vocBlocks: How to Jazz up your Everyday Nerd Style

A post featuring 10 English music idioms in context and proving that knowledge is power in many ways.

Lunchtime in your office. You are chewing your sandwich and scrolling down your Facebook feed. A video with buskers playing in NY tube. Funny hair. Ok, hit ‘play’. Suddenly it’s not a dull day anymore. The guys rock!

And oh, the tall guy looks like the guy from marketing. Hahaha, you choke on your sandwich, show the video to others and you all have a giggle. It certainly jazzed up for you the afternoon meeting with the marketing folks!

Music can certainly make your day.

And it can also help you unwind and relax.

Deadlines, priorities, meetings, emails, emails, emails. Endless emails. The weekend is here but you feel like all you do is sort out your family stuff. Before you know it, boom! Monday again. Deadlines, priorities, meetings, emails, emails, emails. Endless emails.

If that rings a bell and you feel like a hamster racing like crazy in its little wheel, probably all you need to do is slow down and switch off for some time. And music can certainly help.

I don't know about you but I can easily forget to switch off. Forget to just listen to the music.

Luckily, my English study has recently reminded me that it has been a while since I listened to the music which helps me slow down. For me *nerd alert* it's classical music that does this unwind trick.

I try to align my language studying content with my interests, i.e. classical music in this case, so I am learning the names of the musical instruments now. Cellos and cymbals, flutes and harps and all that jazz, you know.

Looking at the picture of a violin I suddenly realised that it had been a while since I listened to Verdi. So, on it was, loud and bold. Did help me unwind. Not sure about the rest of the household. And the neighbours. And the neighbours of my neighbours. Alright, will probably need to pop on headphones next time. No appreciation of the true music these days *posh face, eye roll, deep sigh*.

Fell out with my husband because of it actually. Not only my fault. It takes two to tango, you know. Surely you need to close the door if you are on the phone with an important client so as not to have to explain a sudden outburst of Verdi in the background.

By the way, harps aside, from this vocBlock I have also found out that drums in the drum kit have different names. And a dialogue from ‘Two and a half Men’ where Zoey told Walden that she would... ahem, bang him like a snare drum, gave me a very clear image indeed. Which I am not too sure I actually needed.

So, you wanna bang me like a snare drum, huh?

Oh, and I discovered that the word ‘bass’ as in ‘double bass’ is pronounced not quite like I thought it was, damn it.

Well, I don't want to blow my own horn here but I have always been good at languages. But there is this one thing that gets me: English spelling! Just when you think you’ve cracked the code, bang! Bass happens. Or bugle! So, lesson learnt, always checking transcription it is, no matter how smart pants you think you are.

I hope I have drummed up some interest for tubas and trombones here. Do check out our musical instruments vocBlock in English and also the same vocBlock translated into French, German, Russian and Spanish to learn these and more.

And chime in in the comments below to let us know what synergy you got from your foreign language study. Feel free to trumpet your successes!

I don't want to sound like a broken record for those who have read my previous two posts here and here but, clear as a bell, knowledge is power in many ways! So, happy learning!

You might also like these posts:

Ornitophobia or How I Killed Two Birds with One Stone (birds idioms)

How to Boost your 5-a-Day Nerd Style (fruit and veg idioms)

How to Stop Being a Wimp Nerd Style (parts of body idioms)