Course: MUS 156 Music Theory I · Kenosis College
Instructor: Professor Hemsworth
Unit: Learning Unit 11 of 16 (Week 11) · two sessions per week
Objectives: SLO 5 · SLO 4 · SLO 8 (one component: Chart milestone 2)

This file holds two pieces: (A) the Week 11 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 11 Overview — Start Here

Welcome to Unit 11: Roman Numerals and Function

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 built triads. Unit 10 stacked sevenths. This unit, those chords get jobs and job titles. Roman numerals name a chord by its scale degree and quality — which means the name survives every key change on earth, which is why the same four chords power fifty songs in fifty keys. You'll analyze in major and in minor (where one raised note turns v into V and the story changes), meet the dominant pair V7 and vii° with their shared tritone engine, watch vii°7 finally get its diatonic home (harmonic minor — unit 10 promised you this), put inversion figures to work in analysis, and learn to hear harmonic rhythm — how fast the chords walk, as distinct from how fast the beat runs.

And this is a project week: Chart milestone 2 — progression drafted — lives inside this week's assignment. Your song, chosen last unit, leaves this week as numbers.

The unit's big question

"Your band plays the same four chords as fifty other songs — in a different key every night. What are those chords DOING that works in any key, and what do you call them so any musician knows instantly? (Answer: jobs, and numbers — and once your song is numbers, it plays in every key at once.)"

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.

• [ ] Analyze diatonic chords with Roman numerals in major and minor, letting case and symbols carry the quality (I vs. i, vii°, III+) — and never writing VI when you mean vi.
• [ ] Sort any diatonic chord into its function family — tonic, predominant, dominant — and trace the cycle T→PD→D→T ("home, away, lean, land") through a real progression.
• [ ] Explain why V is major in minor keys (the raised ^7 — unit 5's te→ti), spell it in any minor key, and report v vs. V honestly.
• [ ] State where viiø7 and vii°7 each live diatonically (major keys' ^7 vs. harmonic minor) and spell both.
• [ ] Read figures in analysis — ii6, i6/4, V6/5, V4/3, V4/2 — straight to the bass note they promise.
• [ ] Describe a song's harmonic rhythm without confusing it with tempo — and draft your Chart song's progression in Roman numerals (milestone 2).

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 11 chapter — numerals in major and minor, the three function families and the cycle, the dominant pair, figures, harmonic rhythm	Chapter (ungraded prep)	—	Before the first session if you can
2	Browse the Readings & Resources links that interest you — the progression ear-trainer and the TheoryTab song library are this week's sleeper hits	Prep (ungraded)	—	Alongside class
3	Tutorial 11 — Roman Numerals and Function (AI tutor + audit) — your chatbot teaches, you learn, then you audit it on your own knowledge (watch for the "minor v" flattening)	Tutorial · graded	10	before Week 11's second session — before the studio, which calls progressions at speed
4	Studio 11 — "Name that progression" — in class, session 2: the loop board, the transposition relay, the dominant-pair corner, and the Chart clinic on your own song. Bring your Chart song on your phone.	Studio · graded in session	20	In session, Week 11's second session (async make-up at full credit by the end of Week 11)
5	Practice 11 (AI coach) — seven quick reps before the quiz	Practice · graded (completion)	5	the end of Week 11
6	Quiz 11 — Roman Numerals and Function — 10 questions, 15-minute timer, one attempt, closed to AI	Quiz · graded	10	the end of Week 11
7	Discussion 11 — "Four Chords, Fifty Songs" — find home in a song you love and test the cycle against it; post the summary + share link (that post is the whole submission)	Discussion · graded	10	the end of Week 11
8	Assignment 11 — "Call It in Numbers" + Chart milestone 2 — analyze a phrase in G major and its A-minor cousin, then draft your own song's progression in numbers; the coach's report (score on line 1) + share link	Assignment · graded	100	the end of Week 11

The late-work policy is in the syllabus.

How to succeed this unit

• Let your ear go first, every time. Before you name any numeral, hum the bass and find home. Function is a feeling you've had for years; the numerals just spell it.
• Memorize two facts cold: the major-key parade — I, ii, iii, IV, V, vi, vii°, identical in all fifteen keys — and the two-sentence law: major keys build viiø7 on ^7; vii°7 lives in harmonic minor. Those two settle half the unit.
• Case is not decoration. vi and VI are different chords. Check the third, set the case, every time — one second, zero regrets.
• In minor, ask "which seventh?" G natural in A minor's five chord → v. G♯ → V. The numeral reports what sounds, and the raised note is spelled G♯, never A♭.
• Treat your chatbot as a smart intern, not an oracle. This week it will flatly call minor's five chord "minor" and blur ø7 into °7. Catching that is graded work — the tutorial audit runs on your own knowledge.
• Do the tutorial before the second session, and bring your song. The studio calls loops at speed and ends with the Chart clinic — arriving with the reps done is the difference between calling and copying.

Your song leaves this week as numbers — and numbers play in every key. That's not homework; that's a superpower with a due date.

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(B) Welcome Announcement — Week 11

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

Subject: Your four chords have names — and jobs

Hi everyone,

Try this tonight: play C–G–Am–F around the room and count how many songs the loop starts playing in people's heads. Then play G–D–Em–C and watch the same songs show up in different clothes. The letters changed; the songs didn't — because what your ear tracks was never the letters. It's the jobs: one chord is home, one leans, one packs the bags. This week those jobs get their names, and chords get the one label that survives every key change: Roman numerals.

This unit — Roman Numerals and Function — chords stop being spellings and start being sentences. Numerals in major and minor (one raised note turns v into V — you'll hear it immediately), the dominant pair V7 and vii° with the tritone engine they share, the fully diminished vii°7 finally getting its home address (harmonic minor — unit 10 promised), figures riding along in analysis, and harmonic rhythm: how fast the chords walk, which is not how fast the beat runs.

Three things not to miss:

1. Tutorial 11 is due before the second session (before Week 11's second session) — the studio calls progressions in real time and assumes the reps. The audit step hunts this week's classic AI flattening: "the five chord in minor is minor." You know better — or you will by session 1 night.
2. Bring your Chart song to the studio. After the loop board and the transposition relay, the Chart clinic works on your music — and feeds straight into milestone 2: your progression, drafted in numbers, inside this week's assignment.
3. The second session is a doing class: loops called by ear, numbers spelled on the board, and one moment where your table transposes a whole progression into a new key without "transposing" anything — because numbers were never in a key to begin with.

Everything else — practice set, quiz, discussion, and the Call It in Numbers assignment with milestone 2 inside it — closes the end of Week 11. 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 sorting chords into jobs your whole life — now you get to call it.

See you in this class,
Professor Hemsworth

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Canvas placement block

# (A) Overview page
canvas_object    = Page
title            = "Week 11 Overview — Start Here · Roman Numerals and Function"
published        = true
module_position  = first item in the Week 11 module

# (B) Welcome announcement
canvas_object    = Announcement
title            = "Your four chords have names — and jobs"
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 11 module.

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