Hello. I'm Gill at engVid. And today wehave a lesson on some expressions that
have some connection with music. So, youcould call them "metaphors" or "idioms",
and they all have a musical connection.Okay. So, we have a list here on the
board, so let's just go through them.And you may already have heard some of
them, but I'll explain each one. Okay.So, first of all: "on the fiddle". So,
"the fiddle" is... that's another namefor a violin; a stringed instrument that
you play with a bow. So, what...? Whatcould that mean, "to be on the fiddle"?
Playing a violin? What does that mean?But, in fact, it's... it means... also
"to fiddle" can mean to... to fiddleabout with something; to play around
with something. So, "fiddle" can mean aviolin, but it has other meanings, too.
Like, if she's always fiddling — she'salways fiddling with her clothes, or
with her hair, and so "to fiddle" canhave other meanings. And in this
expression: "to be on the fiddle" — ifyou say: "I think he's on the fiddle",
and you say it suspiciously, it meansthe person is doing something wrong;
something illegal possibly. Maybe ifthey work for a company, and they work
in the accounts department, andthey're... they're taking money and
covering it up while they're taking it,you know... so that nobody notices —
they're "on the fiddle"; they're...they're doing something bad. So, "to be
on the fiddle" is not a very good thing.So, you have to be careful if you say
you think somebody is on the fiddle —you have to be sure you... you're not
just making it up; if you have realevidence. Okay. So, okay. That's that
one. And the next one: If people talkabout having a "harmonious relationship"
— maybe one country with another, theirdiplomatic communications are very good
— they have a "harmonious relationship".Or maybe if they're not very good, you
might say: "We... we don't have a veryharmonious relationship with that
country. We're always having disputes todo with fishing rights, and things like
that." You know... ever since Brexit,there's been a little bit of trouble
over fishing in the sea between thiscountry — the UK — and France. So, it's
not always a "harmonious relationship"."Harmony" in music, meaning sounds that
go well together. It's harmonious. Itsounds nice. So, that's the meaning of
What about this one? If you're "drummingup support"... "I need to drum up
support for my project." Or you'repromoting a charity, and you need to
"drum up support" to get people todonate to the charity. So, it comes from
drums; drumming. You know... thepercussion instrument that you... you
hit with a stick. And that kind ofdrumming in real life, in a literal
sense — it's noisy; it makes a lot ofnoise. And it makes people: "Oo, what's
going on here? Drums". It's sort ofgetting your attention. So, if you're
"drumming up support" for something,you're getting people's attention to get
them to, you know... contributesomething; to help, to volunteer for a
project, or to donate some money, or todonate their time, and so on. So, that's
"drumming up support". This one, if yousay to somebody: "Oh, please, change the
record." And you say it in that sort oftone of voice where you look a bit: "Oh,
I'm tired of this. Are you going tochange the record soon?" It's from the
days when we had records, you know...sort of this black vinyl record;
gramophone record that goes on aturntable, and a needle plays, you
know... and the sound comes out. So, ifyou play a record on the gramophone; on
the record player — you might play onerecord, but then you take that record
off; you put a different one on. Youdon't play the same one over and over
again. So, if somebody's saying the samething over and over again — they can't
get off one subject maybe for half anhour, an hour, and you get a bit tired
of hearing about the same thing, youmight say: "Are you going to change the
record soon? I'm a bit tired of hearingabout that subject. I think you've
exhausted that subject now. Can wechange the record?" So, it comes from
putting a different record on thegramophone. Okay. And then this is a bit
similar: If somebody "sounds like abroken record", or they're beginning to
"sound like a broken record" — that'swhat happens when... if... if the record
— this black vinyl — is broken orthere's a crack in it, and the needle is
going round on it; but because of thecrack in the record, the needle keeps
going back into the same... the groove.So, these lines on the record are called
"grooves", and the needle is in agroove. And if there's nothing wrong
with the record, the needle will just goand play through the whole record from
the outside. It starts on the outsideand goes into the middle. If the
record's broken, there's the possibilitythat the needle will keep slipping back,
and it never goes further on in themusic. So, you start to hear a
repetition of just one little soundevery sort of ten seconds or so. It just
goes back again, and repeats the sameten or fifteen seconds over and over
again, until you might just tap thegramophone and it... the needle might
jump, and then it can start playingproperly again. But that's not a very
good thing to do, because you can damagethe needle. So, if you're beginning to
"sound like a broken record" — that'swhat it means. Again, it's a bit like
this one — speaking in a repetitive way;saying the same thing over and over
again. Okay. And I will try to stopdoing that right now, and move on to the
So, if you say: "Oh, that rings a bell.That name rings a bell. I've heard that
name before." So, if the name "rings abell", it means in your head: "Ah,
that's familiar." So, if something, likea name of a person is familiar: "Oh,
that rings a bell. I've heard about thatbefore." So, that's what that one is.
"Going for a song". If something is onsale in a shop, and it's "going for a
song", do you think it's expensive ornot expensive? If it's "going for a
song". "Going" means being sold. So,"for a song" — is a song expensive? If
you just sing a song, it doesn't costyou anything, does it? So, if something
is "going for a song", it's on sale fora very small amount of money, like a
penny or something, or ten... tenpennies. Not very much at all. So,
"going for a song". I think the idea isyou... you just sing... sing a song, and
they'll give it to you. So, that doesn'tcost you anything, then. But it does
mean a little bit of money; it's notcompletely free, but it's a very small
amount of money. Okay, so, next one. Doyou blow your own trumpet? Do you have a
trumpet that you blow? So, that's theliteral "blowing a trumpet", like Louis
Armstrong, the famous jazz man. But in ametaphorical sense, "somebody who blows
their own trumpet" is someone who isalways talking about themselves and the
great things that they're doing. They'resort of big-headed, egotistical. "Oh,
he's always blowing his own trumpet.He's always saying what brilliant things
he's been doing." You know... theopposite of being modest. Okay, so
"Someone who likes to call the tune".If... if you work with somebody in an
organization, and you say: "Oh, he likesto call the tune, you know... he always
wants to call the tune." Again, itsounds like a criticism — doesn't it? —
the way I'm saying it. And it does meansomebody who always wants to be in
charge; they want to run everything.They want to be the leader all the time;
"to call the tune". To sort of, in themusical sense, to say what tune... what
tune are we going to have next? Youknow... or "calling the tune" for people
to dance to. It's that idea of being anorganizer of other people. Okay, right.
So, what about this one, then? If you"blow the whistle on somebody" or "blow
the whistle on" an organization, acompany — does it sound like a good
thing or a bad thing, do you think? So,"a whistle"... whistling; a little
whistle that makes a... a sort of loud,high-pitch noise, which I can't do —
sorry. What would that be? Also, if youthink of the whistle that they use in
sports, like in football, soccer — youhave a referee who's there on the field
with the players, who... if they seesomebody doing something wrong, they
blow the whistle, and they stop thegame. So, that suggests something;
somebody did something wrong. I'm"blowing the whistle", we stop. We need
to sort this out. So, if you "blow thewhistle" on somebody or on an
organization, it means you know thatthey've done something wrong. And often
people see that, and they... they don'tsay anything, because they know that if
they blow the whistle on that person, itcould be a bad thing for them. It can,
you know... they could be victimizedthemselves for telling other people
about it. So, that's why often peoplekeep quiet, because they don't want any
trouble themselves. So, to be "awhistleblower" — that's the... the noun
that comes from it — to blow the whistleon somebody or a company — to be "a
whistleblower". It's quite a... youknow... a risky thing to be because you
can have trouble coming to you as aresult of it. So, that's that one. Okay.
But this one, this is quite a differentuse of the word "whistle". If something
is "as clean as a whistle", or a personcan be "as clean as a whistle", if... if
they never do anything wrong, you couldsay: "Oh, he's clean as a whistle. No
criminal record, never does anythingwrong, is always nice to people, no
deceptions, no telling lies. No, he'sclean as a whistle." Or a piece of
machinery you could say: "Oh, it's asclean as a whistle." This machine,
there's no dirt or oil in it, oranything — "clean as a whistle". Why a
whistle? I don't know. But perhapswhistles are usually clean, compared
with other things. I don't really know.So, that's that one anyway.
Oh, if you say to someone: "Oo, you'vechanged your tune." And, again, it has a
certain tone of voice. "Oo, you'vechanged your tune." For example, if...
if you thought: "Oh, I thought youdidn't like chocolate. I thought you
didn't like chocolate, but now you're...you're eating a lot of it and you're
talking about it. You like it. I thoughtyou didn't like chocolate. You've
changed your tune." Or you didn't like aperson; always criticizing a particular
person, and... but then they start topraise that person and say how brilliant
they are. "Oo, you've changed your tune;I thought you didn't like them." So,
it's a little bit like "changing therecord" — "to change your tune" in that
sort of context. Right. Next one: "toface the music". So, in this sense, the
music... I usually think of music asbeing something nice. But if you have to
"face the music", it means you have toface up to some trouble that you may
have caused yourself. If you've donesomething wrong, and then you have to
admit it to somebody and say: "It's timefor me to face the music. I've got to
admit to that person I made a mistake,and that I'm very sorry." And they might
shout at me and tell me off, andcriticize me and be angry with me. But
I've just got to stand there, or sitthere and take it — I've got to "face
the music". And then maybe you getthrough that difficult experience, and
then you might make friends with theperson again, and then everything
improves after that. But first of all,you have to face that person and admit
you did something wrong, and say you'resorry, and take whatever criticism they
might shout at you. But then just staywith it and hope things will get better.
So, that's "facing the music". And then,finally, to end with a nice one — if you
say: "Oh, that's music to my ears" itdoesn't mean literally you're hearing
music playing, which you like the soundof. But if somebody says to you, for
example, in a company: -"We're all goingto have a pay rise. Next month, we're
all having a pay rise. Ten percent payrise." -"Oh, that's music to my ears.
That's good news." So, it's when youhear some good news, you can say:
So, I hope that's been a useful lessonon all these different musical
"That's music to my ears." Okay.
expressions — good and bad, and someperhaps neutral. And there will be a
quiz on... on this. So, if you'd like togo to www.engvid.com and do the quiz —
see how you do. And so, thank you forwatching, and see you again soon. Bye