Learn 10 words for talking about music
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| Hi, everybody and welcome back to Top Words. My name is Alisha and today we're going to be talking about “10 Words You Can Use to Talk About Music.” So, let's go. |
| “Concert.” The first word for talking about music is “concert.” A “concert” is a live show. “Concert” is, yeah, the performance is happening in front of your eyes. So, concerts are really popular worldwide, I think. Depending on where you live, you might hear them called “live shows,” but usually, in American English we just say concert a “concert,” a “concert.” So in a sentence, “I'm going to a concert this weekend.” |
| “To see in concert.” The next expression is the verb we use for a live show. So, the next expression is, “to see in a concert” or “to see in concert.” So, we use the artist's name along with this phrase. So, for example, “I'm going to see Coldplay in concert.” “I'm going to see Adele in concert.” So, you use “I'm going to see,” artist name, “in concert” or “in a concert.” Well, you say “in concert” or “in a concert,” both are okay. So, in a different sentence, “I'm going to see my favorite band in concert,” meaning live. Who do I want to see you in concert? “I want to see Michael Jackson in concert.” Yeah. I would have loved to see him in concert, he's my favorite. |
| “To listen to… (music, artist).” The next word or the next phrase is “to listen to,” plus “music” or “to listen to an artist.” You can use this verb with the type of music or with the specific artist or band or group that you like. So, “I like to listen to rock music.” “I like to listen to pop music,” whatever. Another sentence is, “I like listening to Beyoncé.” “I like,” yeah, so you can use “to listen to” or “listening to,” both are fine here. “I like listening to funk,” is fine. “I like listening to funky artists,” is fine. “I like listening to Queens of the Stone Age,” is fine. All of these are great, who do you listen to? I listen to lots of things. |
| “To write a song… (song, music).” The next expression is “to write a song” or “to write music.” If you want to make music yourself, you can say “write a song,” which just means one song, maybe three or four minutes usually in popular music, or “to write music” in general. So, you can use both of these expressions, “song” is more specific, “music” is more general. So, in a sentence, “My friend started writing songs recently.” Or in a different sentence, “Writing music is really fun.” |
| “Track.” The next expression is “track.” We can use “song,” yes, but for example, when you look at an album like on iTunes or maybe like a CD for example, each song is assigned a number. That's the track number. So, we can say, “I like track number 3.” or “track 3.” We use “track” to talk about a song. So, you can say, “This is a good song,” or “This is a good track,” both are okay to use, song and track are both fine. So, in a sentence, “I really like that track from his album.” |
| “Beat.” The next word is “beat.” The “beat” is sort of the feeling of a song. Usually, it's easy to hear because there's like a bass drum or there's some kind of heavy feeling. It gives you the sense of rhythm of a song. In a sentence we would say like, “A song should have a catchy beat,” or “That song has a really catchy beat,” or “I like the beat of that song.” |
| “Tempo.” So, “tempo,” the next word is “tempo.” “Tempo” means the pace of a song, how fast or how slow a song goes. So, you can have songs with a fast tempo or with a slow tempo or somewhere in between. So, you can change the tempo of a song and maybe change the feeling. In a sentence, “Tracks with a slow tempo are nice on quiet evenings.” |
| “Upbeat.” The next word is “upbeat.” This word uses “beat” which we talked about before, but “upbeat,” this is an adjective that we use for something, maybe it's a faster tempo song, maybe it sounds kind of positive or a cheerful, a little bit happy. So, an “upbeat track” or an “upbeat song” sounds--maybe it has a good positive feeling about it or a good positive vibe, something like that. So, in a sentence, “This song is really upbeat.” “Upbeat,” we can use “upbeat” for people too, like “My best friend is really upbeat,” something positive or happy. |
| “Downtempo.” Next, we'll go to maybe the opposite of upbeat, the next word is “downtempo.” “Tempo” means pace and “down” meaning like decreased or slower. So, a “downtempo” song has a slow tempo, it's more relaxed. Yeah, maybe it's good for just kind of hanging out or it's a little bit slow or maybe you hear this at a restaurant or a cafe perhaps, a “downtempo” song. So, in a sentence, “I like downtempo music.” |
| “Genre.” The next word is a great pronunciation point for many students, its “genre,” “genre.” So “jan-ru” or “gen-re,” I don't know, but “genre” is the correct pronunciation of this word. “Genre” means the type of music. You can use “genre” to talk about movies as well, books too, but it means the type of something. So, type of maybe art, you could consider, or type of creativity. So, “genre,” in music is for example rock, pop, funk, house, soul, disco, heavy metal, classical, country, rap, hip-hop, blues, all these are genres of music. So, they're types of music, you can say, “What type of music do you like?” or ‘What genre of music do you listen to?” In a sentence, “I listen to lots of different genres of music.” |
| Okay, that's the end. So, those are “10 Words That You Can Use to Talk About Music in English.” If there are other words that you use to talk about music or if you have any questions, please leave us a comment and let us know about it. Thanks very much for watching this video. Also, if you liked this video, please make sure to hit the thumbs up button and if you haven't subscribed to us please be sure to subscribe to us, too, so you don't miss any fun stuff. |
| Thanks very much for watching this episode of Top Words and we'll see you again soon. Bye. |
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