Shadowing Practice: HOW IT WORKS - Grand Piano - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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It's big, it's beautiful, it's a grand piano and each one of these majestic instruments is exquisitely handcrafted.
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The main difference from a standard upright piano is
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that in a grand the strings are longer and have to be arranged horizontally.
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The sound is produced by a felt hammer hitting up to three strings at once.
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The thicker and longer the strings are the lower the note.
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Each string begins life as a single steel wire attached to a spinning machine.
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One of the workers scuffs up the surface with sandpaper so
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when a copper wire is wrapped
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around it'll stay in
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place he adds another wire
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to the string to give it a deeper bass note the
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strings for a grand piano range in length from just five centimeters to over two meters.
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That's what allows them to produce an incredibly wide range of notes.
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Finally, he tightens the end of the wire to stop it from uncoiling.
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They have to use layers of flexible wood for the piano's casing, so they'll be able to bend it into the traditional shape.
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They're glued together and then squashed in a press until the adhesives dry.
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Then it's taken over to another press which will give it its shape.
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It's a tough job to get it into position and requires a bit of muscle and a lot of teamwork.
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When the strings are fixed, they'll have a combined tension of 24 tons, so the metal frame needs to be a super tough structure.
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It's made of precision cast iron, in a technique that was developed in the early 19th century.
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A cocktail of bronze powder, dissolver and thickener is sprayed onto the metal surface to fill any pores and give the frame a smooth finish.
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The metal frame weighs about 170 kilograms and has to be lifted into the wooden casing with a pulley.
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Then it's time to fix the strings, all 240 of them.
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Low notes have just got one string but the middle and higher notes have two or three to make them louder.
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They're called bichords and trichords.
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Each individual string has to be stressed until it reaches the exact pitch.
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Finally, they check the strings with a felt hammer.
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The hammer is controlled by a mechanism that enables a series of notes to be played consecutively at high speed.
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The workings of the piano are now complete, but before it can be fitted into the casing, an expert must check that all the hammers reach the same keystroke height,
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so they produce an even sound.
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A key has to drop under a weight of 52 grams, and they all have to be tested one by one.
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Who said the music industry was glamorous?
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All that remains is the final assembly.
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Every individual grand piano is handcrafted to the highest standards.
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That's why this factory builds, on average, just one a day.
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We'll be right back.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 36 sentences and 484 words to shadow. The speech runs for 4:42. The speaker talks slowly, about 103 words per minute, so there is time to copy every sound. Only 76% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| string noun | /stɹɪŋ/ | A long, thin and flexible structure made from threads twisted together. |
| piano noun | /piˈænɪː/ | A percussive keyboard musical instrument, usually ranging over seven octaves, with white and black colored keys, played by pressing these keys, causing hammers… |
| wire noun | /ˈwaɪɚ/ | Metal formed into a thin, even thread, now usually by being drawn through a hole in a steel die. |
| hammer noun | /ˈhæmɚ/ | A tool with a heavy head and a handle used for pounding. |
| technique noun | /tɛkˈniːk/ | The practical aspects of a given art, occupation etc.; formal requirements. |
| thick adjective | /θɪk/ | Relatively great in extent from one surface to the opposite in its smallest solid dimension. |
| muscle noun | /ˈmʌs.əl/ | A contractile form of tissue which animals use to effect movement. |
| pitch noun | /pɪt͡ʃ/ | A throw; a toss; a cast, as of something from the hand. |
| worker noun | /ˈwɝ.kɚ/ | One who works: a person who performs labor for a living; traditionally, especially, manual labor. |
| layer noun | /ˈleɪ̯ɚ/ | A single thickness of some material covering a surface. |
| smooth adjective | /smuːð/ | Having a texture that lacks friction. Not rough. |
| incredibly adverb | /ɪŋˈkɹɛdɪbli/ | In an incredible manner; not to be believed. |
| spin verb | /spɪn/ | To rotate, revolve, gyrate (usually quickly); to partially or completely rotate to face another direction. |
| wooden adjective | /ˈwʊdn̩/ | Made of wood. |
| enable verb | /ɪˈneɪ.bəl/ | To make somebody able (to do, or to be, something); to give sufficient ability or power to do or to be; to give strength or ability to. |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 6 contractions and reduced forms, such as they'll, they're, it'll. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: thick /θɪk/, smooth /smuːð/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: tension /ˈtɛnʃən/, precision /pɹɪˈsɪʒ.ən/, squash /skwɔʃ/
- Long words — get the stress right: incredibly /ɪŋˈkɹɛdɪbli/, mechanism /ˈmɛk.ə.nɪ.zəm/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like string, piano, wire.
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.