chatbot as a smart intern, not an oracle. This is the week it confidently gives 6/8 six beats. Catching that is graded work — 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.

(B) Welcome Announcement — Week 3

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

Subject: This week the beat learns to roll

Hi everyone,

Quick experiment before the first session: put on a slow blues, or that one worship ballad that sways, and tap along. Now put on a march or a straight rock tune and tap along. Your hand did two different things — and you didn't need me for any of it. That's this unit in one move: every beat has an inside, it splits in twos or in threes, and your body has been telling them apart for years. This week we name the difference, read it (6/8, 9/8, 12/8), and count it out loud ("1 la li" — you'll be saying it in your sleep by the weekend).

This unit — Dividing the Beat — rhythm gets its groove. The triplet, syncopation, and the shuffle all live here, which means by the end of the week you'll be transcribing the exact feel of half the music you already play.

Three things not to miss:

1. Read the Week 3 chapter first — the ÷3 rule alone is worth the visit, and everything else assumes it.
2. Tutorial 3 is due before the second session (before Week 3's second session) — and this is the week your AI tutor is most likely to blow it: chatbots love to give 6/8 "six beats." The scored audit step is your chance to catch it red-handed.
3. The second session is a doing class: "The 6/8 Room" studio (20 points, in session) — half the room on beats, half on divisions, then you transcribe a shuffle and a 6/8 hymn rhythm from hearing alone.

Everything else — practice set, quiz, discussion, and the Recast the Groove assignment — closes the end of Week 3. The Start Here page in this module lays it all out in order with points.

Bring your ears to the first session. And maybe stretch — there's swaying involved.

See you in this class,
Professor Hemsworth

Canvas placement block

# (A) Overview page
canvas_object    = Page
title            = "Week 3 Overview — Start Here · Dividing the Beat"
published        = true
module_position  = first item in the Week 3 module

# (B) Welcome announcement
canvas_object    = Announcement
title            = "This week the beat learns to roll"
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 3 module.