Course: MUS 156 Music Theory I · Kenosis College
Instructor: Professor Hemsworth
Unit: Learning Unit 9 of 16 (Week 9) · two sessions per week
Objectives: SLO 4 · SLO 7

This file holds two pieces: (A) the Week 9 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 9 Overview — Start Here

Welcome to Unit 9: Triads

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.

First, the standing you've earned: Foundations is certified. The midterm is behind you, and nobody is re-checking whether you can read notes, count rhythms, spell scales, or name intervals — you can, on paper, under a clock. From this unit forward the course stops laying floor and starts building on it: chords this week, richer chords next week, then progressions, cadences, and whole charts. And the building begins with a reveal: do–mi–sol — the pattern you've sung every week since unit 4 — is a chord. The major triad. Your ear has owned it for years; this week your pencil catches up: four qualities, one spelling recipe each, seven chords hiding in every key you know, and the news that a chord keeps its name no matter which of its notes the bass player grabs.

The unit's big question

"You've been singing a chord since week 4 without being told. What is it — and once three notes stack in thirds, what decides whether the stack sounds bright, dark, squeezed, or stretched?"

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.

• [ ] Build a triad as root–third–fifth — and explain why C–D–G, three perfectly good notes, isn't one.
• [ ] Spell all four qualities on any root from the recipes: major M3+P5, minor m3+P5, diminished m3+d5, augmented M3+A5 — letters first, always.
• [ ] Read and write the four triad chord symbols: C, Cm, Cdim, Caug.
• [ ] Harmonize any major scale into its seven diatonic triads (ladder M m m M M m d, numerals I–vii°) — and name minor's grid, including the two chords harmonic minor upgrades (major V, diminished vii°).
• [ ] Identify root position, first inversion, and second inversion by the bass note, label them 6 and 6/4 — and insist, correctly, that E–G–C is still C major.

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 ear go first, every time. Play major-then-minor on one root before you spell anything — the flip you hear is the m3/M3 you're about to write. Arpeggiate every answer this week; it's free ear training.
• Memorize two facts cold: the four recipes (fifths are the frame, thirds are the paint), and the major-key ladder M m m M M m d. Those two settle most of the unit.
• Letters first, always. The fifth of a C-rooted chord is a G-something. Every trap this week (C–E♭–F♯ for Cdim, A♭ for G♯ in Caug) is sprung by grabbing keys before letters.
• Re-stack in thirds before you name anything. The bass note is the floor, not the name — E–G–C packs into C–E–G, and the root announces itself.
• Treat your chatbot as a smart intern, not an oracle. This week it will confidently call E–G–C "an E chord" or write 6-4 with a hyphen. Catching that is graded work — and your audit runs on your own knowledge now.
• Do the tutorial before the second session. The studio's sort assumes its reps; the pre-studio deadline is the one mid-week deadline, same as every week.

You've sung this unit's subject for five weeks. Come to the first session with your ears; the names are ready.

(B) Welcome Announcement — Week 9

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

Subject: Foundations is certified — and you've been singing this week's secret since week 4

Hi everyone,

Welcome back — and take a second to notice where you're standing. The midterm is done. Foundations is certified: reading, rhythm, keys, intervals — that vocabulary is yours now, on the record. Nothing from here on questions it. Everything from here on builds with it.

And the building starts with a reveal I've been sitting on since week 4. That do–mi–sol warm-up we sing every week? It's a chord. The major triad — the most common chord in every set list you've ever played. This week it gets its name, its three siblings (minor, diminished, augmented — four flavors, four exact recipes), the seven chords hiding inside every key you can spell, and the answer to a question every bass player settles nightly: if the chord is C major and the bass plays E, did the chord change? (No. Same chord, different floor — and there's a two-character label for it.)

Three things not to miss:

1. Tutorial 9 is due before the second session (before Week 9's second session) — your AI tutor session plus the audit, which runs on your own knowledge. A triad is two intervals holding hands; you've been auditing interval claims since unit 6.
2. The second session is a doing class: the "Quality sort" studio (20 points, in session) — sort flavors by ear, spell them at relay speed, then split a chord across three voices and hand the bass the third. Bring your instrument if it travels.
3. The quiz, practice set, discussion, and the Spell the Call assignment all close the end of Week 9. The Start Here page in this module lays it all out in order with points.

Bring your ears to the first session. They've been rehearsing this unit since week 4 — they just didn't know the name yet.

See you in this class,
Professor Hemsworth

Canvas placement block

# (A) Overview page
canvas_object    = Page
title            = "Week 9 Overview — Start Here · Triads"
published        = true
module_position  = first item in the Week 9 module

# (B) Welcome announcement
canvas_object    = Announcement
title            = "Foundations is certified — and you've been singing this week's secret since week 4"
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 9 module.