Course: MUS 156 Music Theory I · Kenosis College
Instructor: Professor Hemsworth
Unit: Learning Unit 10 of 16 (Week 10) · two sessions per week
Objectives: SLO 4 · SLO 7 · SLO 8 (next component: chart symbols — and The Chart launches)

This file holds two pieces: (A) the Week 10 Overview page ("Start Here") and (B) the Welcome Announcement that posts when the module opens. All timing is relative — "Week N" language throughout.

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(A) Week 10 Overview — Start Here

Welcome to Unit 10: Seventh Chords

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.

Unit 9 stacked thirds three notes deep and called them triads. This unit stacks one more — and suddenly you're reading the language charts are actually written in: Cmaj7, C7, Cm7, Cm7b5, Cdim7, and the slash chords (C/E, G7/D) that tell your bass player exactly where to stand. Five qualities, one recipe each, and a difference your ear has never once gotten wrong: play Cmaj7 and C7 back to back and you already know which one is dreamy and which one leans. This week names what you already hear — four notes deep.

And the term project launches. Inside this week's assignment sits The Chart, milestone 1: choose your song — the song you'll spend the rest of the course turning into a real lead sheet, by ear, in your own hand. Start auditioning candidates now, in the car, in your headphones. The winner needs chords, a singable melody, a bass line you can hum, and your genuine affection — you'll be together for five weeks.

The unit's big question

"Cmaj7 and C7 differ by one note, and your ear has never confused them. What is that note doing — and how do you spell all five seventh-chord flavors on any root a chart throws at you?"

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.

• [ ] Build any seventh chord as a triad plus one more third — root, third, fifth, seventh.
• [ ] Spell all five qualities on any root: maj7, dominant 7, m7, half-diminished (m7♭5), fully diminished (dim7) — including the honest double-flat spellings.
• [ ] Read the symbols the way charts mean them — a plain 7 always buys the minor seventh (C7 = C E G B♭); maj7 is the shimmer (Cmaj7 = C E G B).
• [ ] Harmonize a major scale in diatonic sevenths — and prove the chord on ^7 is viiø7, half-diminished, never viio7 (the fully diminished version needs a note no major key owns).
• [ ] Name all four bass positions with the figures 7 · 6/5 · 4/3 · 4/2 — slashes, never hyphens.
• [ ] Read a slash chord: the letter after the slash is the bass note you actually hear.

What to do this unit, in order

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

#	Do this	Type	Points	Due
1	Read the Week 10 chapter — the recipe, the five qualities, the symbols, the viiø7 rule, figures and slash chords	Chapter (ungraded prep)	—	Before the first session if you can
2	Browse the Readings & Resources links that interest you — the chord ear-trainer is this week's sleeper hit	Prep (ungraded)	—	Alongside class
3	Tutorial 10 — Seventh Chords (AI tutor + audit) — your chatbot teaches, you learn, then you audit it on your own knowledge; this week's hunt includes the most misprinted chord on the internet	Tutorial · graded	10	before Week 10's second session — before the studio, whose relays assume it
4	Studio 10 — "Cmaj7 vs. C7" — in class, session 2: quality votes by ear, spelling relays on one root, and the bass-note round	Studio · graded in session	20	In session, Week 10's second session (async make-up at full credit by the end of Week 10)
5	Practice 10 (AI coach) — six quick reps before the quiz	Practice · graded (completion)	5	the end of Week 10
6	Quiz 10 — Seventh Chords — 10 questions, 15-minute timer, one attempt, closed to AI	Quiz · graded	10	the end of Week 10
7	Discussion 10 — "One Note Deeper" — find the chord moment in a song you love and name what the seventh is doing; post the summary + share link (that post is the whole submission)	Discussion · graded	10	the end of Week 10
8	Assignment 10 — "Read the Chart, Write the Chart" + Chart Milestone 1 — fifteen symbol⟷notes conversions, then the coach walks you through choosing your Chart song (25 of the 100 points); the coach's report (score on line 1) + share link	Assignment · graded	100	the end of Week 10

The late-work policy is in the syllabus.

How to succeed this unit

• Let your ear go first, every time. Every quality has a personality your ear already files correctly — shimmer, lean, velvet, suspense, dread. Attach the spelling to the personality, not the other way around.
• Memorize two facts cold: a plain 7 means the dominant recipe (minor seventh — C7 = C E G B♭), and the chord on ^7 in major is viiø7, half-diminished. Those two settle half the unit — and the second one beats most of the internet.
• Build every chord as a recipe: triad quality + seventh quality. Five recipes cover every symbol a chart will ever hand you in this course.
• Treat your chatbot as a smart intern, not an oracle. This week it will confidently hand you B–D–F–A♭ as "the seventh chord in C major" — a chord containing a note C major doesn't have. Catching that is graded work this week. You're ready for it.
• Do the tutorial before the second session. The studio's relays assume its reps; the pre-studio deadline is the one mid-week deadline, same as every week.
• Audition Chart songs all week. Milestone 1 rewards a song chosen with your ears, not in a hurry on the end of the week night: hum the bass in the car, count the chord changes in your head, notice whether you still love it on the fourth listen.

You've been hearing these five chords your whole musical life. Come session 1, they get names; by the end of the week, one song gets yours.

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(B) Welcome Announcement — Week 10

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

Subject: One note deeper — and your song gets chosen this week

Hi everyone,

Play a C major triad. Nice. Now add a B on top — that shimmer is Cmaj7. Slide the B down a half step — that lean, that blues engine, is C7. One note apart, and you have never once confused them. That's Unit 10: the five seventh-chord flavors, the chart symbols that name them (Cmaj7, C7, Cm7, Cm7b5, Cdim7), the four bass floors with their figures, and the slash chords (C/E) that tell your bass player exactly which note to own.

This unit — Seventh Chords — charts stop bluffing you. the studio is quality votes by ear, spelling relays at the board, and the bass-note round: hear it, name it, spell it, at gig speed.

Three things not to miss:

1. The Chart launches. Your term project — one song you love, turned into a real lead sheet by ear over the rest of the course — begins inside this week's assignment with milestone 1: choose your song. Twenty-five of the assignment's hundred points are for choosing well: chords, a hummable bass, a melody you can sing, and genuine affection. Start auditioning songs today.
2. Tutorial 10 is due before the second session (before Week 10's second session) — and this week's tutor audit hunts big game: the single most misprinted chord in amateur theory content is on our syllabus, and your chatbot will probably misprint it for you on request. Catching it is the assignment.
3. The second session is a doing class: "Cmaj7 vs. C7" — the difference you've always heard, drilled into your hands and your handwriting, in teams, at the board.

Everything else — practice set, quiz, discussion, and the Read-the-Chart assignment — closes the end of Week 10. The Start Here page in this module lays it all out in order with points.

Bring your ears to the first session. They're already fluent; we're just teaching them to write.

See you in this class,
Professor Hemsworth

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Canvas placement block

# (A) Overview page
canvas_object    = Page
title            = "Week 10 Overview — Start Here · Seventh Chords"
published        = true
module_position  = first item in the Week 10 module

# (B) Welcome announcement
canvas_object    = Announcement
title            = "One note deeper — and your song gets chosen this week"
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 10 module.

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