Week 5 — Studio · "Three minors, one tune"

Course: MUS 156 Music Theory I · Kenosis College
Instructor: Professor Hemsworth
Unit: Learning Unit 5 of 16 (Week 5) · two sessions per week
Objectives: SLO 2 · SLO 7 (the spine: hear the form → name the moved note → spell it)
Studio 5 · 20 points · Studios group · In session, Week 5's second session · async make-up path below, full credit, submit by the end of Week 5
Format: the course's signature hands-on session — one out-of-copyright tune wears all three minor forms; you hear which is which, circle the note that moved, then spell every form yourself. Nothing to buy or download; scale sheets are provided in the room, and your own instrument is welcome.

Every content unit has a the second session studio. It's the week's payoff enacted: this week, the payoff is calling the form — "that's the raised seventh," not "it went fancy at the end."

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Part 1 — The Big Picture

Session 1 named the three forms and their recipes: natural is the signature, harmonic raises ^7, melodic raises ^6 and ^7 up and lets go coming down. Today one tune wears all three, live, and your ears do the identifying before your pencil does the spelling. The tune is Wayfaring Stranger — the American spiritual, out of copyright, and conveniently built on a minor home your ear already trusts. We'll live in d minor all morning: one flat in the signature, so every raise shows up in plain sight as an accidental.

By the end of the session your scale sheet holds every form of d minor in your own hand, two transfer keys, and the solfège rows you'll sing in Aural Skills I — the studio and Aural Skills are one continuous pairing this week.

Part 2 — The Task

The guiding question: When the sixth or seventh of a minor tune moves, can you hear it move — and write down exactly which note moved, spelled correctly?

No hypothesis to write today — your prediction instrument is your ear, and Round 1 warms it up before any spelling happens.

Part 3 — Procedure (the four rounds)

You'll work on the studio sheet at your table; groups of 2–3 work well, and the rounds also run fine solo. If you brought your instrument, keep it out — Rounds 2 and 3 both invite you to find the moved notes yourself.

Round 1 — Ears only: major or minor (≈8 min).
Professor Hemsworth plays six short openings at the piano — familiar out-of-copyright tunes. For each, circle major or minor on your sheet, and jot one word for how you knew (the third? where it lands? just the color?). No spellings in this round — ears first, on purpose.

Round 2 — One tune, three ways (≈14 min).
Here is the opening line of Wayfaring Stranger, simplified for singing, in its natural-minor clothes:

KEY: d minor    METER: 4/4    CLEF: treble
| D4/q D4/q F4/q G4/q | A4/h. A4/q | C5/q A4/q G4/q F4/q | D4/w |

In plain English: a simplified version of the tune's opening phrase in d minor — two repeated D4s, a rise through F4 and G4 to a long A4, then an arch up to C5 falling back through A4, G4, F4 to a held D4. Everything comes straight off the one-flat signature: natural minor.

Professor Hemsworth plays the phrase three times, in scrambled order — once natural (as printed), once with the cadence raised harmonic-style (C♯s leaning into D), once melodic-style (B♮ and C♯ climbing, C and B♭ falling). For each playing, mark on your sheet in Table 1: which form, and which note(s) moved from the printed version. Compare with your table after each playing; disagreements are the useful part — resolve them by singing the moment.

Round 3 — Spell it (≈16 min).
Now the pencil catches up with the ear. On the sheet's scale rows, spell:

1. d natural minor (the signature only),
2. d harmonic minor (which letter moves? to what?),
3. d melodic minor, ascending AND descending,
4. transfer one: g harmonic minor (two flats — what does the raise do to F?),
5. transfer two: e harmonic minor (one sharp — what does the raise do to D?).

Eight notes per row, tonic to tonic, every letter exactly once. For reference while you work, the three d minor forms sound like this, and look like this once spelled:

KEY: d minor    METER: free    CLEF: treble
| D4/w E4/w F4/w G4/w A4/w Bb4/w C5/w D5/w |

The d natural minor scale — one octave up from D4, the B♭ from the signature, nothing else altered. Your other rows renovate this one: harmonic lifts C to C♯; melodic lifts B♭ to B♮ and C to C♯ on the climb, then puts both back on the way down.

Round 4 — Sing it on solfège (≈12 min).
Complete the sheet's three solfège rows (natural, harmonic, melodic ascending/descending — do-based, tonic is always do). Then the room sings all three forms on d, hands in the air on every syllable that moved: fists up on ti (raised ^7), open hands on la (raised ^6). Loud is fine; accurate is better. This exact ladder returns in MUS-155 Aural Skills I — the paired course; same syllables, now with the sound attached.

Fallback (no piano hearing needed): if you can't hear the piano well from your seat, or you're doing the make-up path, every round works with a free keyboard app on your phone or your own instrument — the make-up section below lists exactly what to play yourself.

Part 4 — The Scaffold (complete during the rounds)

Table 1 captures Round 2 — one row per playing.

Playing	Which form? (natural / harmonic / melodic)	Which note(s) moved, spelled
1	______	______
2	______	______
3	______	______

Table 2 captures Round 3 — eight notes per row, tonic to tonic.

Scale	Your spelling
d natural minor	______
d harmonic minor	______
d melodic minor, ascending	______
d melodic minor, descending	______
g harmonic minor	______
e harmonic minor	______

Table 3 captures Round 4 — the syllable rows.

Form	Syllables, tonic to tonic
Natural minor	______
Harmonic minor	______
Melodic minor (up, then down)	______

Part 5 — Analysis Questions (short answers on the sheet, ≈5 min)

1. In Round 2, which form did your ear catch fastest, and what gave it away — the leaning seventh, the smoothed climb, or the plain signature?
2. A bandmate looks at your d harmonic minor row and says the C♯ "should be in the key signature if it's really part of the key." Set them straight in one or two sentences.
3. Your g harmonic minor row raised F to F♯; your e harmonic minor row raised D to D♯. In c minor, the same move raises B♭ to B♮ — not B♯. In one sentence: what's the rule?
4. Name one moment today when your ear knew the form before you could name it. What did the knowing feel like?
5. Which minor key do you actually play in most (think of your own set lists or song library)? Write its three forms' changed notes — just the moved notes, spelled — as your take-home.

Part 6 — AI-Critique Moment (≈4 min, phones out — or on the projector if the room prefers)

Ask your chatbot: "Spell the f harmonic minor scale, ascending." Judge its answer against today's rule set: eight notes tonic to tonic, every letter once, the raised seventh as E natural (E♭ lifted — not E♯, and not a missing seventh). The classic failures to hunt: a repeated or skipped letter, the raise "simplified" to a different spelling, or the raise quietly added to the signature. Write 2–3 sentences on your sheet: what it got right, and at least one thing you corrected or verified. The habit all term: the tool drafts, you judge.

Part 7 — What to Submit

Hand in before you leave: the studio sheet (Tables 1–3 + analysis answers + AI-critique sentences). 20 points, graded on the rubric below.

Async make-up path — full credit, submit by the end of Week 5. Life happens; missing the studio costs you nothing but the room. Do the same tasks alone: (1) for Round 1, play each listed pair yourself on a keyboard app or your instrument and mark major/minor by ear; (2) for Round 2, play the printed phrase as written, then the two altered versions from the make-up list, and fill Table 1 for your own playings; (3) complete Tables 2 and 3 in full; (4) do the AI-critique step. Submit: phone photos of your completed sheet, plus a short recording (a minute is plenty — voice memo or video) of you singing or playing any ONE form of d minor while naming its moved notes aloud. Same rubric, same 20 points, no penalty.

Make-up lists (so no partner is needed): Round 1 — play D major scale then d natural minor; G major then e natural minor; F major then d natural minor openings (first five notes each is plenty), marking which of each pair is minor. Round 2 — play the printed phrase, then again replacing each C5 with C#5 (harmonic version), then a rising run D4 E4 F4 G4 A4 B4 C#5 D5 answered by falling D5 C5 Bb4 A4 (melodic version); fill Table 1 for the three. Rounds 3–4 as printed.

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Instructor key — REMOVE BEFORE PUBLISHING TO STUDENTS

Round 1 openings (play the first phrase of each; repeat once):

#	Tune (all out of copyright)	Key to play in	Vetted call
1	Joy to the World	D major	major
2	Wayfaring Stranger	d minor	minor — plant the tune early; it returns in Round 2
3	Ode to Joy	D major	major
4	Go Down Moses	d minor	minor — leading-tone C♯ at the cadence; some will hear "extra pull," praise it
5	Simple Gifts	F major	major
6	Greensleeves	d minor	minor — melodic-minor traffic (B♮/C♯ rising); a preview, don't dissect it yet

Round 2 play order (scrambled on purpose):

Playing	Version	What to play	Vetted answers for Table 1
1	harmonic	the printed phrase with every C5 played as C♯5	form: harmonic · moved: C → C♯ (raised ^7, leaning into D)
2	natural	the phrase exactly as printed	form: natural · moved: nothing — signature only
3	melodic	insert a rising approach B♮4 C♯5 D5 into bar 3's climb, and let the descent fall C5 B♭4 A4	form: melodic · moved: B♭→B♮ and C→C♯ rising; both revert falling

Emphasize after playing 3: nobody changed key — d minor all morning, one flat the whole time.

Round 3 vetted spellings (Table 2):

Scale	Key
d natural minor	D E F G A B♭ C D
d harmonic minor	D E F G A B♭ C♯ D
d melodic minor, ascending	D E F G A B♮ C♯ D
d melodic minor, descending	D C B♭ A G F E D
g harmonic minor	G A B♭ C D E♭ F♯ G
e harmonic minor	E F♯ G A B C D♯ E

Expect two errors: the raise written into a "new signature" (send them to analysis question 2), and letters doubled at the raise (F♯ and F in the same g minor row — point at the every-letter-once rule).

Round 4 vetted syllable rows (Table 3): natural do re me fa sol le te do · harmonic do re me fa sol le ti do · melodic up do re me fa sol la ti do, down do te le sol fa me re do. Hands: fists on ti, open hands on la.

Analysis question cues: Q2 — the signature spells the natural form; the raise is an event in the music, written fresh each time. Q3 — the raise moves the note up one half step from whatever the signature made it: a flat rises to a natural, a natural rises to a sharp; the letter never changes. Q5 — grade for plausible moved-note spellings in their named key, not for key choice.

AI-critique full credit: names a specific check performed (letters counted, the E♮ raise verified) with either a caught error or a real verification. "The AI said it was right" with no checking shown earns the partial band.

Where students collect their own responses (Round 1 one-word reasons, Q4, Q5's key choice), grade the method — honest marks, correctly spelled moved notes — never agreement with one "right" feeling.

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Grading rubric — 20 points

The rubric below maps the studio's parts to points; bands are full / partial / none. The async make-up path uses the identical rubric.

Criterion	Full	Partial	None
Round 1 — ear warm-up completed honestly, all six openings marked with a reason word (3)	3	2	0–1
Round 2 — form identification: all three playings named with the moved notes spelled, or 2 of 3 with clean reasoning (4)	4	2–3	0–1
Round 3 — spellings: ≥5 of 6 rows fully correct, every-letter-once throughout (6)	6	3–5 (one or two accidental slips; letters sound)	0–2
Round 4 — solfège rows: all three rows correct including the descent reverting to te/le (4)	4	2–3	0–1
Analysis + AI-critique: analysis answers attempted thoughtfully; critique names a specific catch or verification (3)	3	2	0–1

Quality gate (self-checked): every Round 2/3/4 key entry re-verified against the course theory reference (d minor forms; g and e harmonic minor; do-based syllable rows; the flat-raise-is-a-natural rule); the printed phrase's bars each sum to 4/4; rubric sums 3+4+6+4+3 = 20; all repertoire out of copyright (Wayfaring Stranger, Joy to the World, Ode to Joy, Go Down Moses, Simple Gifts, Greensleeves); the async path needs no partner and no purchase. ✓

Canvas placement block

canvas_object    = Assignment
title            = "Week 5 Studio — Three minors, one tune"
assignment_group = "Studios"
points_possible  = 20
grading_type     = points
submission_types = [on_paper]        # in session; async make-up: online_upload (photos + short recording)
due              = in session, Week 5's second session; make-up by the end of Week 5
published        = true

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