Teacher Preparation

Overarching learning goal: Students will understand a number of new musical concepts, and apply them to the the film Paul Kelly - Stories of Me and songs composed by Paul Kelly.

Teacher content information: This lesson is based on the film Paul Kelly - Stories of Me, which charts the many lives, loves and losses of Paul Kelly, one of Australia’s most gifted singer-songwriters. His songs have been marking out the Australian landscape and its people through words and music for almost 40 years. The stories and the music of Paul Kelly explore and reflect the Australian experience, life and culture.

The film is a contemporary music documentary that allows students to explore popular culture, storytelling and how people are represented in texts. It highlights different aspects of the Australian experience and showcases how art reflects and celebrates life. The film's portrayal of Kelly's life and music covers themes such as relationships, family, culture, love, identity, death and friendship. Throughout the unit, all are peeled back, examined and applied to students' Music studies.

Through Paul Kelly's - Stories of Me, students consider how Kelly has lived through failure and triumph, and will experience the songs that show it. Although a very private person in a public career, Paul Kelly - Stories of Me digs deeply into what makes Paul Kelly tick, revealing more about the man and his music than ever before. The study of Paul Kelly - Stories of Me provides students with opportunities to reflect upon the human condition and critically examine their own experiences in order to creatively depict their own story.

This lesson links to the Paul Kelly - Stories of Me - Taking Action lesson, which details how to facilitate student-led social action while integrating the themes and values explored in the film Paul Kelly - Stories of Me.

Paul Kelly - Stories of Me - About the Film - Factsheet
Paul Kelly - Stories of Me - Director's Statement - Factsheet
Telling a Musical Story - Factsheet
Making Up Stories Of Me - Factsheet

Teaching sequence:

45 minutes	Part A: Artist and Image
10 minutes	Part B: Songs and Instruments
60 minutes	Part C: Understanding and Applying Musical Concepts
45 minutes	Part D: Patterns and Repetition in Music
45 minutes	Part E: The Melody of the Music
10 minutes	Reflection

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

Part A: Artist and Image

Step 1.

Start by watching Paul Kelly - Stories of Me from 13:23 – 16.40.

Music Lesson Artist and Image placeholder

Step 2.

Lead a class discussion around the notion that for many musicians their image has been critical to their success, as it has often accompanied their music and become connected to their success. Ask students to recall their favourite musical artist and their 'image' in a quick 'Think, Pair, Share' activity to encourage students to apply the concept to their existing understanding.

Step 3.

Ask students to briefly outline (on the Student Worksheet) how Paul Kelly represents himself as a musician, and discuss how his image is portrayed.

Step 4.

Students could then research some other Australian artists that were around in the early eighties and find some recordings, and if possible, footage of them. They could even find some pictures of them performing. Ask students to focus on one other artist and look at the image they presented to accompany their music. Student could then compare Paul Kelly’s image to this artist they have selected and discuss how this representation is typical of that era in Australian Rock Music.

Students could use an audio visual presentation tool such as Adobe Slate to present their comparison.

Part B: Songs and Instruments

In music, instruments can take on different roles or functions in the music. They may present the main tune or melody (voice), they may provide an accompaniment which supports the melody (keyboard), or provide a form of rhythmic drive and support throughout the song (drum kit).

Using the Student Worksheet, ask students to list the different instruments that they can see and hear being performed in the song "Dumb Things" (1:52) and briefly outline their function.

Music Lesson - Dumb Things Image -Vimeo Screenshot

Part C: Understanding and Applying Musical Concepts

Step 1.

As a class, watch "Careless" (26:28).

Step 2.

Invite students to consider that in music, the use of harmony and texture is integral to the success of the song, and in this performance, Paul Kelly’s band uses different techniques such as falsetto background vocals, the use of harmonica and a tight blend of tone colour to bring the song together.

Ask that students specifically listen to the backup singer who sings in a very high voice (called falsetto). Students could then do some research on this type of singing and see if they can find other artists who used this musical technique as part of their performance. They should outline their findings on the Student Worksheet.

Step 3.

Encourage students to fill in the table on the Student Worksheet with their considerations of how the concepts of music are used in the song. They are asked to provide a brief description of the following aspects in their own words, e.g. the melody is sung at a high pitch and is a very repetitive shape which can be easily sung.

Pitch (melody and harmony)
Duration (rhythm and metre)
Texture (layers of sound)
Performing media (instruments)
Tone colour (quality of sound)

Step 4.

On the Student Worksheet, ask students to use the outline below to plot out the structure of "Careless", using clearly devised indicators for sections of the music, such as:

Section of the song:	List of instruments used
e.g. Introduction (I)	e.g. Guitar plays accompaniment, solo vocal line etc.
Verse (V)
Chorus (c)

Step 5.

Students listen to the performance of "To Her Door" in order to develop a deeper understanding of the importance of a memorable melody in music. Ask them to describe the way that Paul Kelly has composed the song and the ways that he has created its melody. The importance of this task is to understand that the most successful popular rock songs have very catchy choruses which can be easily sung and performed. These two songs are presented for study in this context. Although both are different in their lyric and focus, they utilise similar musical characteristics throughout.

"To Her Door" (10.02 – 13.30)

'To Her Door' song lyrics

Students then respond to the following questions on the Student Worksheet:

What instruments are used to accompany the vocal of Paul Kelly?
How would you describe the structure of the lyric and the way that the melody is composed and related to this? Is there a sense of repetition used?
The three words resonate like an Anthem, with three notes descending easily, but combined with the words ‘out the door’ or ‘to her door’ they have become both iconic musically and lyrically. What makes such a simplistic but effective juxtaposition of music and text so powerful?
What are the other instruments used as the piece progresses and how do these add to the musical performance?
Look at the scansion of the text and the importance of rhyme and metre. Using the terms verse, chorus, bridge etc, outline the structure of the song. Do you see similarities in the way Paul Kelly designs and scans the lyrics?

Step 6.

Invite students to write their own verse and chorus that would work with the melody from 'To Her Door'. If they have a piano or guitar in class, they could play the chords to accompany the song and get the rest of the class involved by singing and performing it.

Part D: Patterns and Repetition in Music

Step 1.

Here are excerpts from "To Her Door" and "Deeper Water" (also on the Student Worksheet) using full manuscript. Invite students to have a look at the way that the melody is structured and the use of repetition which is evident in both the chord progression and the shape of the melody and rhythmic ideas with the text.

Step 2.

Invite students to try to sing and play these melodies and then describe how they have been created, looking particularly at the use of repeated ideas throughout.

Step 3.

Ask students to compare the verse structure and design of "To Her Door" and "Deeper Water".

To Her Door - Verse

Deeper Water - Verse

Invite students to look at the very similar musical shape of the short phrases for both songs, as well as the same type of repeated chord pattern, which makes the song very memorable.

Step 4.

Ask students to write a brief description on the Student Worksheet of the melody and accompaniment for each song below.

Comparison of chorus structure:

To Her Door - Chorus

Deeper Water - Chorus

Step 5. Sing the choruses from both songs and then discuss their use of repetitive patterns to make the song memorable and easy to sing. Invite students to summarise some similarities and differences on the Student Worksheet.

Part E: The Melody of the Music

Step 1.

Listen to the song "Meet Me in the Middle of the Air" (55:50) and examine the structure of the music used to support the lyrics and intent of the song.

Meet Me In the Middle of the Air- Music Lesson

Step 2.

Guide the class in listening to, then singing this song with others.

Step 3.

Invite students to experiment with different interpretations to understand how the personal delivery can influence the intent of the song. Note for students that in representing the emotion and meaning of text and the story that often hides in the lyric of the song, different performers elicit different emotions as they sing.

Step 4.

Listen to the two contrasting representations of this song as featured in the documentary and encourage students to describe their own interpretation of the intent and meaning behind each performance. As students watch each performance, they could list any words that come to mind in the table on the Student Worksheet and try to find similarities and differences in the quality of vocal delivery.

Meet Me in the Middle of the Air
Paul Kelly	Megan Washington

Step 5.

Ask students to describe on the Student Worksheet why the melody is so haunting yet memorable, as well as the way that pitch has been used to create such an effective song.

Step 6.

Discuss the following concepts as a class:

Melody: refers to the way that the tune is delivered and the range of different pitch (high or low notes) that the instrument uses.
Tone: refers to the quality of the sound and is often dependent upon the instrumental type and the control of the performance.

Step 7.

Megan Washington sings "Meet Me in the Middle of the Air" live and unaccompanied for a section of the film at (56:23).

Meet Me in the Middle of the Air Megan Washington

As students listen to Megan Washington’s performance, they could consider and list on the Student Worksheet some of the additional things that she does as she sings to create and develop the emotion attached to the text.

As a class, watch her performance, and then create a mind-map to visualise thoughts about the question: "why does the song work so well unaccompanied?"

Step 8.

Ask students to discuss their response to the following points with a classmate:

How original is 'originality'? Is creativity only about doing something no one else has done or is it about taking a spark from somewhere else and changing it in an original way? On the other hand does borrowing lines, words or ideas mean that you breach copyright?
The exchange in the film about thieving may be delivered as a joke and it may be that we expect creative people to borrow, but the reality is that plagiarism breaches copyright law. In 2011 the band Men at Work was accused of breaching copyright in their song "Down Under" which partly used the tune of "Kookaburra sits in an Old Gum Tree". Was this a fair decision? Or was the song so well known that it had gone 'public'? (Sydney Morning Herald, February 4, 2010, Men at Work's Down Under ripped off folk tune: judge)

Students could note the main points of their discussion on the Student Worksheet.

Reflection/Homework

For one of the learning activities in this lesson, students rate the level of difficulty they think applies, and why they have given that rating. Then, students consider what two things they could have done differently in order to meet the challenges they faced throughout the lesson.

Differentiated Learning

Extension:Students could choose their favourite Paul Kelly song from the documentary then compose and perform a cover of it.

Provisional Learning Support: Team students requiring additional support with a classmate who has higher musical proficiency.

PAUL KELLY - STORIES OF ME - Music Activities

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