Listening Comprehension - Kitty Cat Blues

If you’ve been learning or teaching English for a long time, you have probably heard of ‘Gap Songs’, where you have to guess the missing words. So – what is ‘Kitty Cat Blues’ and why use it as a listening comprehension? Well, firstly it’s a song that has never been famous, so it will be totally new when you listen to it. Secondly, it’s an English person attempting an American accent, which is challenging and fun in terms of trying to understand it. Thirdly, because it’s a comedy song that I wrote, which I hope you will enjoy.

For any listening comprehension, I suggest the following process:

1. Read the lyrics with the gaps (words missing). Can you guess what the missing words might be? Write them in the margin of the page. It doesn’t matter if they’re wrong, the aim is to use your imagination and have fun with it.
2. Listen to the song all the way through for the first time. Fill in the words that you understand.
3. Listen again, stopping where you need to.
4. Repeat step 3.
5. Look at the full lyrics without gaps (I’ll provide these next week). Are there any words you misunderstood, or couldn’t hear? If you like, listen to the song again and pay special attention to those words.
6. Finally, read the complete song lyrics all the way through. Are there any words or phrases you don’t know? Can you guess what they mean by the context? If not, look them up in a dictionary.

Below is a link to the song and a copy of the lyrics with gaps. This version is for B2+ to C1 level. If you would like a copy with different gaps for use at other levels, please don’t hesitate to let me know. I’d be happy to send it to you for private classroom use.

Kitty Cat Blues

© Michelle Mildiner

Kitty Cat Blues_Michelle Mildiner_soundcloud.com

Woke up this morning

The humans ________ me.

And I really thought

Those humans ___________ me. 

But they both just ___________

And I got really bored

I SO wanted to eat

So I ______________ on their _____________.

Chorus :

I got the Kitty Cat Blues

I wanna know where all the ________ went

And I’m hell bent

On finding the stash

Before I have a _____ sugar crash.

Oh yeah…

(spoken)

And then ________________ get really blue,

I’m tellin’ you…

Woke up this morning

They were ________________ again.

And I hadn’t ____________

Since a quarter past ten.

I meowed and I __________

And they ______________ on right through

It was then that I knew

What I had to do….

Chorus :

I got the Kitty Cat Blues

I wanna know  where all the ________ went

And I’m hell bent

On finding the stash

Before I have a _______ sugar crash.

Oh yeah…

So you know what I did?

I ____________ the cat nip.

And what I did then?

I went on a ______________.

And what I did then?

I bought me some ___________

And I don’t know why

I didn’t think of it ______________… 

Chorus X2 to end

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In the interests of non-bias, I have to point out that there are a many, many ready-made gap songs available on the internet. Some really good ones I can recommend for A2/B1 level can be found on the Brays ESL MOOC e-books webpage, for example. You can also create your own gap songs for friends/classmates – or challenge yourself to listen to your favourite song and write down all the lyrics. if you don’t have the ‘h’ sound in your own language (for example, if French is your first language), I can highly recommend listening to ‘Help’ by the Beatles (and watching the original video for the Quintessential Beatles experience!). Practise saying or singing the lyrics out loud when the song is complete.

Let me know how it goes for you!