Rock Band

Hello, everyone and welcome back to another lesson here at EnglishPod.
My name is Marco.
Katerina And my name is Katerina and today we're
talking about a topic very close to my heart, music.
Marco That's right.
We're going to be talking about music and more specifically, we are going to talk about
musical instruments that you would use in a band.
Katerina All right.
And so some people like to make their own music, get together, hang out, play music
together, so that's what we're talking about today.
We've got a new band that's going to start and before we get going, we've got a word
to talk about and let's check this out in today's vocabulary preview.
Vocabulary Preview.
Marco All right.
So as I mentioned, we are going to talk about instruments.
Katerina Instruments.
So you could say musical instruments, but what is an instrument generally speaking?
Marco Basically, it's similar to a tool, right?
So an instrument is something that you use to help you realize a task.
In this case, musical instruments is more specific, right?
Katerina Right.
So we're talking about things that you use to make music.
A piano for example.
Marco Is a musical instrument.
Katerina Or the drums.
Marco All right.
So this is what we're going to be looking at today in the dialogues.
So let's listen to it for the first time.
Katerina I'm forming a music band.
Marco Do you already know how to play an instrument?
Katerina Uh, yeah.
I told you a thousand times that I'm learning to play the drums.
Now that I know how to play well, I would like to form a rock band.
Marco Aside from yourself, who are the other members
of the band?
Katerina We have a guy who plays guitar and another
who plays bass.
Although we still haven't found anyone to be our singer.
You told me that you had some musical talent, right?
Marco Yes, I'm a singer.
Katerina Perfect.
So you can audition this weekend here at my house.
Marco Great.
Wait, here?
You don't have enough room for the amplifiers, microphones, or even your drums.
By the way, where do you keep them or practice?
Katerina Dude, what are you talking about?
It's right here.
All we need is my Nintendo Wii and we're set.
Marco All right, we're back.
So apparently the band wasn't really a real band.
Katerina It wasn't, but I have to say I'm very familiar
with this because I have a Nintendo Wii and I often play the game Rock Band so I can sympathize
with the characters.
Marco So you also have your own band?
Katerina I do.
Well, virtually speaking.
Marco Virtually.
Katerina And I know you do too.
Marco I do too.
That's right.
We are both fans of this game and this gaming console and that's why it's such a fun dialogue.
But let's take a look at some of the language that was used in this dialogue in Language
Takeaway.
Language Takeaway.
Katerina Oh man, so I've been in a lot of bands and
I've been in a lot of musical groups so I can say that the first instrument we want
to talk about is maybe the most obnoxious, the most loud and hard to listen to.
Marco Probably, probably.
And that instrument is the drums.
So the drums, it's plural because you have many drums, right?
Katerina Right.
You don't just have the dum-dum-dum-dum, the bass drum.
You have many different drums together and so we could also call this a drum set.
Marco A drum set.
All right, so why don't we listen to an example of what a drum set sounds like.
All right, we're back.
So I think that's clear.
Moving on to our next instrument.
Katerina This one's maybe the most popular for young
people to start because you can play pretty much anything with it and it's also good for
sing-alongs.
Marco Right, and that instrument is the guitar.
Katerina Can you play the guitar?
Marco No, I can't.
I actually wish I would have learned but I never got around to it.
Katerina Well, this is a really beautiful instrument
and there are many different ways to play it but generally, it's either wooden with
some strings or electric so it's plastic with some metal strings.
Marco Right, exactly.
So they have a different sound but why don't we listen to an example of what a guitar sounds
like.
All right, so great example of a guitar, pretty clear.
What's our next instrument?
Katerina The bass and this one, it doesn't look like
the word that's written, B-A-S-S, so we say bass.
And it's actually a very low instrument.
It's usually used to help keep the rhythm.
Marco All right, so it's similar to a guitar, right?
Katerina Very.
Marco It's the same form but as you say, it's lower
and it makes a lower sound.
Katerina Exactly.
Marco All right, so let's listen to an example of
a bass now.
All right, pretty clear.
Moving on to our next word, we have an amplifier.
Katerina Okay, so amplifier, an amplifier is a thing.
It's usually a box that we plug in, it's electric or it's electronic and it's a tool to make
electrical instruments like the electric guitar or the electric bass louder.
Marco Right, exactly.
So an amplifier is any device that makes a sound become louder.
Katerina Exactly.
Marco All right.
Katerina So this is really important for rock bands
the world over.
Marco Very good.
Our next instrument or actually more of a tool is very useful for the singer.
Katerina Yeah, and it actually goes with the amplifier
in many ways because the microphone, this is our next word, the microphone is something
that you use to sing into to make your voice louder.
So right now, Marco, you and I are both using microphones.
Marco Exactly.
So a microphone.
Very good.
And we have one last word and this is a verb, to audition.
Katerina All right, to audition.
So to audition means to show someone your talent, all right?
So oftentimes when you start a play or an opera or a musical group, you want to have
auditions.
You want to audition people to see how much talent they have.
Marco All right.
So it's basically an opportunity to demonstrate your skills and abilities.
Katerina Exactly.
Marco So a job interview wouldn't really be an audition.
Katerina No, a job interview has its own word.
But here we're talking about your singing ability, your acting ability, your reading
ability and sometimes we even have auditions here at EnglishPod to see how comfortable
people are on the microphone.
It's a way to have people show what they've got.
Marco Very good.
All right.
So a lot of interesting words here, many instruments.
I think it's time for us to listen to our dialogue again.
We're going to slow it down a little bit and we'll be right back.
Katerina I'm forming a music band.
Marco Do you already know how to play an instrument?
Katerina Yeah, I told you a thousand times that I'm
learning to play the drums.
Now that I know how to play well, I would like to form a rock band.
Marco Aside from yourself, who are the other members
of the band?
Katerina We have a guy who plays guitar and another
who plays bass.
Although we still haven't found anyone to be our singer.
You told me that you had some musical talent, right?
Marco Yes, I'm a singer.
Katerina Perfect.
So you can audition this weekend here at my house.
Marco Great.
Wait here.
You don't have enough room for the amplifiers, microphones or even your drums.
By the way, where do you keep them or practice?
Katerina Dude, what are you talking about?
It's right here.
All we need is my Nintendo Wii and we're set.
Stan Alright, we're back.
So moving on with our lesson, why don't we take a look now at some phrases in Fluency
Builder.
Katerina Fluency Builder.
Stan Alright, so on Fluency Builder we have four
phrases.
What's the first one?
Katerina Well, this first phrase is really important,
Marco, because we're talking about bands and starting bands.
And so there's often a phrase we use to describe this.
We say to form a band.
Stan Alright, so you form a band.
Katerina It's like forming something.
To form is to shape it, to make it look like something that you want.
And so we can form artistic projects also.
But here we're forming a band.
We're choosing people to bring together to make great music.
Stan Alright, so we can say form a band or you
can say as well, start a band.
Alright.
So we're forming a band and well, his friend was surprised that the other guy knew how
to play an instrument.
So he said, I've told you a thousand times.
Katerina Wait, wait.
So he told him one thousand times.
Stan No, not literally.
Katerina I play an instrument.
I play an instrument.
I play an instrument.
Stan Right.
This is a phrase and it's a little bit of an exaggeration to emphasize that I've told
you many, many times already.
Katerina Great.
So this is something we say when we're trying to exaggerate like Marco said or to really
emphasize the point that like I've told you this before.
So mothers often use it.
I feel like we talk about mothers a lot here.
Mothers often use this phrase when kids do something wrong.
They say, I've told you a thousand times not to wear your shoes in the house.
Stan Exactly.
So it is a great phrase to really make your point that you've said something many, many
times.
Moving on, we have a kind of like a conjunction that you can use and it's by the way to change
the topic maybe.
By the way.
Katerina By the way.
And so by the way, we keep these words together.
It's a fixed phrase.
By the way is something we add on.
So I say, you know, today I went to school and I saw a lot of people.
Oh, by the way, John says hi.
All right, so while I'm talking about this, I want to add that this thing happened or
that this person said something.
Stan Exactly.
So it is, it's a conjunction, right, to put together two different ideas.
By the way, or you can start off your sentence with it.
By the way, how is the new house?
Katerina Oh, because it's like, it's like saying, oh,
this thought just came into my head.
By the way.
Stan Right, right.
And our last phrase on Fluency Builder is we are set.
Katerina All right, all we need is my Nintendo Wii
and we are set.
Stan All right, so what are we set?
We are set.
Katerina All right, we are set is another one of those
phrases that's fixed and it literally it means and we are ready to start.
We're ready to go.
Stan And everything is ready.
Katerina Yeah, we don't need anything else.
And so Marco, I could say to you, just bring, just bring the salad to the table and we're
set.
We're ready to eat.
Stan All right.
And I think we're set to listen to our dialogue for the last time.
And we'll be right back and talk a little bit more about this great topic.
I'm forming a music band.
Do you already know how to play an instrument?
Yeah, I told you a thousand times that I'm learning to play the drums.
Now that I know how to play well, I would like to form a rock band.
Aside from yourself, who are the other members of the band?
We have a guy who plays guitar and another who plays bass.
Although we still haven't found anyone to be our singer.
You told me that you had some musical talent, right?
Yes, I'm a singer.
Perfect.
So you can audition this weekend here at my house.
Great.
Wait here.
You don't have enough room for the amplifiers, microphones or even your drums.
By the way, where do you keep them or practice?
Dude, what are you talking about?
It's right here.
All we need is my Nintendo Wii and we're set.
Alright, we're back.
So rock band now.
I know that you play a real instrument, not only instruments on the Wii.
True.
What do you play?
I play the trumpet.
I was classically trained.
I started when I was 10.
Now is this the trumpet that has the three buttons on the top?
Yes, three pistons.
Three pistons.
Because there's another one that doesn't, right?
There's one that has four pistons.
It's a piccolo trumpet, has four.
And there's one that's large and it slides in and out and that's a trombone.
That's much lower.
Right, right.
But the trumpet is kind of a mid-range instrument.
It can go quite high and a little bit low.
And it's brass, it's not wood.
It's made of a metal.
Right.
It looks like gold, right?
Right.
Alright, so you play the trumpet.
Did you play in a band or in a school or college?
In middle school and high school, I played in bands and orchestras.
And in college, I played in orchestra and I've also played in rock bands because sometimes
people want to, you know...
Have a trumpet in the background.
Have a trumpet and go a little crazy.
Nice.
Interesting.
This is interesting because I'm sure a lot of our users out there actually play instruments
and maybe a lot of them are also good at it.
So come to EnglishPod.com, leave your questions and comments and let us know if you play any
instruments or maybe some strange instruments like the xylophone.
Or if you like to play We Rock Band because we certainly do and we can support you on
that one.
We can give you some tips.
Yeah.
Alright, so we'll see you guys there.
Until next time.
Bye everyone.
Thanks for listening.