David Bowie - The Man Who Sold The World

Level: Medium

In a memory of David Bowie. A short gentle-paced song with a few challenges.

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Frank Sinatra - My Way

Level: Medium

To mark the centenary of Ol' Blue Eyes here's one of his classics. Smooth, clear and not too fast it's a good one to practise. There are a one or two tricky lines and it's quite a long song which is good for learning to stay focused.

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Green Day: Basket Case

Level: Hard

Green Day's classic song is great for word groupings and special outlines and also dealing with unusual words. The opening lines are full of easy words including 'time', 'listen' and 'all at once' then you're suddenly hit with words like 'melodramatic' and 'neurotic.' You may get one or two such awkward words in the exam. The trick is to roll with the punches; get something written down and carry on. The fact that it's an unusual word will help you recall it afterwards but if you stop to think you'll get left behind.  For example, I've written 'melodramatic' in full in the sample transcription below but I only managed to write 'md' when I first attempted it. That's about as much as you need to recall it if you've got the rest of the sentence down.

Good luck and don't become a basket case.

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Bob Dylan: Blowing In The Wind

Level: Medium

A nice steady piece with some good vocabulary from Bob Dylan. It's useful for practising CN blends. Cannon is a particularly tricky one but unlikely to come up in an exam. With a bit of practice this song's easy to do.

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Radiohead - Creep

Level: Easy

This early classic from Radiohead goes at a gentle pace but is packed with essential vocab and theory.  There's the 'A' indicator for 'ang' in angel, the 'cn' blend for skin and perfect abbreviated to perf. 'Creep' could be written with the 'P' intersecting the 'C' but I prefer to write it in one stroke. I've transcribed the clean version because you're not going to get the f-word in an NCTJ exam!

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Oasis - Cigarettes & Alcohol

Level: Medium

All the songs on Definitely, Maybe the debut album by Oasis are good for Teeline practice. This is fairly slow and short but with enough tricky outlines to make it a challenge.

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Celine Dion - My Heart Will Go On

Level: Medium

The Canadian songstress's Titanic hit is clear and sung at a steady pace so you should swim not sink with a bit of concentration.

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