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Episode 17: Little Red

Transcript

We'll look at the word harmony and the expressions 'work out' and 'from scratch'.

I play guitar. I play a bit of piano. Mainly I'm a songwriter.

I play drums.

I used to be just a singer but I've started playing the keyboard as well.

My role in the band is to play guitar and sing.

I play bass and sing lead and some backing vocs as well.

Well, we've got 4 singers so like and we all just love singing and I love harmonising and you think a liitle bit more about arrangement when you get into that headspace as well and there's so much you can do with it.

It's 4 other instruments really and it's my favourite instrument and singing in harmony with the other fellows in the band is my favourite thing about being in the band.

Singing in harmony or harmonising is when people sing different musical notes that sound good together like this:

(singing)

Listen for another way of describing this singing style:

The Beach Boys was the original inspiration for the vocal harmony arrangements I believe it's there's lots of early sixties and fifties elements as well to it.

vocal harmony arrangements. Vocal means by voice and arrangements are who sings what when. So vocal harmony arrangements refers to the way they sing together.

(singing autumn leaves)

Now listen for the expression work out:

I grew up in Scogu, which is a small island in Japan. I came to Australia to study science, to be a scientist but it didn't work out.

It didn't work out - it didn't happen in the way he expected. listen again:

I grew up in Scogu, which is a small island in Japan. I came to Australia to study science, to be a scientist but it didn't work out.

What did work out is that he joined a band. He's from Japan so he's Japanese. Another band member's parents came from Vietnam and they are?

Both my parents are Vietnamese...

They're Vietnamese. Now listen out for the expression 'from scratch'

Both my parents are Vietnamese and they came over here like in '78 after the war, just came on a little rickety boat and just made a life for themselves over here with, without any like money or anything, like just built it up from scratch again.

From scratch means from the start. To do something from scratch means to start again with nothing. And to build something up is to steadily make it over time. Listen again:

Both my parents are Vietnamese and they came over here like in '78 after the war, just came on a little rickety boat and just made a life for themselves over here with, without any like money or anything, like just built it up from scratch again.

So we've seen that to harmonise, or sing in harmony is to sing together and that the result is called a vocal harmony arrangement. One meaning of work out is happen like you imagined and to do something from scratch is to start again from nothing. We'll finish with the Japanese drummer who wants their film clips full of babes, or attractive women:

We need more babes. We basically need film clip from now I want all film clip - babes with bikinis. That's all I want to have.

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