IELTS Speaking for Success - 🎵 Music (Part 1) + Transcript

Episode Date: October 20, 2026

Get access to our premium episode archive: https://successwithielts.com How often does Rory listen to music, and why won't he sit through a whole opera? Find out why live concerts feel too pricey these days and which instruments he quite fancies learning, if only he had the time and the patience. Tune in and have a great day! - Book a class with Rory here: https://successwithielts.com/classes Our course on Phrasal Verbs: https://successwithielts.com/podcourses Transcript: https://successwithielts.com Find an IELTS Speaking Partner: https://links.successwithielts.com/ieltspartner Our social media: https://linktr.ee/successwithielts © 2025 Podcourses Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, lovely. I'm Maria. And my name is Rory. And we're the host of the AILT Speaking for Success podcast, the podcast that aims to help you improve your speaking skills as well as your listening skills along the way. We've started this podcast to give you gorgeous grammar and fabulous vocabulary for your high ILD score. Your bad nine score.

Rory, have you heard that song like, Oh, go now, go. Walk out the door. Just turn around now. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na. I have no idea, but I'm not very good with music, unfortunately. Yes, dear listen, now we're going to be talking about music. How often do you listen to music? Probably every day.

I think I've always got something on if I'm walking to the shops or to the gym, just to fill the time getting to places. It's also nice to have all. in the background at parties. Is there any kind of music you really don't like? I'm not a huge fan of opera, to be honest. It just doesn't appeal to me at all. Some short pieces are quite engaging,

but I'm not sitting for hours listening to the whole thing, just because I don't think that's a good use of my time. Have you ever been to a live music concert? Not for a couple of years now. They were part of larger performances at a music festival I went to in London. but I've almost really liked how the atmosphere there and the performers could get everyone's attention despite the wider events happening around them.

It's kind of pricey to go to such things these days though, so I usually just watch them from the comfort of my own home, if at all. Would you like to learn to play a musical instrument? I quite fancy the idea of learning to play the guitar or drums, but I'm not sure I have the money or the time for that, let alone the patience. They're pretty resource-intense hobbies. And I'm invested in other things, so it's not possible.

Not in the immediate future, at least. As you know, we now release all of our premium content for free, and it's available for one month. After one month, it goes into our super secret archive. To sign up for the archive, click the link in the description below. See you soon. Hey, do you listen to music. So we listen to music.

Everybody always says listen music, and I have to keep seeing. It's listen to music. Why? Because it's English. It's the same as like, wait for me. It's always wait for. Wait for it. Wait for me.

Wait for the podcast to come out. Listen to music. It depends on so kind of dependent prepositions. The listener, we just need to remember them. Why? Because, yeah, even Rory doesn't know why. So listen to music. It depends on the weather, wait for me.

But tell him, tell him, tell me without any propositions. Strange. So how often, again, a typical question, how often, every day, every week, regularly, all the time, maybe you listen to music all the time, every hour, every minute, you listen to something? And Rory tells us that I always have something on. So in my headphones inside my head, I always have something on if I'm walking, if I'm working, if I'm shopping, if I'm working out. So I always have something on. So meaning like I have music playing just to feel the time. So to feel the time, I listen to music. When I go to work, I always have something on.

It's also nice to have music in the background. In the backgrounds, you know, like you play some jazz, some lounge music, yeah, heavy metal. So it's nice to have something on in the background at parties, for example. Kind of music. So genres of music. What kind of music you dislike, don't like? And Rory paraphrases the question. He says, I'm not a huge fan.

of opera. And I am not a huge fan of opera. Rory, like, what's going on with you and opera? Italian, you know, opera, this beautiful... I just don't want to sit for hours listening to something, that's all. I like individual arias that last a few minutes maybe, but like a whole opera, like sitting there for hours, no. For four hours? No, not your thing. No, absolutely not. Do you do this? You know, once I've done it, it was four hours. and I was half dead at the end of the third hour.

So Maria obviously enjoyed that. Yeah, but I do enjoy an Italian opera. Kind of like two, two, three hours I can do it. I can't remember a single Italian opera I like. Even I can remember the areas that I like. Like, I like the one from Madam Butterfly and Magic Flute. No, but there's one opera. Oh, yeah, La Traviata.

Yes, I do love La Traviata. A story about love that's beautiful, La Traviata, that's in Italian. Yes, Madam Butterfly is another one. And actually, also about love. Yes, so there we go, DeLisna, opera. So you can say, I'm not a huge fan of heavy metal. I'm not a huge fan of pop music. I'm not a huge fan of classical music.

This kind of music doesn't appeal to me. Like, rock music doesn't appeal to me. Pop music doesn't appeal to me. Appeal, if something appeals to you, you like it. Like, Italian opera appeals to me. Like, it draws me. I like it. Yeah, appeal as a formal request, but we are using it in a different context.

So kind of to interest or attract someone. Oh, like this course appeals to me. I like it. I'm interested in it. It is attractive. I don't like listening to music for hours. like, for example, if it's an opera or classical music. What do you think are the most popular music genres, Rory, these days?

Probably pop music and rock music, maybe? Yeah, absolutely. Like, rock music, pop music, hip-hop, rap is also quite popular. So, hip-hop rap, pop music, rock music. Then we have country music, Latin music. Dance electronic music. Yeah, it's pretty popular. So these are the most popular genres, you're listening.

So you can kind of say, like, yeah, I'm a huge fan of rap, pop music, rock music. But I don't enjoy electronic music, for example. And what are you a huge fan of? Oh, you know, I don't have one genre. It depends on my mood, you know, Rory. Like, I like rock, I can listen to pop. I can listen to Latin music. I enjoy tango because I dance tango, so I don't.

do love tango music, like tango novevo as well, classical tango music, so I enjoy reading the lyrics, I study the lyrics, the meaning of the words, so yeah. That's great to be so invested in a hobby. Yes,

invested in a hobby. But I do love classical music, so I can listen to Beethoven, Mozart, absolutely. Yeah, I love it. L'Araata, there we go. I've been to a live music concert recently. So I've been to a life concert.

Or I've never been to a live concert. It's life concert, not live. And like, once I went to a live concert, or I went to a life concert a year ago. Or I've been to a Beyonce concert, for example. Shakira, there we go. Shakira is quite lovely. Yeah, you can say, like, I don't usually go to live concerts.

They can be quite small, you know, some live concerts at pubs, clubs, like local bands. So maybe you went to a music festival and you went to some live show, a life performance, a live concert or a life show. Show could be a concert, I don't know, a podcast, everything could be a show. Stand-up comedy is also a show. I really like the atmosphere, performers, so singers, getting attention Yeah Getting attention

You mean like When performers When singers get all Everyone's attention Yeah They perform They have like Super clothes on

That attract us But these days It's kind of pricey To go to such things So it's pricey It's quite expensive It costs a lot Costs a lot

Yeah To go to a Beyonce show Kani West for example. It's also pretty expensive. So I prefer to watch them from the comfort of my own home. So if you do something at home, don't say like, yeah, I watch it at home. It's boring. Say I watch it from the comfort of my own home. So from the comfort, comfort, comfortable, of my own home.

So I watch it from the comfort of my own home. Yeah, there you go. But it's not often I do this. So I say if at all, Which is like, if ever. Okay, let's Google most popular concerts. I like life. Hillary Duff is touring. Jonas Brothers. Oh, I don't know.

These people. You don't know who Hillary Duff is? No, I don't. Maria. I'm horrible. Okay, I'm Googling. I'm Googling. But Dillister, you may also not know.

Do you know? Hillary Duff? Wait, okay. Hillary Duff, okay. Right. American singer. Right. I'm going to listen to Hilary Doff. Oh, Lady Gaga. There we go. Lady Gaga is touring.

So, like, if you say someone is touring, they are kind of giving live concerts. The Weekend. Bad Bunny. Okay. Shakira, there we go. Shakira is touring. Yeah, deal is not. So, uh, just drop a few names. Hillary Duff. Shakira. That would be enough. That would be enough to get you a band nine. Yeah, kind of, you know, because the examiner may not know Hillary Duff. And then you kind of like, you drop a name like Hillary Duff and then you look at the

examiner and the examiner goes like, you don't know who Hillary Duff is. Oh, wow, she has like 28 million followers on Instagram. That's nice. I'd like to play a musical instrument, for example. So to play a musical instrument. To play the guitar, to play the drums. So it's the guitar. And you can say, I quite fancy.

the idea of learning the guitar. Fancy in this context means I like. I like the idea of learning the guitar. I quite fancy the idea of learning the guitar or the drums. But I'm not sure when I'll do it. I'm not sure if I have the money for it. I'm not sure if I have the time for it. You know, I don't have patience. And it's quite intense. So if you start learning the guitar, It's quite intense. You need to invest a lot of time, effort. And I'm invested in other things. So I spend time on yoga, on life, on sleeping, on podcasting.

So not in the immediate future, you can say, dear listener. Like, not soon. I'd like to do this, but not in the immediate future. Or you can say, I know how I can play the guitar or I can play the guitar. or I can play the drums, audio listening, you can lie. You can say, oh, yeah, I can play the flute. So if I had to choose another musical instrument, you can talk about some other musical instruments.

If I had to choose another musical instrument, I'd go for a violin, for example. Or, I don't know, what strange musical instruments do you have? The oboe, the did you really do? Oh, there we go. There we go. So, Googling musical instruments, We want to be interesting for the examiner, the listener, remember?

So don't say piano. Like, everybody says piano. So we need to pick a musical instrument that's interesting. Oh, I pick the guitar or the drum, sorry. No, you're boring, right. However, I made up for it by talking about different things that would stop me from doing that. So I'm not sure I have the money or the time, and then let alone the patience. Yeah, so maybe I like to learn.

to play bongo or play the bongo right the article uh the bongo drums or the bongos the bongo drums yeah bongos so play the bongos they're kind of like a nice cute drums or to play the obo yeah so we can play the clarinet the oboe or play the bongo drums something interesting no but these words are enough you know for your musical instruments vocabulary. And if not, you could be invested in other things, which is just another way of saying you're focused on other things. Right, de list, and now we have a joke. I thought the joke was you not knowing who Hillary Duff was.

No, it was just the first joke to prepare you for the final joke of this episode. Right, so, de listener, what type of music are balloons afraid of? Pop music. Balloons go pop when they explode. I know the balloon is afraid. It doesn't want to explode. So pop music is something they will be afraid of. You're welcome, dear listener.

Now you can crack jokes during the exam. We'll get back to you in our next episode. Bye. Bye. How often do you listen to music? Probably every day. I think I've always got something on. if I'm walking to the shops or to the gym,

just to fill the time game to places. It's also nice to have on in the background at parties. Is there any kind of music you really don't like? I'm not a huge fan of opera, to be honest. It just doesn't appeal to me at all. Some short pieces are quite engaging, but I'm not sitting for hours listening to the whole thing, just because I don't think that's a good use of my time.

Have you ever been to a live music concert? Not for a couple of years now. They were part of larger performances at a music festival I went to in London. But I've almost really liked how the atmosphere there and the performers could get everyone's attention, despite the wider events happening around them. It's kind of pricey to go to such things these days, though, so I usually just watch them from the comfort of my own home, if at all. Would you like to learn to play a musical instrument? I quite fancy the idea of learning to play the guitar or drums, but I'm not sure I have to play.

have the money or the time for that, let alone the patience. They're pretty resource-intense hobbies and I'm invested in other things, so it's not possible, not in the immediate future at least.