Learn English With Music: Can you do it? How? Is it a good idea?

Hi.

I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.

How can you learn English with music?

Let's talk about it.

Before we talk about this topic, let's see can we learn English with music?

Is it possible?

I often get emails from people asking me is this a good way to learn English?

Is it normal, a daily conversation, common vocabulary?

I want to answer this question first.

Can you learn English with music?

And the answer is a big yes.

Yes, you can definitely learn English with music, but you might not be learning daily

conversational English.

You'll certainly be learning English, but it might not be the kind of English that we

often use in conversation, because songs are poetry.

They use words to fit the rhythm of the song.

They use words to fit a certain style of music, so the words aren't exactly like daily conversation,

but you're going to learn a lot, and there's something in our human brains that links music

and this tune and melody with memory.

It's a great way to remember things.

So certainly, you can learn English with music, but how can you do it?

What's a good method?

Well, the first step is to find music in English that you like.

There probably are already a couple bands or a couple popular songs that you like, so

I recommend listening to them a lot.

For me, when I want to learn the words of a French song, I usually listen to it a couple

times and then I go online and I try to find the lyrics of the song.

The lyrics are the words of the song.

And because I've already heard the song a couple times, I read the lyrics.

Sometimes, if I really love the song, I'll print the lyrics and try to sing the lyrics

with the song.

Who cares if you have a terrible singing voice?

Maybe you have an amazing singing voice.

The purpose is to train your speaking as well as your listening skills.

So when you use the lyrics, it's kind of like subtitles, or like a transcript.

You can really hear each word.

And after you practice with the lyrics a couple times, you can probably sing the song without

them.

And then when you're driving, or taking a walk, or singing in the shower, you can really

use English like a native speaker because you have memorized those same sentences, the

same lines that a native speaker is using.

If you want to learn something that's specifically conversational English but you don't want

to go back to elementary school and practice really basic songs about the weather, or about

colors, well, a good way to do that is to use musical theater.

If you have ever seen Phantom of the Opera, or Les Miserables, or this kind of sound of

music, a style of singing and talking at the same time, they often have conversations while

they're singing.

And maybe the style of music is not your favorite style of music, but if you want to learn conversational

English with a tune, this is a good way to do it.

If you've never used musical theater before to learn English, or if that's just not your

style, I want to give you one song recommendation just to introduce you to this kind of fun,

conversational way to use music.

This song is called My New Philosophy, and it's from the musical You're a Good Man Charlie

Brown.

Maybe you know Charlie Brown, or Snoopy, he's a famous comic character, cartoon character,

and there is a musical, a whole play, a theater based on those characters.

In this song, two characters have a conversation while they're singing, so in your mind you're

using that musical memory plus conversation together.

And even though this isn't the only way to learn conversation with music, it's just one

recommendation.

I will post the link to this video in the description below this so that you can check

it out and see if you can catch each word.

If you enjoy it, try to read the lyrics.

Try to sing along and imitate that fun, crazy conversation that they're having.

And now I have a question for you.

What kind of music do you like in English?

Give us some recommendations.

If you have a link to another YouTube video that's from this band, or from your favorite

song, let us know.

Let's share together and learn with each other's musical interests.

Thanks so much for learning with me, and I'll see you the next time.

Bye.

The next step is to download my free ebook, 5 Steps to Becoming a Confident English Speaker.

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Thanks so much for learning with me.

Bye.