Week 6 — Studio · "Sound to name"

Course: MUS 156 Music Theory I · Kenosis College
Instructor: Professor Hemsworth
Unit: Learning Unit 6 of 16 (Week 6) · two sessions per week
Objectives: SLO 3 · SLO 7 (the spine: hear the gap → name the gap → spell the gap)
Studio 6 · 20 points · Studios group · In session, Week 6's second session · async make-up path below, full credit, submit by the end of Week 6
Format: the course's signature hands-on session — the room sings gaps it has known for years, names them with the two rulers, and every student walks out owning a hook-bank card: their personal list of songs that anchor each interval in their own memory. Nothing to buy or download; card blanks and paper keyboards are provided, 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 naming the gap — "that's a sixth," not "somewhere up there."

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Part 1 — The Big Picture

Session 1 named the system: size from letters, quality from half steps, two families, inversion, spelling in both directions. Today the system meets the music you actually carry around. Every round runs in the ear-first direction — sound → name it → spell it — because that's the direction you'll use on a gig: the melody leaps, and you catch what the leap is while it's still in the air.

By the end of the session you'll have built your own hook-bank card: one interval per line, each anchored to a song you can already sing. That card is how working musicians actually remember intervals — not as half-step counts, but as the first two notes of something they love.

Part 2 — The Task

The guiding question: When you hear the gap between two notes, how fast can you give it its full name — quality and size — and could another musician tune to what you wrote?

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

Part 3 — Procedure (the four rounds)

You'll work on the studio sheet with a paper keyboard beside it. Groups of 2–3 at the tables work well; the rounds also run fine solo. If you brought your instrument, keep it out — the hook rounds are better with it.

Round 1 — Ears only: wider or narrower (≈8 min).
Professor Hemsworth plays six pairs of gaps at the piano — first gap, then second gap. For each pair, circle on your sheet whether the second gap is wider or narrower than the first. No naming allowed in this round — ears first, on purpose. (You've been making this judgment your whole musical life; today it just gets a scoresheet.)

Round 2 — The seed bank: six hooks everybody owns (≈14 min).
Six out-of-copyright song openings, printed below. For each: the room sings it, then each table works out the opening interval with the two rulers — letters first, half steps second — and writes the full name in Table 1. These six are the free starter deposit for your card.

METER: free    CLEF: treble
| C4/w G4/w |

Hook 1 — the Twinkle tune (Ah! vous dirai-je, maman): its first leap, C4 up to G4, written as two long notes on the treble staff.

METER: free    CLEF: bass
| G3/w C4/w |

Hook 2 — Amazing Grace: the opening "A-ma…" leap, G3 up to C4, two long notes on the bass staff.

METER: free    CLEF: treble
| G4/w E4/w |

Hook 3 — The Star-Spangled Banner: the very first move, G4 falling to E4, two long notes on the treble staff. (The tune keeps falling to C4 after that — a bonus interval for fast tables.)

METER: free    CLEF: treble
| A3/w C4/w |

Hook 4 — Greensleeves: the opening rise, A3 up to C4, two long notes just below the treble staff.

METER: free    CLEF: treble
| E5/w D#5/w |

Hook 5 — Für Elise: the famous first wobble, E5 down to D♯5, two long notes above the treble staff — the smallest gap in the bank.

KEY: C major    METER: free    CLEF: treble
| C5/w B4/w A4/w G4/w | F4/w E4/w D4/w C4/w |

Hook 6 — Joy to the World: the opening line is the entire major scale walked downward, C5 to C4, eight long notes. Name the step sizes on the way down, and the distance between the first note and the last.

Round 3 — Build your own bank (≈12 min).
The seed bank is everyone's; this round is yours. Add at least three hooks from songs you actually carry — worship set, band covers, karaoke closers, a game soundtrack, anything you can sing cold. For each: sing the opening two notes, find them on a keyboard (paper, phone app, or your instrument), write the two addresses if you can, and name the interval with the two rulers. Fill Table 2. Ground rules: if your song is on the course's out-of-copyright tune list, you may notate it freely; if it's a current copyrighted song, name it on your card and write only the interval — the card is your gig equipment, not published sheet music. Stuck for a gap nobody's song covers? The scale is the backstop: do up to la is a major sixth in any key — sing it and claim it.

Round 4 — Speed spelling (≈14 min).
Eight prompts, called one at a time; you write full spelled answers (letter + accidental + octave) or full interval names on the sheet. This round runs in both directions — above, below, and flipped — and one prompt is a trap session 1 warned you about. Check with a neighbor after every second prompt; disagreements get settled with the two rulers, out loud.

Part 4 — The Scaffold (complete during the rounds)

Table 1 captures Round 2 — the seed bank.

Hook	Opening notes	Full interval name (quality + size)
Twinkle	C4 → G4	______
Amazing Grace	G3 → C4	______
Star-Spangled Banner	G4 → E4 (falling)	______
Greensleeves	A3 → C4	______
Für Elise	E5 → D♯5 (falling)	______
Joy to the World	C5 down to C4 (whole line)	first-to-last: ______

Table 2 captures Round 3 — your own bank (three lines minimum; more is better).

Your song	The two notes (if you can address them)	Direction	Interval name
1	______	up / down	______
2	______	up / down	______
3	______	up / down	______
4 (bonus)	______	up / down	______

Round 4 answers go in the numbered spaces on the sheet (1–8).

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

1. In Round 1 your ear ranked gaps with no names at all. In Round 2 the names arrived. Which hook's interval surprised you once it had a name — and why do you think the name didn't match your guess?
2. A bandmate says "the interval from C4 to E♯4 is a perfect fourth — I counted the half steps." In one or two sentences, set them straight with the two rulers.
3. Look at your Round 3 bank. Which of your own songs gave you the cleanest anchor, and which interval do you still have no song for? (Next unit's transcription race will reward a full bank.)
4. Name one moment today when your ear knew the gap before your pencil did. What did that feel like?
5. Your card will follow you all term. What's one thing you'd add or change to make it more useful to you — and go ahead and do it.

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

Type into your chatbot: "What interval is C4 up to E♯4? One sentence." Judge its reply with the two rulers — letters first. The classic failure to hunt: it counts piano keys, gets five half steps, and announces a perfect fourth; the letters (C-D-E, a third) prove it wrong, and the correct name is an augmented third. If your bot gets it right, push once more: "So is that the same interval as C4 to F4?" — and watch for the enharmonic collapse. Write 2–3 sentences on your sheet: what it claimed, what your rulers found, and who won. The habit all term: the tool drafts, you judge — and from this unit on, you're auditing with your own arithmetic.

Part 7 — What to Submit

Hand in before you leave: the studio sheet (Round 1 circles, Tables 1–2, Round 4 answers, analysis answers, AI-critique sentences) and show your hook-bank card to Professor Hemsworth for the card check — the card itself stays with you; it's equipment now. 20 points, graded on the rubric below.

Async make-up path — full credit, submit by the end of Week 6. Life happens; missing the studio costs you nothing but the room. Do the same tasks alone: (1) Round 1 — play each printed pair yourself on a keyboard app or your instrument and circle wider/narrower by ear; (2) Round 2 — play or sing each seed hook from the printed staves and name its interval; (3) Round 3 — build your own three-song bank exactly as described; (4) Round 4 — work the printed prompt list below; (5) do the AI-critique step. Submit: phone photos of your completed sheet and card, plus a short recording (a minute is plenty — voice memo or video) of you singing or playing any two hooks from your card while saying their interval names aloud. Same rubric, same 20 points, no penalty.

Make-up lists (so no partner is needed): Round 1 pairs — (C4→E4, then C4→F4) · (G4→A4, then G4→C5) · (E4→F4, then E4→G4) · (C4→A4, then C4→G4) · (D4→B4, then D4→A4) · (C4→C5, then C4→B4); for each, circle whether the second gap is wider or narrower. Round 4 prompts — 1: spell a P5 above B♭3 · 2: spell a m3 above D4 · 3: spell a M6 above A3 · 4: spell a M3 below E4 · 5: spell a P4 below G4 · 6: spell a m2 above B3 · 7: spell an A3 (augmented third) above C4 · 8: name the inversion of a m6, then the inversion of an A4.

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Instructor key — REMOVE BEFORE PUBLISHING TO STUDENTS

Round 1 pairs (play each gap melodically, twice; second gap judged against the first):

#	First gap	Second gap	Key: second is	Note
1	C4→E4 (M3)	C4→F4 (P4)	wider	easy opener, one half step apart in width
2	G4→A4 (M2)	G4→C5 (P4)	wider	obvious — step vs. leap
3	E4→F4 (m2)	E4→G4 (m3)	wider	both small; expect hesitation, praise it
4	C4→A4 (M6)	C4→G4 (P5)	narrower	first "narrower" — watch the room recalibrate
5	D4→B4 (M6)	D4→A4 (P5)	narrower	same relationship, new starting note
6	C4→C5 (P8)	C4→B4 (M7)	narrower	the tiny one — a half step of difference at the top; gold if they catch it

Round 2 vetted intervals: Twinkle C4→G4 = P5 · Amazing Grace G3→C4 = P4 · Star-Spangled Banner G4→E4 = m3 (falling; the bonus continuation E4→C4 = M3) · Greensleeves A3→C4 = m3 (rising) · Für Elise E5→D♯5 = m2 (falling) · Joy to the World first-to-last C5→C4 = P8 (step sizes on the way down, top to bottom: m2, M2, M2, M2, m2, M2, M2 — fast tables can label them all).

Round 4 prompts and vetted answers:

#	Prompt (call it, write it on the board)	Vetted answer
1	a P5 above B♭3	F4
2	a m3 above D4	F4
3	a M6 above A3	F♯4
4	a M3 below E4	C4
5	a P4 below G4	D4
6	a m2 above B3	C4 — the octave boundary; "C3" and "B♯3" are the errors to expect
7	an A3 (augmented third) above C4	E♯4 — the trap; "F4" names the right key and the wrong note (that's a P4). Full credit requires the E♯ spelling
8	invert a m6; then invert an A4	M3, then d5 — sizes sum to 9; m↔M, A↔d

Card check (10 seconds per student): at least the six seed hooks + three personal hooks, each line carrying song → interval name (quality + size); direction marked; no copyrighted notation copied onto anything submitted; at least one interval below the unison-to-fifth range (a sixth or seventh) somewhere on the card — nudge fast finishers toward the scale-degree backstop (do→la = M6) if their songs cluster small.

AI-critique full credit: names the specific claim checked with the two rulers shown (most common catch: the P4 collapse on C4→E♯4; second most common: "A3 and P4 are the same interval" — same sound, different interval). "The AI said it was right" with no arithmetic shown earns the partial band.

Where students collect their own responses (Round 1 circles, the personal bank), grade the method — honest marks, full interval names with quality, addresses in letter+accidental+octave form — never whether their favorite song matches anyone else's.

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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 pairs circled (4)	4	2–3	0–1
Round 2 — seed bank: full quality+size names, ≥5 of 6 correct (5)	5	3–4 (sizes right, some qualities off; or names missing quality)	0–2
Round 3 — your own bank: ≥3 honest hooks with named intervals, method visible (4)	4	2–3	0–1
Round 4 — speed spelling: ≥6 of 8 correct incl. an honest attempt at the E♯ trap (5)	5	3–4	0–2
AI-critique: 2–3 sentences with the two-ruler arithmetic shown (2)	2	1	0

Quality gate (self-checked): every Round 2, Round 4, and make-up answer re-verified against the course theory reference (two-ruler derivations; the E♯4 trap spelled, not just sounded; inversion pairs sum to 9 with P↔P, M↔m, A↔d); all six seed hooks drawn from the course out-of-copyright tune registry and printed as openings only; rubric sums 4+5+4+5+2 = 20; no purchased or downloaded materials; in-copyright songs named, never notated. ✓

Canvas placement block

canvas_object    = Assignment
title            = "Week 6 Studio — Sound to name"
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 6's second session; make-up by the end of Week 6
published        = true

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