The Undertones - Teenage Kicks

Level: Hard

Two reasons for posting this: First it's a short but tough test of Teeline dexterity and secondly it was the favourite song of legendary DJ John Peel who died ten years ago this month. 

There are not many words in the song and the outlines are not that tricky but they go at quite a speed and repeated use of easily confused words like hold, her and have make it the shorthand equivalent of a tongue twister. The verses are repeated so you get two bites of the cherry.

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Whitney Houston: I Will Always Love You

Level: Easy

An easy slow one with several common words and useful word grouping. This is great for beginners but also a good break if you've been struggling with 100wpm dictations. Concentrate on getting those outlines nice and smooth and neat.

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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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Musical Teeline on Spotify

You can now practise all the songs on Musical Teeline with this handy Spotify playlist. Make sure you subscribe to the blog to get the latest songs with sample transcriptions and handy hints.

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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Lucy Spraggan - Tea and Toast

Level: Hard

This was suggested by Emma Marie Webb who has now passed 100 wpm and you will too if you can keep up with Lucy Spraggan's bitter sweet tale.

Lyrics
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