hello Aubry how's it going today I'm great Lindsay how are you excellent do you have a
song In Your Heart Right now uh yes there's this new song by Weezer called a little bit of love
that I listen to all the time it's such a it's just a feel-good song puts me in a really good
mood very positive I love music that that makes me feel happy oh for sure I love music that kind
of brings me back to a time you know brings me back to a certain moment in my life like
high school graduation College days traveling the world music can evoke so much in US yes
absolutely right I agree I was excited we're answering a listener question today you guys
and I loved reading it because I love music I always have and noran Muhammad commented on
our YouTube video for the episode when we shared our TV recommendations oh and said would love to
hear your recommendations for different types of singers too I'm excited because I have so
many bands so many singers that I would love to recommend yeah guys don't forget this episode if
you're listening on the podcast it's also over on YouTube so go to YouTube hit subscribe on our
Channel and check it out now did we talk about music anywhere else on other than the well we
talked about TV what about music yes I was able to interview Tommy with um learn English with
Tommy if you missed it this was over on the IELTS energy podcast but it was really interesting he
gave a lot of recommendations that would be good for anyone on how to use music books and film to
learn English so great for students studying for IELTS but for everyone listening it's so
smart to be engaged to increase engagement right listen to what you love that's our first tip for
why why should you learn English through reading music lyrics and listening to songs yeah and I
think broadly speaking of music you know as the connection skill to get to know someone
people do kind of not in a negative way but they judge you they size you up based on what you say
who you say your favorite bands are I like that expression what does that mean kind of determine
something about your personality or what type of person you are it's true our music tastes do kind
of say something about us right and it also helps us see what we have in common with others it is a
bridge for connection when you ask someone what type of music they listen to you find out a band
that you both love it's such a fun bonding moment it's also kind of a generational bonding moment
because I know there's some a friend of mine here a family friend here in Denver is about my age
I think she's just a year older than me and she loves Pearl Jam but people in our Circle who are
10 years younger than us they don't like Pearl Jam because they're just it's just another generation
so kind of we share that as a laugh kind of oh yeah Pearl Jam like it makes me feel like
I connect with her on an age basis do you know what I mean yes and then together you could maybe
um have a little jab at like the new yeah or Rock strap that you're like boy bands or whatever it
was then and what it is now right exactly exactly yes I agree so this is just going to be fun we're
going to for first giving you three reasons that you should be learning English through music the
first I just shared like this is such a good way to increase engagement right you want to enjoy
learning English and we've talked about how that means choosing books and TV shows that you love
and find interesting same for music if you can find music in English that's your type of music
you're going to enjoy listening to those songs reading the lyrics it keeps your brain engaged
oh my gosh it's huge it's huge and then the second reason Aubry is because we get idioms we
get Expressions right exactly slaying interesting freezes metaphors idioms songs are full of this
where musicians are trying to be a little poetic a little interesting in the way they're you know
bringing across their message so you learn so much great vocab yeah I remember when I taught in New
York City I used to use uh Hotel California a lot in my classes like we would print out the lyrics
and I used to use Ironic Alanis Morissette to try to talk about irony and that's always
it's always a hard thing to teach even with the song right and I did the same in French where I
would get like French rap or interesting French songs and my high school students
were so engaged because they loved music they were excited to listen to some music in French
and so the same thing yeah like your your English students it's such an interesting
way to learn new vocab and it's just fun we just like hearing music it just feels good to
the ears you know absolutely and so the third thing is pronunciation singing along reading
the lyrics hearing the musician sing it can also help with your pronunciation so not only is it
fun but you're getting these great pronunciation classes just by singing along to music alright
so in today's episode you guys are going to get some of our personal recommendations right so
you can size us up and understand who we are as people um so Aubry give it to us what is
your number one recommendation my number one is the Avett Brothers it's spelled a-v-e-t-t okay
two brothers and that's a very much Bluegrass folk type of sound which is a little bit like
American country but sort of older sounding and really quick just to talk about those
types of music you're going to hear classical traditional instruments right there's a lot of
um banjo ukulele harmonica sometimes they play the saw where it's just like I saw you
would cut a tree and they're playing it like an instrument so it's this sort of older sounding
classical acoustic type sound yeah thinking about the differences between Bluegrass and Country in
my mind for some reason Bluegrass is a little cooler that might be because I'm not a country
music listener but it's got some it's got some Appalachia to it it makes me think a little bit of
Nashville although of course country music comes from Nashville but it makes me think of cool um
kind of Backwoods but also cool at the same time hip but also sort of I don't know what how would
you describe is an interesting native expression I will say it just has a certain something when
we don't quite know how to put our finger on something exactly I agree it has this cool unique
sound so I feel like country music all originated from the same sound like what you're talking about
that kind of Backwoods with just these very basic instruments and then it sort of splintered off to
become folk music Bluegrass or that country American country from that we think of more
with like the south in the United States yeah and they each have a very distinct sound now we hear
a sound and you'd say like okay that's country western or that's Bluegrass Bluegrass right but
it's a little hard to describe because they're sort of using the same instruments but the lyrics
sort of change and the style has changed well I was gonna say could could some of it be a little
less twangy number one and also but country music has also become a little less twangy but I wonder
if some of it is the lyrics the focus of the story because a lot of country music is really just
um it's about like kind of tragedy sort of sometimes or like a truck and this and my dog
and this this kind of thing doesn't seem to have certain themes right so I feel like Bluegrass is
a little less like that oh yes I agree and it's interesting to see how some of them merge right
some bands will pull in aspects of all of it because no one is really pigeonholed like we
say no one is really stuck in a certain genre or a certain style so sometimes they experiment
and one album will sound more country and then the next one will sound more folk or Bluegrass so it's
interesting but Avett Brothers is very much indie folk okay some people would call it Bluegrass that
I want to recommend it to you guys because first of all it's just beautiful the two songs I would
recommend listening to First are I and Love and You is the song and the second one is head full of
doubt the lyrics are very easy to understand right because it's more of an acoustic sound with the
music it's beautiful with the instruments but you can understand the lyrics so you do want to it's
always good to follow along with the lyrics that you can find online but most of these songs you
are going to understand the lyrics as they sing it's a little more of like a talking Style with
the singing a little more approachable a lot of people say the reason they love country
music and maybe Bluegrass too is that they can relate to the lyrics right they feel like it's
talking about their own lives you know yes and I think you're going to find that with these
songs right it is about love and these two songs and about doubting yourself and things that it's
The Human Experience everything experiences these yeah exactly okay what else Aubry so my
second recommendation is a band that I've loved since I was very young my first CD was Weezer I
talked about that new song A Little Bit of Love they're a very prolific band which means they
come out with so much music multiple albums each year and they've done so since 1992 they have so
many albums my two top recommendations are two of their newest songs that one a little bit of love
and the second one's called all my favorite songs which that continues and it says all my favorite
songs are slow and sad which I love because it's like a rock song and it's pretty poppy but the
message is like all my favorite songs are really slow and sad but it's such a irony right it's
really funny I don't think I know Weezer but that doesn't mean anything my music knowledge
is very very shallow it's I'm ashamed sometimes people ask me what do you like to listen to like
oh here's a few bands you know I'm not a huge music person to be honest and I should be I
listen to podcasts when I'm walking not so much music but I should are you usually listening to
music or podcast or nothing when you're I think I think a pretty even blend right okay if I'm
running for sure music with a beat that keeps me going um I do like a a stationary bike the
Peloton and also music well the good the teacher but if I'm just on a kind of a leisurely stroll
I'm gonna put on a podcast or if I'm driving I'm going to listen to a podcast so I get a pretty
even blend of both interesting okay good to know good to know well these are good recommendations
so you're number one it's Avett Brothers right not Avid leave it okay Avett Brothers and then
Weezer oh exactly and that one's definitely rock and roll right Weezer's kind of pop rock I don't
like but it just says Rock when I looked it up online so I have a feeling Weezer would not call
themselves pop at all it's definitely more just like classic rock and roll but also really great
Melodies and beats because I don't love all rock and roll but I love a Weezer I love it all right
well I could make a recommendation here Aubrey should I go ahead and throw it out this I want
to hear two from you as well Lindsay I think we should share too okay so one band that I really
love is Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers so I just saw a special on him last night on the news how
they I think he passed away a few years ago yes um but their last tour uh happened in San Francisco
and just the way they were interviewed and what they the band said about playing it feels like
their music is very pure and that they love it for the music not so much for the fans or for being
rock stars on tour they actually love the music itself I get that feeling when I listen to Tom
Petty I feel like yeah and the band Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers I always loved them it's very
melodic and a lot of emotion right I feel I feel the feels that they're feeling when they sing so
that makes sense to me exactly and for me a big part of why I love Tom Petty is more the time in
my life when I was really listening to him heavily and that was in high school when I got my first
car right and he has all these fun songs that kind of make you want to drive driving music road trip
music and so many times with my friends being the first driver among all my friends and just
going out there on the open road and getting that freedom so for me Tom Petty is freedom yeah oh I
love that I love the word Heartbreakers in their title which is kind of a very idiomatic word right
to talk about someone being a heartbreaker really just means that they're very good looking and like
people like them like they easily right be like oh she's gonna be a heartbreaker we say that
about kids that are like cute or whatever and you know they're gonna grow up and like break a lot of
Hearts meaning they're gonna probably like date a lot of people and then leave them by the wayside
exactly and and the lyrics are thoughtful yeah it's just pure music in some way for me yeah I
would say that and then the second recommendation Aubry is Credence Clearwater Revival all the names
of the Bands I like are kind of long names but interesting names CR we call them CCR and they've
done some songs like Fortunate Son Grapevine Heard it Through the Grapevine I'm not sure if they were
the original creators of that one that was a cover I don't know if it was a cover but check them out
so I would put them into the classic rock category I've had people try to tell me it's country but I
don't buy that I agree it's classic rock because my dad hates country and he listened to CCR it's
a very classic rock so it sounds like you and I both connected with our dads over CCR same
with me I remember being in the car listening to CCR with my dad coming back from skiing so again
music goes back to our connections with people actually and that's something you guys could
tie into your conversations with native speakers around music absolutely right music especially
what you listen to when you were younger brings up so much Nostalgia I'm the same I think about
hanging out with my dad listening to CCR because he had it on all the time and that
is such a great thing to ask people about what kind of music did you listen to as a kid has it
changed what do you listen to now this is such an interesting topic of conversation yeah this is so
good so what should we leave our listeners with today we've covered a few bands here and talked
about styles of music Bluegrass Country Classic Rock where should we leave our listeners yeah we
definitely recommend you listen to music in English to improve your engagement with what
you're listening to but also your vocabulary your pronunciation get recommendations from
many different English speakers from different cultures as well as other language Learners who
are also listening to music in English ever I feel like everyone will have a great recommendation for
music yeah they absolutely will and share your personal connections with this music don't over
share don't share too much make sure you you see the other person and see if they're engaged are
they interested in what you're saying but ask them too what's your connection with this song
when did you first hear it when did you like to listen to it were you a teenager were you
a young adult right get into that stuff this is the stuff of connection Aubry yes absolutely I I
think one of my favorite questions for someone to ask me is about what music I like or if I have a
recommendation I get so excited about it music and podcasts I get so excited to recommend something
so I think that's one of the best things you can ask a co-worker a friend a family member is to ask
them can you recommend you know music can you tell me what's something new that I should be listening
to or what's something maybe I missed from the past yeah this is a true connection skill so guys
if you want more connection skills here at aller's English we focus on connection not Perfection how
can we use English not to obsess over our mistakes or to curl up but to connect with who's right in
front of us in any given moment then hit follow on all ears English to get more episodes like
this one Aubry awesome thanks for hanging out talk to you soon see you later bye bye foreign [Music]