IELTS Speaking Part 2: A Friend Who Is Good at Music – Model Answers 2026

This is a recurring Part 2 topic in the IELTS Speaking question bank for 2025–2026. It rewards candidates who go beyond “they sing well” and actually describe the skill, the setting, and the effect it has on people around them.

Cue Card

Describe a friend of yours who is good at music.

You should say:
– Who this friend is
– What kind of music they are good at
– How you found out they were good at music
– And explain how you feel about their talent

Model Answer

I want to talk about my friend Daniel, who I met during my first year at university. We were placed in the same dormitory and became close over the following months, mostly because we ended up eating dinner together most nights.

Daniel plays the guitar, and he is genuinely good at it, not just competent in the way a lot of people who took lessons as a kid are competent. He plays a mix of fingerstyle acoustic pieces and, when he is in the mood, some fairly technical blues improvisation. What struck me is that he is largely self-taught. He picked most of it up from watching tutorials online and just spending an enormous number of hours practising alone in his room.

I found out by accident, actually. I heard music coming from down the hall one evening and assumed someone had put a recording on. When I knocked on his door to ask what he was listening to, he was sitting there playing it live. I remember being genuinely surprised, because he had never mentioned it before and did not seem like the type to show off.

Since then I have heard him play at a few small gatherings, and he always gets the same reaction from people who had not heard him before. There is a kind of quiet respect that comes from watching someone do something difficult and make it look effortless. I think what I admire most is that he never plays for attention. He plays because he genuinely loves it, and that comes through in every performance.

Why This Works

The answer includes a specific, memorable discovery story rather than a generic description. Distinguishing between “competent” and genuinely skilled shows more nuanced thinking, and the closing observation about motivation adds a reflective angle that lifts the answer above a simple description.

📌 Band 7-8 Vocabulary:
– competent — having sufficient skill to do something adequately
– self-taught — having learned a skill without formal instruction
– fingerstyle — a guitar technique using individual fingers rather than a pick
– effortless — achieved with no apparent difficulty
– quiet respect — admiration shown without being loudly expressed

IELTS Speaking Part 3: Music and Talent Questions and Model Answers

Question 1: Why do some people learn a musical instrument and others don’t?

Model Answer:
Access and early exposure are the two biggest factors. Children raised in households where instruments are already present, or where parents actively encourage lessons, are far more likely to take it up. There is also a persistence factor. Learning an instrument involves years of unrewarding practice before it becomes enjoyable, and many people give up during that period. Countries like South Korea and parts of Europe that build music education into the school curriculum see much higher rates of adult musical literacy, which suggests the barrier is often opportunity rather than natural talent.

Question 2: Is it important for children to learn music at school?

Model Answer:
There is strong evidence that it matters beyond the musical skill itself. Research on music education, including studies cited by organisations like UNESCO, has linked early musical training to improved memory, pattern recognition, and even mathematical reasoning. Beyond the cognitive benefits, music gives children a form of expression that does not depend on verbal or written ability, which matters for students who struggle in traditional academic subjects. Cutting music programmes, which many schools have done for budget reasons, likely has a cost that is not immediately visible in test scores.

Question 3: What kind of music is popular with young people nowadays?

Model Answer:
Streaming platforms have fragmented youth music taste far more than it was a generation ago. Rather than a handful of dominant genres, algorithm-driven platforms like Spotify and TikTok now surface incredibly niche subgenres to small, dedicated audiences. That said, hip-hop and its various regional variants remain the most commercially dominant genre among young listeners globally. What has changed most is the format. Short-form clips on social media now often introduce a song before the full track ever gets streamed.

Question 4: Do you think live music is better than recorded music?

Model Answer:
They serve different purposes rather than one being strictly better. Recorded music is more consistent and convenient, which is why it dominates daily listening. Live music offers something recordings cannot replicate, the shared experience of an audience reacting together and the small imperfections that make a performance feel human. Industry data has actually shown live music revenue growing even as recorded music streaming has become nearly free, which suggests audiences increasingly value the experience itself rather than just the sound.

Examiner Tips for IELTS Speaking Part 2 A Friend Who Is Good at Music

Tip 1: Tell the discovery story.
How you found out about the skill is often more interesting than the skill itself. It gives the story a natural structure.

Tip 2: Be specific about the type of music or skill.
“Good at music” is vague. Naming a genre, technique, or instrument makes the answer sound authentic.

Tip 3: For Part 3, bring in a real institution or study.
UNESCO, Spotify, South Korea’s curriculum. Concrete references signal wider reading and awareness.

Common Mistakes on This Topic

Describing the friend generally without describing their musical skill specifically
Skipping the discovery story required by the cue card
Giving Part 3 answers with no specific example, institution, or study behind them
Confusing this topic with a general “describe a friend” answer

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this a confirmed IELTS Speaking Part 2 topic?
Yes. A friend who is good at music appears in the IELTS Speaking Part 2 question bank across recent test periods.

What if none of my friends are musically talented?
You can describe a friend with any performance-based skill and adapt the language, or describe an acquaintance rather than a close friend.

Should I mention a specific song or piece they play?
Yes, if you can name one naturally. Specific detail is always more convincing than a vague description.