today you have to watch this video and understand the top three reasons why you
can't understand some songs in English hey guys teacher Prix here to help you
talk to anyone anywhere anytime very often students come to me and say
teacher I love listening to music but I can't
understand anything they sing it's so difficult I feel like I can't understand
and I have to google the lyrics and then I still have some problems because there are
words that I don't know but most of the times I can't listen well so what do I
do guys this is a very common problem and
challenge we have I wouldn't say problem but a challenge because listening to
music can be tricky in any language even in your own native language a few
weeks ago I was talking to my friends there was this word in a
Brazilian song and I didn't know what it was it was not the kind of music I
usually listen to in my own language but just to show you that we don't always
understand our own language let alone a second one but here we go reason number
one pronunciation of words guys music is a land of no laws of no rules, forget
everything you learned about grammar forget everything you learned about
everything in English music is freedom musicians have the freedom to do what
they like in music and that happens to pronunciation now I'm not saying they're
going to change the pronunciation completely say things extremely
incorrect that's not my point but what I want to say is sometimes singers tend to
overemphasize vowel sounds over consonant sounds because of this it's really difficult to
understand some words because all you listen is the vowel sound and the consonant
where is it it's gone because the singer is over emphasizing over
pronouncing the vowel sound if you listen to this singer Adam Levine from Maroon
5 here is a song where you can clearly see this over pronunciation of
vowels how much emphasis he gives to the vowels now listen to payphone that's a
very nice song very famous song there's a bit of rapping in the middle and you see
that there are some words where he emphasizes the vowel sounds and that may
be a little bit difficult for listeners like you and me I'm at a payphone trying to
call home all of my change I spent on you he says I'm at a payphone and then he
makes this word payphone very long I'm at a payphone
now here it is easier because I'm showing it to you but if you add
everything together it's not that simple
another part he says "too stuck in that time so he links everything and you listen to
the vowel sounds so when you're listening to the song sometimes it feels like
everything you're listening to is vowels another song I love and the singer loves
to do this because his voice is amazing he is amazing so he can do anything he
wants John Legend all of me if you listen to this amazing singer you will
see that he emphasizes vowels all the time sometimes it's
difficult to understand what he is singing
so here he sings: my head's underwater But I'm
breathing you're crazy and I'm out of my mind so here he emphasizes so much
it is slower not as slow as I'm singing not as beautifully as I'm singing
unfortunately but that's my point it takes a little bit of time of course you do
listen to the consonant I'm not saying you just listen to vowel sounds but that's what you
listen to the most, it isthe strong sound of vowels okay so if your listening
skils are not sharp enough you may have a little bit of a challenge there
reason number two slang, expressions
contractions and abbreviation this is perhaps the most challenging part of a
song lyrics okay because sometimes you're listening to it and you don't
understand and you feel like oh my god my listening sucks hey wait a minute
maybe it's not just your listening maybe it is more than that maybe
it's something in the song that youdon't know and this happens when singers and
they do this all the time make music they use expressions idioms
they use slang sometimes local slang depending on where they are from on a
specific region in the country where they are from so it's important to study
that okay so slang and expressions are something that you have to study song by
song because every song uses a different kind of slang or expression and it's natural
think about your own native language and all the expressions that a expressions that a singer
tends to use there you have it the same happens in English so you have to be
prepared for that okay and these guys may be difficult
even if you have the lyrics in your hands because music is much more than just
words it goes beyond that music is about interpretation it is about feeling it's
about connection so sometimes it's difficult when we just analyze the
lyrics we have to get to know a little bit more about the band we are listening
to the singer we are listening to and then interpret the songs this
happens in many many many many songs in English
the truth is singers they use such a variety of vocabulary they sometimes
use references , chemistry references, biology literature and if we don't go deeper we
may not really understand what the singer is singing there was this song I was
listening to once and there was this part I don't remember the song I'm sorry but
there was a Greek mythology reference and I didn't understand I was like what the f*
what the heck you know I don't know what this is then I googled I
understood what the reference was and I was like huh okay some examples of
people that do this a lot Coldplay oh my god I love Coldplay
but his lyrics every now and then have something that you have to go deeper to
understand because it's not just simply translation
all this means that, no, you have to interpret the song
in such a deeper way that it takes a little bit more time and getting used to
okay so it goes beyond the lyrics I've come across several songs from Coldplay
where I had to actually Google and go to forums and understand the
interpretation of the song because I understood the words but I was not really
sure of what he wanted to say by singing those words so I googled and I
understood what he was actually trying to say the message he was trying to send
same thing happens to Katy Perry not in the same level I think it's easier to
understand what she sings she uses a lot of metaphors okay
for example fireworks baby you're a firework ah the roar a song and you're
gonna hear me roar people don't roar okay animals do, lions
do but here it's a metaphor form so it takes some time getting used to this
and this is a simple example but there are other ones more complex ones so just
take the concept of the metaphor proverbs history chemistry and take all
of these into consideration when you are listening to a song because as I
said music is freedom and there will be all kinds of things there and the last
reason why and this is a big one okay you may have the English skills you may
have good vocabulary you may be doing a research but we have to take into
account that music interference plays a big role imagine if I make this
video and all of a sudden I put this extremely loud background music like
this
this is what happens in music today the musical background has a great
variety of sounds there are so many instruments and sometimes it's difficult
to understand what the person is singing okay and this is gonna keep happening
thisis not gonnae change of course depending on the style of music you may
have a better understanding because the music the musical background is
lighter but all in all guys this is the future there is a lot of music going on
in the back in addition to the singers don't be frustrated don't you feel sad. See
this is a challenge that's what I always do If I don't understand a song a part
of a song I go and I Google it and I listen it again again and again and
that's what music is all about well these are my top three reasons okay
of course there's so many others to finish up if you want to improve your
listening skills by listening to music I advise you to start with a slow ballad
What's this? slow songs, songs that have a slower pace so rock heavy metal punk uh
techno music you know like this is not going to help you okay if
your purpose is to improve your listening skills if your purpose is
entertainment, happiness go for it okay the second thing you need to do is use the
lyrics go and google the lyrics I'm not saying Google translations
I'm saying Google the lyrics okay find the lyrics make some time and read the
lyrics listen and read it so that you can start, all okay he's singing
He is pronouncing the song, the word like that
cool cool and you will feel more comfortable with the song as you read
the lyrics and listen to it and the third thing you should do is work on
your sland and idiomatic expression guys at some point you have to dedicate time
to learn more about cultural things and slang and idioms is such a big part of
it okay part of the language you need to feel
comfortable with this so learning slang learning expressions idiomatic
expressions is part of learning English and this is going to help you
for songs this is going to help you for your favorite TV show, movies and so many
more things there you have it these are my top three reasons why it may be a bit
difficult to listen to to understand songs in English and my top three ideas
to help you work on these challenges I hope you liked this video don't forget
to give a thumbs up and share this video with your friends why not thanks guys and I'll see
you next time bye