Shadowing Practice: Sabrina Carpenter Reveals Her Songwriting Secrets with Eric Vetro | Meet your Maestro | BBC Maestro - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
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Your songs are so personal.
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Your songs are so personal.
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I mean, you really take personal,
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right, things out of your life.
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Yeah, too personal.
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No, but, no, but, which I just loved,
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loved all along, going back,
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even like, Sue Me, which was so brilliant.
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Do you have any tips or,
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like, songwriting, little things that have helped you along the way that maybe someone has imparted to you?
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I think I've really learned that there is no how-to,
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There is no manual, except your own instincts are your best friend.
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And I know it sounds like an easy sort of,
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I guess, piece of advice,
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but I've sort of really started to realize that in the last few years of trusting my gut,
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trusting my instincts.
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I just feel so great when I've accomplished,
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like, being able to put a experience or a feeling into words,
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because for most of our life,
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we're sort of dealing and battling with these emotions and feelings that we don't understand.
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So when I'm able to sort of sit down and think about something and think about the things that make it wrong,
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think about the things that make it right,
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I try not to write from a perspective of like,
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I'm right about everything.
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I try to write it from a perspective of like,
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I might be stupid and I might be making the worst decision of my life,
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but I just have to accept that.
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And you know, and then other songs,
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it's you can point a finger and that's okay,
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but it's just important to remain true to your own voice.
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I think especially now, I don't know how you feel about this,
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but I feel like it's really easy right now to sort of like look at everyone else
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and what everyone else is doing.
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And I sort of grew up with this mentality being sort
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of put into my head by different like record executives when I was younger of like,
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if this is what's working for other people,
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then you need to do that.
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And I don't think that that's true.
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I think that you should do whatever feels the most authentic to you.
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And if that means getting online and getting in front of a camera
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and making videos and promoting your promoting your work then that's one thing
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and if not then then you don't have to do that and there's other ways to find
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ways to be creative
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and to also share your work without it kind of i think uh making you feel like you're being something
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that you're not so that's something i'm still learning right now even
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but i'm very fortunate to you know have been doing this for a
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while before social media kind of got to the point that it's at now.
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It can be like a blessing,
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it can be a curse.
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But I think with songwriting,
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I write everything down and that's something that I will always do for the rest of my life.
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Whether that's in a notebook,
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whether that's voice memos and in super inconvenient places,
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I'm just constantly documenting even thoughts that feel unnecessary or thoughts
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that feel not useful because they always guide me to the place
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that gives me the idea that I would have never had if I didn't just write down this other stupid little thought.
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So yeah, I would say that.
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But it makes sense because it's you.
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It is really an extension of who you really are as a person.
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You're not trying to become somebody else.
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Which then starts raising some eyebrows because people are like,
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so you're just like super horny or like, what's your brand?
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I'm like, no, it's not that.
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It's not that.
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But it's an extension.
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Like my sense of humor is a part of everything I do.
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And I think that started to trickle down.
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I hate trickle down.
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I hate when people say trickle down,
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but that is what I'm trying to say.
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It's a part of it,
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yeah, and it leads you to the thing that you really do want to say or need to know.
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I've also experienced so many times writing other better songs in the midst of writing one song.
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Of like, I'm writing something and I go,
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oh, I really love this line and I really want to put it in this song,
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but it doesn't really fit this song.
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But maybe that's a whole other song.
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And then I end up writing that whole other song and
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that was the song that spoke so much more truer to my actual emotions than the one I was writing.
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But I do try to like finish songs regardless of if I think they're good or not.
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Just even to have like a thing to look back on and kind of a reference point.
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But that's such an interesting point that you bring up.
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Like every thought, there's no like unnecessary thoughts.
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They're all useful yeah
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and it can lead you to the really important ones I have a question
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which no songwriter likes everybody hates this question
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and nobody knows how to answer it
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but I'm just gonna ask anyway is there out of all of your songs
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that you've written do you have a couple favorites
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that for you either that you they're your favorite songs or that you love performing for a certain reason?
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So a lot of them are probably more recent songs
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because they're just definitely more in tune with where I'm at in my life right now
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but I think a song that kind of started
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that feeling for me was a song from my last album it was called
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Because I Like The Boy and it was funny because
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that line of the title was just this thing I kept saying all like over
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and over again when people would ask me about a specific situation in my life
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and I was like yeah isn't it funny it's all because I like the boy and then I was I was like,
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wait, that's like, that's kind of what I'm trying to say, like in total.
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And then it's so nice to be able to,
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I start the song painting like a very visual picture
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and then getting into like another facet of this situation in my life.
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And it just felt like the first time I was able to really kind of sum something up in a circle
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without ever having to speak on it ever again.
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But that song and then something I just put out,
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I think sonically is something that I love so much,
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It's called Please, Please, Please.
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And thank you.
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She loves it.
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Thanks guys.
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I love the applause.
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It's so nice.
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It's so sweet.
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No, I was so, so excited when I wrote that song
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because it felt like a fraction of me that I had been waiting to not only write,
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but to put out and then perform.
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And then it just, it makes me
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so excited for the rest of the project
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because it feels very in line with all the music I grew up listening to that I love,
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but also very much myself.
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And that song was obviously based on real life events.
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Then that song is triggered.
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I think I texted you,
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like, I was doing a lesson with Charlie Puth,
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and he's like, by the way,
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that song, I know you know Sabrina really well.
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Will you tell it?
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That song is unbelievable.
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It's so great.
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And then Omar said it, Omar Apollo.
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Like, everybody kept bringing it up.
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Oh, that's nice.
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People really get that, oh,
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wow, this is so great.
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Not that the others aren't,
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but they're, everyone's like, really,
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no, but I mean, really bringing it up.
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Like, usually people don't bring up my other students to me.
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Like, why would they?
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They're there for their own lesson.
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Yeah.
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But so many people have been bringing it up.
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And I told you, so many people have such good will about everything you're doing,
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because everyone's like, oh, she deserves everything,
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like when you're on SNL.
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Oh, my God, finally, she's on SNL.
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She really belongs on SNL.
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And you made the most of that moment, by the way.
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I did, I did.
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You made the most of that moment ever.
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No, but that's so great.
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But once again, that shows who you are,
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that you didn't just go,
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oh, okay, I'm doing SNL.
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Puff, puff, of course I am.
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Yeah, I'm really popular.
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I don't smoke, by the way.
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Yeah, but I mean, like...
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I hypothetically smoke a lot.
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Yeah, you didn't take it for granted and said,
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okay, I'm just going to do this because I can do it.
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I'm Sabrina Carpenter.
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You, like, really did a great job and took it seriously.
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I think what's so interesting is,
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like, I've been doing this for such a long time,
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but I'm doing some of these things for the first time in my life right now,
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ten years, like, down the line.
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So for me, I'm like, this is so exciting.
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This is my first time on SNOT.
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I've wanted to do this my whole life.
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Things like that.
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I mean, Coachella was also a big one for me.
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So no half-assing it when it comes to,
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you know, things that I've always dreamt of.
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And it's interesting though, because I think you start to,
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you do, when there's a lot of things happening at once,
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it can be hard to remind yourself how exciting things are,
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or just to take in the moment.
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I'm actually actively trying to remind myself this right now, even this morning.
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I was talking to my friend about it,
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of like, this is, you know,
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it's okay to just pause,
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look at what's in front of you.
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You don't have to think 10 years down the line.
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You don't have to think a month down the line and you just be present and enjoy it.
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So yeah, I'm still learning how to do that.
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Yeah.
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But that's nice.
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Tell Charlie thank you.
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Oh, I will.
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About This Lesson
In this lesson, you will practice your English listening and speaking skills by following the insights shared by singer-songwriter Sabrina Carpenter on her songwriting process. This content focuses on deeply personal expression and authenticity in creativity, providing you with a unique opportunity to engage with the language used in a real-world context. By the end of this lesson, you'll not only enhance your vocabulary but also develop your ability to articulate thoughts and feelings effectively.
Key Vocabulary & Phrases
- Instincts - The natural ability to understand something without needing to think about it.
- Authentic - Being true to one’s own personality, spirit, or character.
- Personal Experience - Individual encounters that shape a person's feelings or thoughts.
- Perspective - A particular attitude toward or way of regarding something.
- Creative - The ability to use imagination or original ideas to create something.
- Express - To convey a thought or feeling in words or through art.
- Accomplish - To successfully complete or achieve a task.
- Battle with emotions - Struggling to understand or deal with feelings.
Practice Tips
To effectively practice English using this video and enhance your skills, consider employing the shadowspeak technique. This involves listening to Sabrina Carpenter's dialogue and repeating it in real-time or shortly after, mimicking her tone and pronunciation. The natural rhythm and pace of her speech will challenge you but also help improve your fluency. Here are some tips to maximize your practice:
- Watch the video a few times to familiarize yourself with the content before attempting to shadow.
- Start with shorter segments, focusing on just a few sentences at a time, then gradually increase to longer portions.
- Pay attention to her intonation and emotion as you practice. This will help convey the same feelings in your spoken English.
- Record yourself while practicing the shadowing technique, then listen back to identify areas where you can improve.
- Utilize online resources or a shadowing site where learners collaborate to practice together and exchange feedback.
By integrating these tips into your learning routine of how to learn English with YouTube, you will not only enhance your speaking skills but also develop a deeper understanding of how to express personal thoughts and creativity in English.
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.
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