Course: MUS 156 Music Theory I · Kenosis College
Instructor: Professor Hemsworth
Unit: Learning Unit 4 of 16 (Week 4) · two sessions per week
Objectives: SLO 2 · SLO 7 · SLO 8 (first component)

This file holds two pieces: (A) the Week 4 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 4 Overview — Start Here

Welcome to Unit 4: Major

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.

Sing do re mi fa sol la ti do and you've already performed this unit — that ladder has been in your ear since childhood, and you can start it from any note you like. What you're missing is the recipe: this week the ladder becomes a written system. One step pattern (W W H W W W H) builds all fifteen major scales; a spelling law (every letter exactly once) makes each one lawful; key signatures file each key's accidentals in two fixed orders; and the circle of fifths turns out to generate the whole map from a single repeated move. Units 1–3 gave every note an address and every rhythm a count. This unit organizes the addresses into neighborhoods — and the midterm finish line is now four weeks out.

The unit's big question

"Every major key is the same eight-note ladder starting from a different front door. What is the ladder — and why does D♭ need five flats to build it?"

By the end of this unit, you can…

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

• [ ] Say the major scale's step recipe — W W H W W W H — and locate its half steps between ^3–^4 and ^7–^8.
• [ ] Spell any of the fifteen major scales, every letter exactly once (yes, including F♯ major's E♯ and G♭ major's C♭).
• [ ] Write any major key signature using the fixed orders — sharps F C G D A E B, flats B E A D G C F.
• [ ] Name a major key from its signature (last sharp + half step; next-to-last flat; and the one-flat exception, F major).
• [ ] Rebuild the circle of fifths from scratch in both directions, one new accidental per stop.
• [ ] Number any scale member ^1–^7 and sing the ladder on movable-do solfège — do re mi fa sol la ti do.

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

• Build, don't memorize — then memorize. Every scale, signature, and circle stop is generated by W W H W W W H plus the spelling law. Derive first, so nothing rests on recall; drill after, so recall gets fast anyway.
• Learn the two orders cold: sharps F C G D A E B, flats B E A D G C F — one list, two directions. They settle half the unit's questions in seconds.
• Spell out loud while you walk a keyboard. The paper keyboard from unit 1 is the referee: if your spelling doubles a letter or skips one, the map will show you where.
• Treat your chatbot as a smart intern, not an oracle. This week it will misspell scales and call F♯ major and G♭ major "the same key." 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.

Sing the ladder on solfège whenever you can — in MUS-155 Aural Skills I, the paired course, you're singing it anyway. The two courses are one system on purpose.

(B) Welcome Announcement — Week 4

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

Subject: One ladder, fifteen front doors

Hi everyone,

Quick experiment before you read another word: sing do re mi fa sol la ti do. Done? Then you've already performed Unit 4. That ladder is the major scale, you've owned it by ear for years, and you can start it from any note in the building. This week we write down what your ear has been doing all along: one step recipe builds it, a spelling law makes it lawful in all fifteen major keys, key signatures file the results, and the circle of fifths turns out to be a machine you can rebuild on a napkin — not a poster to memorize.

The payoff is immediate: a chart in five flats stops being five separate warnings and becomes one key. That's the difference between panic and a shrug ten minutes before downbeat.

Three things not to miss:

1. Read the Week 4 chapter first — its fifteen-key table is your reference for the rest of the course.
2. Tutorial 4 is due before the second session (before Week 4's second session) — your AI tutor session plus the audit step. Fair warning: this is the unit where chatbots misspell scales with total confidence. Catching them is the graded part.
3. The second session is a doing class: the "circle relay" studio (20 points, in session) — the room builds the circle out loud, races the signature clock, and names the keys of tunes you already know by ear. You'll leave with a key card you'll use all term.

Everything else — practice set, quiz, discussion, and the Eight Keys assignment — closes the end of Week 4. The Start Here page in this module lays it all out in order with points.

Bring your voice to the first session. The first thing we'll do is sing.

See you in this class,
Professor Hemsworth

Canvas placement block

# (A) Overview page
canvas_object    = Page
title            = "Week 4 Overview — Start Here · Major"
published        = true
module_position  = first item in the Week 4 module

# (B) Welcome announcement
canvas_object    = Announcement
title            = "One ladder, fifteen front doors"
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 4 module.