Teacher orientation
This week asks: Why can one piano key require different note names in different musical sentences? The three meetings move from shared experience to explicit theory and then transfer. Require students to predict before measuring or labeling; use performance and explanation together as evidence.
Enharmonic notes are always identical; any accidental changes key; sharps rise and flats fall melodically.
Three-meeting sequence
Same key, different meaning
Spell chromatic pitches by function
Write C♯ and D♭ on the same sounding key and invent contexts for each.
Separate sound equivalence in equal temperament from notational function; review interval spelling.
Students solve melodic spelling cases using direction, key, chord membership, and resolution.
Why is G♯ preferable to A♭ in an A-minor leading-tone line?
Correct a deliberately misspelled melody.
Chromatic function
Distinguish diatonic and chromatic semitones
Compare a decorative chromatic neighbor with a pitch that creates V/V.
Introduce passing/neighbor tones, mixture, and tonicization at an analytical level appropriate to Theory I.
Color-code chromatic pitches by melodic or harmonic role and defend uncertain cases.
Does every accidental imply a key change? Explain.
Analyze chromatic notes in an excerpt.
Readable notation
Recognize secondary leading tones
Display a passage with technically possible but hostile spelling.
Apply readability principles: preserve interval meaning, minimize false relations, show tendency, and respect key context.
Editorial workshop revises notation, tests it with performers, and documents choices.
Name one spelling change that improved sight-reading.
Prepare a clean final edition.
Student synthesis task
Claim–evidence–application: Students submit one notated or analytical artifact from the week, a 150–250 word explanation using at least four vocabulary terms, and a brief performance, recording, or demonstration. The explanation must identify a decision, cite musical evidence, and connect the idea to unfamiliar material.
Assessment and answer guidance
| Prompt | Value |
|---|---|
| 1. Are C♯ and D♭ always theoretically interchangeable? | 2 points |
| 2. What is V/V in C major? | 3 points |
| 3. Does an accidental last through the whole piece? | 3 points |
| 4. Apply the week’s central idea to a new four-to-eight-measure example and explain the reasoning. | 7 points |
Teacher answer guidance
1. No; they may sound alike in equal temperament but carry different scale, interval, chord, and voice-leading functions.
2. D major or D7, functioning as dominant of G.
3. Normally it applies within its measure and staff position unless canceled or governed by local notation conventions.
4. Award 2 points for accurate identification or construction, 2 for correct notation/terminology, 2 for evidence tied to the example, and 1 for a clear conclusion. Accept alternate solutions when the musical reasoning is defensible.
Access, differentiation, and extension
Support without lowering the target
Ask four questions: key, chord, melodic direction, expected resolution. Preteach vocabulary, model one complete think-aloud, reduce the number of simultaneous variables, and allow a second attempt after feedback.
Extension
Spell augmented-sixth and diminished-seventh sonorities by tendency.
Evidence to retain
Keep the exit tickets, synthesis artifact, and scored application prompt. Together they show factual fluency, transfer, and the student’s ability to explain music—not only select an answer.
Supplementary illustrated chapter
Use this reference for additional spelling cases and student practice.