VH1 Road to Fame: Harry Connick Jr. Lessons for Middle-Level and High School Music Classes-Instrumental and Choral A VH1 Save the Music Special Lesson 2 of 5

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• Students will sing accurately and with appropriate expression selected songs from the 1930s and 1940s
• Students will describe the significance those songs had for people at that time
• Students will compare the musical elements in those songs and current popular songs

• VHS VCR Player
• Television
• Web-based lesson materials
• VH1 Cable in the Classroom program Road to Fame: Harry Connick, Jr.
• Copies of selected songs from the 1930s and 1940s that Harry Connick Jr. sings, such as "Love Is Here to Stay," (Ira and George Gershwin, 1938) "Don¹t Get Around Much," (Bob Russell and Duke Ellington, 1943) "Autumn in New York," (Vernon Duke, 1934) "Let¹s Call the Whole Thing Off," (Ira and George Gershwin, 1937) and "Where or When" (Lorenz Hart and Richard Rodgers, 1937).

• Students have seen the videotape Road to Fame: Harry Connick, Jr.
• Students have sung selected songs from the 1930s and 1940s
• Students have listened to recordings by Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, and others
• Students have interviewed senior citizens, using the questionnaire at the end of this lesson

1. As you accompany students on keyboard, have students sing several songs they know from the 1930s and 1940s that have been recorded by Harry Connick, Jr.
2. Ask several students to report on their interviews with senior citizens and share anecdotes about the songs the senior citizens remembered. Then have all students summarize their findings about the function of songs in the 1930s and 1940s, and the significance those songs had for people at that time.
3. Discuss with students the use of musical elements such as rhythm, melody, and timbre in the songs from the 1930s and 1940s, and then have them make generalizations about modes, meters, rhythm patterns, and timbres in the songs of that era. Have students compare the use of musical elements in the songs from the 1930s and 1940s with the use of musical elements in current popular songs. Discuss with students the possible reasons for the similarities and differences that they identify.
4. Help students select several songs from the 1930s and 1940s to memorize. Then have students sing those songs, focusing on accuracy and expression and keeping in mind their interviews and the discussion of musical elements.
5. Ask students why they think Harry Connick, Jr. chose the songs he did to record. Do these songs, written in the past, have any message for us today? What is appealing about the music? What is appealing about the lyrics?

Music Questionnaire
(Note to Teachers: This questionnaire is only an example of questions your students might ask senior citizens, older family members, or residents of nursing homes. Please add or omit questions and have your students feel free to do likewise.)

1. What were your favorite songs in high school?
2. What years were you in high school?
3. What were the songs about then?
4. Where did you listen to the songs? At home or in the car? At dances? At the drugstore?
5. What were the tunes like? (major or minor? simple and easy to hum along with? layers of harmony?)
6. How would you describe the rhythms? ( simple? complex? lively? easy to dance to? syncopated?)
7. What instruments were often used?
8. What vocalists do you especially recall? Were they soloists or groups?

1. Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.
   
2. Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.
   
3. Improvising melodies, variations, and accompaniments.
   
4. Composing and arranging music within specified guidelines.
   
5. Reading and notating music.
   
6. Listening to, analyzing, and describing music.
   
7. Evaluating music and music performances.
   
8. Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts.
   
9. Understanding music in relation to history and culture.