Shadowing Practice: Don Airey "One of a Kind" - The Interview, Part 1 - Learn English Speaking with Video
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38 sentences
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1
I work in the context of a group and that's really looking back over my career what I do so
2
it's not like I put the project together with any big intentions
3
it's been kind of kind of going once a year
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we do a club tour it was to promote a couple of albums we released on master
5
but everybody enjoyed it
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so much you know we just keep it going you know
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they all ring me up is March on this year
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and I just say yes whether it is
9
or not we did a few festivals a couple of years ago
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and Simon McBride had a couple of days off
11
so we just went in rehearsal room and came up with a load of ideas and
12
you know piecemeal you know three days here two days there one day here with Carl,
13
you know, whoever's available, we've just put an album together and it's come out as a band, much to my surprise and delight.
14
I mean the main difference is that there's not so much Hammond on this new album.
15
You know, I've tried to do a lot more Moog synthesizer, which hasn't really featured, doesn't feature much with Purple
16
and of course is one of my great loves so there's plenty of Moog on it.
17
It's a bit more proggy, how can I put it?
18
There's stretches where it's given over to the instrumental players.
19
You know, I really wanted to feature Simon who I find quite a discovery.
20
I've known him about five or six years
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and it was really great for me to get him in the studio
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and you know come on now and to say to him I didn't like
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that because I don't think anybody said that to him before
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and I made him dig deep
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and God he's come up with the goods same with John Finnegan the drummer
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I think he found himself in a situation to
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which he wasn't used very much used to
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and he really came came out fighting
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and of course I've got one of the greatest bass players on the planet
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you know Lawrence Kotlin is just somebody I've worked with for 30 years he's like a rock
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when he walks in the studio you know you're gonna be on
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because he'll just see it through make it happen so it was it was a different thing to Purple.
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It doesn't quite have that heavy rock edge, there's more of a gentle edge to it here and there, but it's just a band,
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trying to be a band.
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I think that's the hardest thing to do.
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It's easy to do a solo album where, you know, all keyboards, and, you know, even I don't want to hear that,
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you know, but I want to hear guitar.
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Thank you.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “Don Airey "One of a Kind" - The Interview, Part 1”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: album, band, couple. This video has 38 sentences and 474 words to shadow. The speech runs for 3:04. The speaker talks at a natural 155 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 84% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| bind verb | /ˈbaɪ̯nd/ | To tie; to confine by any ligature. |
| guitar noun | /ɡɪˈtɑɹ/ | A stringed musical instrument, of European origin, usually with a fretted fingerboard and six strings, played with the fingers or a plectrum (guitar pick). |
| discovery noun | /dɪˈskʌv.ɹi/ | Something discovered. |
| stretch verb | /stɹɛt͡ʃ/ | To lengthen by pulling. |
| bass noun | /beɪs/ | A low spectrum of sound tones. |
| gentle adjective | /ˈd͡ʒɛntl̩/ | Tender and amiable; of a considerate or kindly disposition. |
| intentions noun | /ɪnˈtɛnʃənz/ | Desire to court, marry, date, woo or sleep with someone. |
| keyboard noun | /ˈki.bɔɹd/ | A set of keys laid out in a gridlike pattern, used for typing on a typewriter, computer, etc. |
| instrumental adjective | /ɪnstɹəˈmɛntəl/ | Essential or central; of great importance or relevance. |
| delight noun | /dəˈlaɪt/ | Joy; pleasure. |
| drummer noun | /ˈdɹʌmɚ/ | One who plays the drums. |
| rehearsal noun | /ɹɪˈhɝsl̩/ | The practising of something which is to be performed before an audience, usually to test or improve the interaction between several participating people, or to… |
| piecemeal adverb | /ˈpiːs.miːl/ | Piece by piece; in small amounts, stages, or degrees. |
| proggy adjective | Characteristic of progressive rock music. | |
| synthesizer noun | /ˈsɪn.θəˌsaɪ.zɚ/ | An electronic musical instrument that creates its sounds with electronics and generally is played via a keyboard. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| come out verb | /ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/ | To be discovered; to be revealed. |
| come up with verb | To manage to produce, deliver, or present (something) by inventing, creating, thinking of, or obtaining it. |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 15 contractions and reduced forms, such as I've, doesn't, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- Long words — get the stress right: instrumental /ɪnstɹəˈmɛntəl/, synthesizer /ˈsɪn.θəˌsaɪ.zɚ/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like bind, guitar, discovery.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.