Hello, lovely.
I'm Maria.
And my name is Rory, and we are the hosts of the IELTS Speaking for Success podcast, the podcast that aims to help you improve your speaking skills, as well as your listening skills along the way.
We started this podcast because we want you to use high-level words and gorgeous grammar in your IELTS speaking and in your English life.
Oh, by the way...
If you want transcripts, we have the scripts of pretty much most of our episodes.
Just go to our website, Success with IELTS, find podcasts and transcripts there.
Do we still have the Quizlet stuff up there as well?
We have vocabulary lists for premium subscribers and premium listeners get a special section with premium transcripts to all the episodes and vocabulary lists.
Oh my god, we need to check it out.
I know.
Rory, wow, you are wearing a new t-shirt today.
Oh, yeah, I am.
I bought it last weekend.
It makes me look so handsome, Maria.
It makes you look so handsome.
Oh, thank you.
That makes my heart sing.
That's such a nice compliment.
Shall we talk about singing then?
It's another coincidence on this podcast.
Rory, can you sing?
Well, I think everyone can sing, really.
Though in my case, I just can't do it very well.
I think it's like someone is trying to murder a cat in the room or something.
At least that's how it sounds.
Then again, maybe it's just the acoustics aren't very good, of course.
That's exactly what someone who isn't very good at singing would say.
I like trying it out when no one can hear me, or at least no one I know.
I often do it when I'm on my way home after the gym and I'm feeling a bit pumped and more confident.
Although, God knows what people walking past me must think.
I don't know.
I don't think I've really got a good vocal range, so I can only sing really common songs or popular ones.
Do you want to be a singer?
I used to, but I realised I wasn't much good at it.
And when I realised that, I kind of let that particular dream die.
I think that's okay, though, if you let go of things like that.
Although when I do have my occasional flights of fantasy, I do imagine that I could be a singer one day.
Did you enjoy singing when you were younger?
Well, we always used to sing hymns at school assembly and that was always good fun because you could join in with the others and usually it would harmonise, at least to a certain extent.
And then we had choir songs sometimes when we went to church.
And that was also quite good fun.
How often do you sing now?
Well, like I said, every time I come back from the gym, and sometimes when I'm alone in the office, I'll hum something to help me concentrate or deal with stress, or well, I already said, it helps me with my focus.
So I guess those are the two main reasons.
Do you have a favorite song you like listening to?
Well, yes.
I actually have this habit of listening to things until they get so boring that I can't listen to them anymore.
So right now I quite like Eli Golding's.
It's almost like a spoken word version of Elton John's Your Song.
The use of instrumentals and vocals and auto tuning is quite relaxing and good to listen to.
So like I say, currently I'm listening to that song to death before I move on to the next one.
How important is singing in your culture?
That's a good question.
It's probably important for people who are into that.
If you're well, for example, if you're in a church choir, it could be considered a key element of the religious experience at church, for example.
And we also have lots of voice coaching places and singing schools.
So I think it's quite important for people in my country.
It's not the most important thing for me, but for a lot of people, they seem to quite like it.
Thank you very much for your answers, Rory.
I hope they make you sing with joy.
Hey.
So, dear listeners, when they ask you questions about songs and singing, first of all it's singing and a singer.
And we say just like, I want to be a singer, right?
Do I pronounce it correctly?
Singer.
Singer.
Like not singer.
No, singer.
Singer.
Yeah, so there's this schwa, this sound at the end.
Not sing-er, but singer.
Singer.
Well, I don't want to be a singer.
We can also say a vocalist.
Yes, a vocalist.
Well, in particular, someone who focuses on using their vocals.
And Rory, you've mentioned vocal range.
Yeah, so your vocal range is, well, how low or how high your voice can go.
So if you have, I think it's a wide or a broad vocal range, then you... have an ability to sing at different pitches and tones but if you have a limited vocal range then you have more of a focus I don't think that stops people from becoming great singers obviously there's an element of control but it certainly limits them if they don't have a big range And these are some very specific words about singing, about our voices.
So these vocal ranges.
You can say also, I have some basic knowledge about notes.
Like these music symbols, notes.
And you can hit a note.
Hit a note.
Yeah.
Like, I can't hit a note because...
I can't sing very well.
That's why I didn't say it in my example answers.
So just realise that if you aren't very good at the subject you're talking about, then you can talk about how bad you are at it.
I thought you could say I'm tone deaf.
I'm tone deaf.
Tone deaf, well, you can say that.
But some people just are not very good at singing.
Being tone deaf is like a specific condition where you can't hear tones.
And that can prevent you from being good at singing.
But some people just aren't good at singing because they don't have a good...
What's the word?
They don't have good vocal control.
You can also say, like, I can't sing in tune, so I always sing out of tune.
And I do always sing out of tune.
No, Rory, you haven't learned it yet.
And I'm never going to.
You should unlock your full potential as a singer, Rory.
Oh, I'm pretty sure, dear listener, that Rory is a rock star in his shower.
I don't sing in the shower.
I used to live with someone that did.
And that was always very entertaining.
But I don't.
I used to.
What would you sing?
Some Russian songs?
I can't remember, actually.
It was a long time ago when I was a teenager.
So we're talking centuries ago.
Okay, anyway, back to singing.
And away from the shower.
Away from the shower.
I'm good at singing, right?
And Rory said that I want to try out singing, or once I tried out singing.
Yeah, sometimes I try it out, which is a phrasal verb, which means that you try something.
But instead of saying you try it, you try it out.
Because it's a higher level idiomatic expression for a high score.
Rory, you also hum something.
Hum.
You do the humming.
Yeah, it's not like singing, actually, is it?
It's similar, though.
So this is another thing.
If you can't sing, then you can hum.
You can go...
That's humming where you don't say the words.
You just, I suppose, vibrate your vocal cords with your mouth closed.
And that's humming?
Yes.
You can also talk about vocal cords, which is a part of your body, and that's quite important.
You said that when you're feeling a bit pumped...
Yeah.
In the gym.
So that can have two meanings, actually.
If someone is pumped, if we talk about emotions, then that's them feeling like they're capable.
They can do things.
They're confident and strong.
It can also mean that your muscles can be pumped because they get bigger after you go to the gym, at least for the first couple of hours.
And then it fades and you become depressed because then you have to go back again and get it back.
Yeah, but Rory, about your singing, you said that...
It's like someone is trying to murder a cat.
Yeah, I can't remember.
There's this expression for talking about how bad someone's singing is, and it's something to do with cats.
It's not swinging cats around, because we talked about that before, but it is something to do with murdering cats or killing them.
And obviously...
If you're trying to kill something, it's not going to make a very good sound.
No, I don't believe it.
I don't believe that your singing is as bad as murdering a cat.
My singing is really bad.
Trust me.
We'll have a drink after this and I'll sing.
And then you'll understand.
Can we get pizza?
Yes, we can get pizza.
All right, so singing, singing.
Oh, by the way, I have a joke for you about singing.
Are you ready?
And the shower.
Oh, I'm not ready, but you're not going to give me a choice, are you?
Yes, dear listener, also the joke is for you.
Just to put on a smile, okay?
So, singing in the shower is all fun and games until you get shampoo in your mouth.
Then it becomes a soap opera.
Oh, my God.
Ha, ha, ha.
Do you know what's really sad?
I've heard that before.
Did you get it?
Yeah.
So you put shampoo in your mouth or it gets in your mouth.
This is soap opera.
What was the other one, Maria?
Tell us, please.
No, that's the end of the joke.
There's another one, isn't there?
You said there were two.
No, no.
One joke.
One joke.
Oh, how awful.
Anyway, let's move on.
Yeah, we can sing in public.
We can sing at parties, at concerts, in the shower.
Rory, you've mentioned singing in a choir.
Yes.
So a choir is well, usually it's a group of people that sing in church, and usually at quite light or high volumes, I suppose.
They sing with light voices and they sing at a high volume.
But not always.
It just seems to be usually.
I think that's how I would describe choir music.
And it's usually religious songs that they sing.
And a choir is a crazy word because we spell it like C-H-O-I-R.
A choir.
That's because it's French, isn't it?
Perhaps, yeah.
And we say listen to songs.
Listen to.
Always like listen to, listen to, listen to music, listen to songs.
Yeah, never I listen music.
Oh, God, no.
No, no, no, please.
Keep that preposition.
Dependent preposition, right?
Oh, yeah.
Dependent preposition for a high score.
Wait for...
Men.
Okay.
That's quite important though.
Like if we focus on the collocation.
Collocation.
That's what it's called.
Collocation is when it's... to do with vocabulary.
But actually, this is a cross between vocabulary and grammar.
So anyway, we're digressing.
It's important because control of dependent prepositions is a sign that you have a higher level of English.
So learn your dependent prepositions, people, and you'll get a higher score.
Yes.
So, t is married to listen.
The same as for is married to wait.
Wait for me, listen to me.
Please listen to us.
Rory's favorite song is a song by Ellie Goulding.
Is it Goulding or Goulding?
I have no idea.
But it's a lovely song, Elton John's song.
Could you hum it for us?
No.
I could probably... I like the song.
I would sing it if I could, but it's like... My gift is my song and this one's for you.
Oh, it's good.
I mean, the song is good.
My singing is awful.
If I listen to many different songs and many different genres, what would you call this person?
Like, listen to all?
Oh, they have an eclectic taste.
Wow.
Oh, and we didn't say that in this episode, but we have said it in previous episodes.
So I say just like, oh, I listen to different kind of music.
I enjoy different songs.
I have an eclectic taste.
I do.
My taste in music is bizarre.
It goes from like Kylie Minogue to Rage Against the Machine.
Do you know what my favorite song is?
Is it...
Damn, there's got to be something.
There's got to be a pun here.
Not Marilyn Manson.
This Rory.
Do you know that?
I do.
It's... I can't remember who sings it, though.
The guy is from Hawaii, was from Hawaii.
Yeah, it's called Over the Rainbow.
It is.
It's about... Is it not about the Wizard of Oz?
Yes.
Yeah.
Your favorite song should have been Pretty Woman.
That's what I should have said.
Because you're gorgeous.
There we go.
Oh, thank you.
Yes, and sometimes we listen to our favorite song to death.
You see listeners, sometimes puns don't come immediately, but then you have to hear a song about a rainbow and then you're calling your co-host gorgeous.
Anyway, you can listen to something to death.
That's when you listen to it so much that it gets so boring that you can't be bothered listening to it anymore.
You can listen to our podcast to death.
But don't get bored of it because it's fun.
We're fun people.
Thank you very much for listening.
And we hope that you can do well in your speaking test using musical vocabulary.
It's a great pun, isn't it?
We hope that your answers will be music to your examiner's ears.
There we go.
We used the same pun twice.
Bye!
Rory, can you sing?
Well, I think everyone can sing really, though in my case I just can't do it very well.
I think it's like someone is trying to murder a cat in the room or something.
At least that's how it sounds.
Then again, maybe it's just the acoustics aren't very good.
Of course, that's exactly what someone who isn't very good at singing would say.
Do you like singing?
I like trying it out when no one can hear me, or at least no one I know.
I often do it when I'm on my way home after the gym and I'm feeling a bit pumped and more confident.
Although, God knows what people walking past me must think.
I don't know.
I don't think I've really got a good vocal range, so I can only sing really common songs or popular ones.
Do you want to be a singer?
I used to, but I realised I wasn't much good at it.
And when I realised that, I kind of let that particular dream die.
I think that's okay, though, if you let go of things like that.
Although when I do have my occasional flights of fantasy, I do imagine that I could be a singer one day.
Did you enjoy singing when you were younger?
Well, we always used to sing hymns at school assembly and that was always good fun because you could join in with the others and usually it would harmonise, at least to a certain extent.
And then we had choir songs sometimes when we went to church.
And that was also quite good fun.
How often do you sing now?
Well, like I said, every time I come back from the gym, and sometimes when I'm alone in the office, I'll hum something to help me concentrate or deal with stress, or well, I already said, it helps me with my focus.
So I guess those are the two main reasons.
Do you have a favorite song you like listening to?
Well, yes.
I actually have this habit of listening to things until they get so boring that I can't listen to them anymore.
So right now I quite like Eli Golding's.
It's almost like a spoken word version of Elton John's Your Song.
The use of instrumentals and vocals and auto-tuning is quite relaxing and good to listen to.
So like I say, currently I'm listening to that song to death before I move on to the next one.
That's a good question.
It's probably important for people who are into that.
If you're well, for example, if you're in a church choir, it could be considered a key element of the religious experience at church, for example.
We also have...
Lots of voice coaching places and singing schools.
So I think it's quite important for people in my country.
It's not the most important thing for me, but for a lot of people they seem to quite like it.
