New sectioning level above section

Question

I would like to create a newcounter (lectcount) which will be one level above the "section" in article class, and use its name in the headings (I am using fancyhdr). I don't know how to set the hierarchy level above section, and also I don't know how to refer to its name in order to write it in the page headings.

I have come out with the following code. The end of \lecture definition was supposed to capture the lecture's name argument, which doesn't work. Any help will be appreciated.

\newcounter{lectcount}
\newcommand{\lecture}[1]{\refstepcounter{lectcount}%
    \noindent\textbf{\LARGE Lecture \thelectcount: #1}\par\bigskip%
    \let\lectname\#1}

\fancyhead[L]{Lecture \thelectcount: \lectname}

\begin{document}
\lecture{My First Lecture}
...
\end{document}

Answer 1

The easiest way is to use the report or book class and their \chapter command.

However, also the article class provides \part, that you can use above \section.

\documentclass[a4paper]{article}
\usepackage{fancyhdr}

\pagestyle{fancy}
\def\lecturemark{}
\fancyhf{}
\fancyhead[L]{\lecturemark}
\fancyfoot[C]{\thepage}

\newcommand{\lecture}[1]{\part{#1}\def\lecturemark{\partname\ \thepart: #1}}
\renewcommand{\partname}{Lecture}

% Let's customize \part
\usepackage{etoolbox}% for \patchcmd
\renewcommand{\thepart}{\arabic{part}}
\makeatletter
\patchcmd{\@part}{\par\nobreak}{: }{}{}
\patchcmd{\@part}{\huge}{\Large}{}{}
\makeatother

\usepackage{lipsum}

\begin{document}
\lecture{How to write lectures}
\section{First step: how to copy}
\lipsum
\end{document}

For more extensive changes to the appearance of the lecture title, copy in your document the definition of \@part in article.cls and modify that directly.