Lesson 5 — Teaching Plan for Poseidon

📊 Starting point

Where he is after Lesson 4

Decoded his own composed progression as 6-5-4-1 in C, and followed Greg's translation of it into F, B♭, E♭, A♭ — fluent transposition is the homework.
Named the melody note's function over each chord (1 · 9 · 3 · 13) with prompting.
Derived the minor-key rule (next three flats on the circle) and applied it to C, A, B and F.
Followed the whole mode ladder — major → Mixolydian → Dorian → minor → Phrygian — by circle order.
Chord-quality interval counting (4-3-4 etc.) is accurate, just slow.
First half of the sixteenth-note rhythm, hands together, in the lesson.

Hearing harmony under production — "all I hear is one note"; couldn't find the bass under "Children" on phone speakers.
Still counting from C — "randomly pick A♭ and I still need to go over again" to find the 6. Access to arbitrary keys is derivation, not recall.
Counts qualities by half-steps — correct but slow; needs to become circle-based/visual.
Rhythm second half + the barline join — assigned, not yet locked.
Sharp-side keys & enharmonics — still barely visited (carried from Lesson 3; L4 stayed flat-side).

📋 Homework he's carrying in

① The 6-5-4-1 progression with melody voicing in C, F, B♭, E♭ (+ A♭) · ② the R&B rhythm, then rhythm inside the progression · ③ the listening drill: stop a song, find the bass. Grade the lesson off how much of this stuck.

The plan

🔁 Refresh — check the homework first (~15 min)

🎼Call the progression in random keys — "E♭… A♭… F" — 6-5-4-1 with the melody on top. Hesitation marks the drill list.
🥁The rhythm, hands together, full measure — listen for the barline join; that's where it was breaking.
🎶Then combined — the rhythm inside the progression. This was the actual deliverable.
👂Ask what he decoded — did he stop songs and find bass notes? Whatever he found, verify it together at the piano.

⚠️ Focus — what didn't click (~15 min)

🔊Real speakers, real track — play "Children" (or his dance track) on the studio monitors. He literally can't hear the bass on his phone; let him hear the ♭6→4→1 land under the water-drop. This was promised.
🗺️De-anchor from C — rapid-fire "who is the 6 of A♭? the 4 of E? the 5 of D♭?" until answers come from the circle, not from counting up from C.
♯Sharp-side keys, finally — D, A, E scales + triads + the progression. Two lessons of flat-side; the enharmonic re-teach (G♭=F♯) still hasn't happened either.
⏱️Quality recall without counting — flash chords, name maj/min/dom7/m7 by sound + shape, bypassing the 4-3-4 arithmetic.

🆕 Next steps — new material (~25 min)

🎛️Full song decode, end to end — the promised centerpiece: take a real track, find the key from the bass, map the numbers, put it in his hands. Connect explicitly: LH chords = the bottom of every produced song.
🥁Expand the rhythm into genre variations — he was told to save the clip of the groove he loves; ask for it and use it. Shift where left and right land on the same 16th grid, add the ornaments.
⛓️Name secondary dominants properly — he already heard the C-G-A chain; formalize "the 5 of the 5" and the 2-5-1 walkup he asked about (the B as 3-of-5 / 2-of-6).
🎹Extensions on purpose — 7 · 9 · 11 · 13: hear → play → name → transpose. He asked "when do I use 9 vs 13?" — answer with the reverse method, live.
🌑Still owed from L3/L4 plans: slash chords formalized, the diminished ladder (he asked twice), left-hand triads. Fold in wherever they fit.

🎯 Between-lesson tools

The Ear Trainer now has "All twelve keys" capstone levels on every track — assign them; they match the de-anchor-from-C drill exactly.

📝 Live notes · saves automatically

Shared with the running notes doc — type anywhere below; both of you see each other's notes.