Free Music Lessons From Rockschool

Each tutorial comes with TAB, video, backing tracks and a list of recommended listening based on the lesson’s subject.

Rockschool, the rock and pop exam board, is now offering free music lessons via the news section of its website. Each tutorial comes with TAB, video, backing tracks and a list of recommended listening based on the lesson’s subject. A new tutorial will appear every month, focusing on a different aspect of technique or theory for guitar, bass and drums.

The latest lesson is for guitar and shows how students can improve their string bends by target notes. The full tutorial is available to watch and download from the Rockschool site.

Rockschool’s free lessons have been produced by the company's Development Manager James Uings and Editorial Manager Stephen Lawson who worked together on Total Guitar magazine during its most successful period.

This background in publishing combined with James’s many years teaching privately as well as in schools and colleges gives the pair a unique perspective on lesson content and delivery that begins with the student in mind. Instead of concentrating on what the student ought to know, the lessons are planned taking into account aspects of technique and theory that students are proven to struggle with. Focusing on this makes each lesson more valuable both for students and teachers as students can work on weaknesses from the outset and see an improvement in their abilities.

For example, it is well known that students bend strings flat or sharp relative to their target, so the latest lesson trains students step by step how to recognise the target note and improve their string bends by bending in tune.

Another lesson – for bass – shows how easy it is to create a groove simply by using rests.