Teacher orientation
This week asks: How does stacked-third construction connect chord spelling, sound, and function? 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.
Lowest note is always root; enharmonic spellings never affect chord identity; inversion changes chord quality.
Three-meeting sequence
Stacking thirds
Build and spell four triad qualities
Reorder C–E–G in several registers and ask what identity persists.
Build root-position triads with alternating letter names; derive major, minor, diminished, and augmented qualities.
Chord clinic: spell, play, and diagnose intentionally misspelled triads.
Why is C–D♯–G not a correctly spelled C minor triad?
Construct twelve assigned triads.
Bass and inversion
Identify root and inversion
Place each member of a triad in the bass while retaining upper notes.
Distinguish root from bass; teach root position, first inversion, second inversion, and figured-bass symbols.
Students reduce keyboard textures, identify bass, reorder to stacked thirds, and label.
Label E–G–C and explain.
Analyze inversions in a short chorale excerpt.
Adding the seventh
Construct common seventh chords
Compare triad and seventh-chord tension over the same root.
Construct major-major, major-minor, minor-minor, half-diminished, and diminished seventh qualities.
Ensemble arpeggiation makes each chord member audible; teams identify altered members by ear and score.
Which seventh chord occurs naturally on V in major?
Write diatonic seventh chords in one major key.
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. How do you find a chord root in close position? | 2 points |
| 2. What triad is minor third plus major third? | 3 points |
| 3. What is the inversion of a triad with its fifth in the bass? | 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. Reorder pitches into stacked thirds; the bottom of that stack is the root.
2. Minor.
3. Second inversion.
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
Color root, third, fifth, and seventh consistently. Preteach vocabulary, model one complete think-aloud, reduce the number of simultaneous variables, and allow a second attempt after feedback.
Extension
Analyze incomplete chords and doublings in four-part textures.
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.