hello i'm jill at ingvid and today we
have a lesson
on some expressions
that have some connection with music so
you could call them metaphors or idioms
and they all have a musical connection
okay
so
we have a list here on the board so
let's just go through them
and you may already have heard some of
them
but i'll explain each one okay
so first of all
on the fiddle
so the fiddle is that's another name for
a violin
a stringed instrument
um that you play with the bow
so what what could that mean to be on
the fiddle playing a violin what does
that mean
but in fact um
it's
it means uh also to fiddle
can mean to to fiddle about with
something to play around with something
so
um
fiddle can mean a violin but it has
other meanings too like if she's always
fiddling she's always fiddling with her
clothes or with her hair and
so to fiddle can have other meanings and
in this expression to be on the fiddle
if you say i think he's on the fiddle
and you say it suspiciously
it means the person is doing something
wrong something illegal possibly
maybe if they work for a company
and they work in the accounts department
and they're they're taking money
and covering it up while they're taking
it you know
so that nobody notices
uh they're on the fiddle they're about
doing something bad
so to be on the fiddle is not a very
uh good thing so um you have to be
careful if you say you think somebody's
on the fiddle
um
you have to be sure you uh you're not
just making it up if you have real
evidence
okay
so okay that's that one and the next one
if people talk about having a harmonious
relationship
maybe one country with another their
diplomatic
communications are very good
they have a harmonious relationship
or maybe if they're not very good uh
you might say we we don't have a very
harmonious relationship with that
country we're always
having disputes
um to do with fishing rights and things
like that you know
um ever since brexit there's been a
little bit of trouble over
fishing in the sea between this country
the uk and france
so
it's not always a harmonious
relationship harmony in music
meaning
sounds that go well together it's
harmonious it sounds nice
so
that's the meaning of that one
so okay what about this one if you're
drumming up support
i need to drum up support for my project
or you're promoting a charity
and
you need to
drum up support to get people to donate
to the charity
it comes from drums drumming you know
the percussion instrument that you you
hit with a stick
and that kind of drumming
in
real
life
uh in a literal sense
uh it's noisy it makes a lot of noise
and it makes people oh what's going on
here drums
it's sort of getting your attention
so if you're drumming up support for
something you're getting people's
attention
um to get them to
you know contribute something to
help to volunteer for a project or to
donate some money or to donate their
time and so on so that's drumming up
support
um this one if you say to somebody oh
please change the record and you say it
in that sort of tone of voice where you
look a bit
oh i'm tired of this are you going to
change the record soon
um
it's
from the days when we had records
you know
uh sort of
this black
vinyl
record
gramophone record
that goes on a turntable and a needle
plays
you know
and the sound comes out
so if you play a record on the
gramophone on the record player
you might play one record but then you
take that record off you put a different
one on you don't play the same one over
and over again
so if somebody's
saying the same thing over and over
again
they can't get off one subject
maybe for half an hour an hour
and you get a bit tired of hearing about
the same thing
you might say are you going to change
the record soon
i'm a bit tired of hearing about that
subject i think you've exhausted that
subject now can we change the record
um so
it comes from putting a different record
on the gramophone
okay
and then this is a bit similar
if somebody sounds like a broken record
or they're beginning
to sound like a broken record
that's what happens when if if the
record this black vinyl
is broken or there's a crack in it
and
um
the needle
uh is going round on it but because of
the crack in the record
the needle keeps going back into the
same uh the groove
so these lines on the record
are called
grooves
and
the the needle is in a groove
and if there's nothing wrong with the
record the needle will just go
and play through the whole record from
the outside
it starts on the outside and goes
into the middle
[Music]
if the record is broken there's the
possibility that the needle
will keep slipping back
and it never goes further on in the
music
so you start to hear repetition of just
one little sound
uh every sort of 10 seconds or so it
just goes back again and repeats the
same 10 or 15 seconds
over and over again until you might just
tap
the the gramophone
and it the needle might jump and then it
can start playing properly again but
that's not a very good thing to do
because you can damage the needle
so
if you're beginning to sound like a
broken record that's what it means again
it's a bit like this one
uh speaking in a repetitive way saying
the same thing over and over again
okay and i will try to stop doing that
right now uh and move on to the next one
so
uh if you say oh that rings a bell that
name rings a bell
i've heard that name before
so if the name rings a bell it means in
your head ah that's familiar so if
something like a name of a person is
familiar
oh that rings a bell i've heard about
that before
so that's what that one is
uh going for a song if something is on
sale
in
a shop
um
and it's going for a song
do you think it's expensive or
not expensive if it's going for a song
going means being sold
so for a song
is a song expensive
if if you just sing a song it doesn't
cost you anything does it
so
if something is going for a song
it's on sale
for a very small amount of money like a
a penny or something
or 10 10 pennies
um not very much at all
so going for a song
i think
the idea is you you just sing sing a
song and they'll give it to you so that
doesn't cost you anything then
but it does mean a little bit of money
it's not completely free but
it's a very small amount of money
okay so next one
do you blow your own trumpet
do you have a trumpet
that you blow
so that's the literal blowing a trumpet
like louis armstrong the famous jazz man
but in a metaphorical sense
somebody who blows their own trumpet
is someone who is always talking about
themselves and the great things that
they're doing
uh they're sort of big-headed
egotistical
oh he's always blowing his own trumpet
he's always saying what brilliant things
he's been doing
you know the opposite of being modest
okay so that's that one
um
someone who
likes to call the tune
if
if you work with somebody in an
organization and you say oh
he likes to call the tune you know he
always wants to call the tune
uh again it sounds like a criticism
doesn't it the way i'm saying it
um and it does mean
somebody who always wants to be in
charge
they want to run everything
they want to be the leader all the time
to call the tune
to sort of in the musical sense to say
what tune
what you know we're going to have next
you know or calling the tune for people
to dance to
it's that idea of being an organizer of
other people
okay right
so what about this one then
if you blow the whistle on
somebody
or blow the whistle on
um an organization a company
uh does it sound like a good thing or a
bad thing do you think
so a whistle
whistling a little whistle
that makes a a
a sort of
loud
high-pitched noise which i i can't do
sorry
um
what would that be also if you think of
the whistle that they use in sports like
in football
soccer
uh you have a referee
who's there
on the field with the players who if
they see somebody doing something wrong
they blow the whistle and they stop the
game
so
that suggests something somebody did
something wrong
i'm blowing the whistle we stop
we need to sort this out
so if you blow the whistle on somebody
or on an organization
it means you know that they've done
something wrong
and
often people see that and they they
don't say anything because they know
that if they blow the whistle on that
person um
it could be a bad thing for them it can
you know
they could be victimized themselves for
telling other people about it so that's
why often people keep quiet because they
don't want any trouble themselves so to
be a whistleblower
that's
the the noun that comes from it to blow
the whistle on
somebody or a company
to be a whistleblower
it's quite a
you know a risky thing to be
because
you can um have trouble coming to you as
a result of it so that's that one
okay but this one this is quite a
different use of the word whistle
if something is as clean as a whistle
or a person can be as clean as a whistle
uh if um
if they never do anything wrong
you could say oh he's clean as a whistle
no criminal record
never does anything wrong
he's always nice to people
um no deceptions no telling lies
no he's clean as a whistle
or um
a piece of machinery you could say is oh
it's clean as a whistle this machine
there's no dirt or oil in it or anything
clean as a whistle
why a whistle i don't know but perhaps
whistles are usually clean
compared with other things i don't
really know
so that's that one anyway
um
[Music]
oh if you say to someone oh you've
changed your tune
and again it has a certain tone of voice
well you've changed your tune
uh for example if uh
if you thought well i thought you didn't
like
um chocolate i thought you didn't like
chocolate but now you're
you're eating a lot of it and you're
talking about it you like it i thought
you didn't like chocolate you've changed
your tune
or you didn't like a person
always criticizing a particular person
but then they start to praise that
person and say how brilliant they are oh
you've changed your tune i thought you
didn't like them
so it's a little bit like changing the
record
to change your tune
in that sort of context
right next one to face the music
so
in this sense the music
i usually think of music as being
something nice but if you have to face
the music
it means you have to face up to some
trouble that you may have caused
yourself
if you've done something wrong and then
you have to
admit it to somebody
and say
it's time for me to face the music i've
got to admit to that person
i made a mistake and i'm very sorry
and they might shout at me and tell me
off and criticize me and be angry with
me but i've just got to stand there
or sit there and take it
i've got to face the music and then
maybe you get through that difficult
experience and then
you might make friends with the person
again
and then everything improves after that
but first of all you have to face that
person
and admit you did something wrong and
say you're sorry and take whatever
criticism they might
shout at you
but then just stay with it and hope
things will get better
so that's facing the music
and then finally to end with a nice one
if you say oh that's music to my ears
it doesn't mean literally you're hearing
music playing which you like the sound
of
but if somebody says to you for example
um in a company
we're all going to have a pay rise
next month
we're all having a pay rise 10
pay rise
oh that's music to my ears that's good
news
so it's when you hear some good news
you can say that's music to my ears
okay so i hope that's been a useful
lesson on all these different musical
expressions
uh good and bad and some perhaps neutral
um and there will be a quiz
on on this so if you'd like to go to
invid.com and do the quiz see how you do
and so thank you for watching
and
see you again soon
bye for now bye