RIFF OF THE MONTH RETURNS WITH MY GUITAR HERO

After a four year hiatus, our popular Riff of The Month feature returns this month!  This short monthly feature explores the history of guitar riffs, whilst inspiring and challenging you to progress with your guitar playing.  We begin with my personal guitar hero Slash, a guitarist that inspired me to begin playing in 1989, after hearing the opening guitar riff of ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’.  A riff that Slash had originally written during a jamming session.

In an interview with Q Magazine some years ago, Slash said  "Writing and rehearsing it to make it a complete song was like pulling teeth,".   He also wasn't happy that the song developed into a ballad, since Guns were more about having a bad-boy demeanor.  Fast forward 36 years, it’s hard to believe that the band's debut album Appetite For Destruction took the best part of 12 months to get off the ground, after debuting on the Billboard 200 at 182.

For our first feature I’ve chosen ‘Back From Cali’, a punchy riff that featured on the 2010 self-titled debut album from the former Guns N’ Roses lead guitarist.  The album is a collaborative masterpiece, featuring Ian Astbury, Ozzy Osbourne, Fergie, Myles Kennedy, Chris Cornell, Andrew Stockdale, Adam Levine, Lemmy, Dave Grohl, Duff McKagan, Kid Rock, M. Shadows, Rocco DeLuca and Iggy Pop.  Here, it’s the Alter Bridge frontman Myles Kennedy that takes the lead.  Slash was so impressed with Kennedy’s vocal performance on album tracks ‘Back From Cali’ and ‘Starlight’ that he later asked him to front his solo touring band.

Back From Cali’s opening guitar riff is made up of trademark double stops, a style consistent from this influential iconic guitarist, and it rocks hard!  Learning to play this riff properly will help improve your guitar playing techniques, including the use of double stops, finger strength, timing, phrasing, melody and slide guitar playing.  I hope you all enjoy learning to play this one!

EXPLORE THE HARD ROCK STYLE OF NITA STRAUSS

This month we are taking a look at the hard rock and metal style of Nita Strauss. A descendant of Austrian composer Johann Strauss, Nita left high school in her junior year to pursue music full time. Her career began by touring with her own band Lia-Fail, and the Iron Maiden all-female tribute band, The Iron Maidens. In 2014, Nita was hired to replace Orianthi as Alice Cooper’s touring guitarist, and continued in that role until July 2022, when she announced her departure from the touring band.

In 2018 Nita launched a Kickstarter campaign for her debut solo record Controlled Chaos. The campaign was successfully funded in two hours, and eventually raised eight times its initial goal. Nita produced the record herself, including the majority of the engineering work, and played all of the guitar and bass on the record. Earlier that year she became the first ever female Ibanez signature artist with her own model guitar, the Ibanez JIVA10. Nita regularly features in Guitar World and Guitar Player magazine, and is ranked #1 on Guitar World’s list of ‘10 Female Guitar Players You Should Know’. In addition, becoming the first female rock solo artist in 32 years to hit number one on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Chart with her song ‘Dead Inside’.

To introduce you to Nita’s style of guitar playing, I have transcribed one of her signature guitar licks to help and inspire you to develop some hard rock and metal techniques. This ascending guitar lick can be performed using palm muting or in a legato style. Learning to play this lick will help you develop accuracy, timing, phrasing, palm muting, alternate picking and speed within your playing. Practice this lick to a metronome, and watch your playing level improve almost instantly. Enjoy discovering the sounds of Nita Strauss this week!

THE MAGIC OF BEN HOWARD

This week I have been visiting the early acoustic style of Ben Howard’s guitar playing. During his first decade as a signed artist, he’s released four studio albums, and was nominated for The Mercury Prize in 2012 for his debut Every Kingdom. This influential singer-songwriter has also won a handful of prestigious music awards, including two BRIT awards for British Breakthrough Act, and British Solo Male Artist, and the Ivor Novello award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically for ‘Nica Libres at Dusk’, from his third album Noonday Dream.

Ben plays guitar left-handed, and makes extensive use of alternate tunings, which helps him craft beautiful arrangements, and shape interesting melodies.  He also compliments these tunings by using a partial capo, in order to access bass notes that would otherwise be unavailable to him.   

Ben has a distinctive percussive strumming style, called the "pick and go".  His method of laying the guitar flat on top of his knees and playing it percussively was influenced by contemporary folk songwriter and guitarist John Smith.

For this week’s transcription I’ve chosen the beautiful ‘Old Pine’, which opens Every Kingdom, and sets the tone for the rest of the album perfectly.  The tuning here is CGCGGC, it’s a tuning that almost dominates his writing around this time.  It’s dark, moody and atmospheric, and if you're creative, you’ll find yourself experimenting with new musical ideas every time you pick up your guitar in this tuning.

Over the course of four studio albums, Ben has also experimented with electric guitars and FX pedals, which has given his music a more ambient sound over recent years.  Working with The National’s Aaron Dessner on his latest album Confessions of the Whiteout, has seen his sound take on another dimension.  Here he introduces electronic elements, and blends them wonderfully with his immaculate guitar playing.  Usually I’d recommend a few songs for you to listen to, but here, it really doesn’t matter which song or album you start with, they’re all brilliantly written and produced. I, for one, will be listening and introducing students to Ben Howard's music for many years to come.

POETRY PUT TO A BEAT BY MARK SHAYLER

Recently, I asked Mark if he would write a piece about his passion for music. After being introduced to Mark by The Good Life Society a few years ago, I’ve watched Mark speak publicly and interview people on his Monday Communion many times. At some point in every conversation the discussions involve music, and it’s clear to see the passion that Mark has for it when he speaks.

“I danced myself right out the womb, I danced myself right out the womb, Is it strange to dance so soon, I danced myself right out the womb”, Marc Bolan

I remember dancing in the lounge of our maisonette in Coventry.

It was 1971. T-Rex were playing on Top of the Pops.  I remember it as them performing “Ride a White Swan” but a quick internet search tells me that they performed that song in November 1970. 

That would have made me only two years and two months old.  Now I do have a great memory but I suspect it may have been a year later and therefore “Get It On”.  It kind of doesn’t matter.  I was hooked.  Hooked on Bolan and hooked on music. 

It made me feel more.  It made me feel great if I wanted to be great and it made me feel sad if I wanted to be sad.  I like that.  It amplified me.  I could also use it to change how I felt.  But Bolan was amazing, strutting, androgenous, showy, and he played (essentially) rock and roll.  After Bolan came Bowie, then Punk, then Ska, then New Romantic, then C86, then The Smiths, then Martin Stephenson, then The Stone Roses, then rave, then grunge, then early Blur.  I’ll stop there.  But it didn’t stop there.

Lost in music, caught in a trap, no turning back. I’m lost in music. Sister Sledge

I want to talk about pop music (pop, pop, pop, muzik). And how it makes me move. I’ve always danced: glam rock swagger, punk rock pogo, disco strutting, new romantic posing, indie stagger, euphoric raving. But I have no musical skill. I have rhythm and I sure can dance. But I can’t play any instruments or carry a tune in a bucket. But I love moving. Music keeps me moving, music kept me fit, music keeps me young.

When I moved to London and knew few people I would go to Indie night at the (then) Camden Palais on my own and just dance.  It never felt lonely.  I found friends there and we danced together.  I DJed (badly), I went to gigs, I went to Dingwalls, I sang on the bus (badly).  I danced in the kitchen.  I went to Rock and Roll nights with my friend Annie.  I mainly sang The Pet Shop Boys, I love them because you can sing along even when you can’t really sing). I also love the Pet Shop Boys because there is a darker edge to their lyrics, lyrics that sit on top of bubblegum pop and soaring strings.  Beautifully contradictory.

When my wife was pregnant, I sang to her bump. Beatles, Stones, Donovan, Stone Roses. I sang to the kids, we sing in the car. I took them to gigs. We have a family car playlist. It’s not just my music, they introduce me to theirs. Each month or so I pull together a new playlist: Woodshed Sounds (you can find it on Spotify) and I love it. It would be easy to get lazy and live between 1985 and 1992 but the world is bigger than that and we sit at one of the most exciting times in art and music. We are due a renaissance and I think music will lead it. It will be inextricably bound with social progression. Music always has been. Poetry put to music to make you move. Imagine a world without it. I bet you can’t.

Things have moved forward again.  We are now grandparents and our granddaughter lives with us (and her parents).  We dance every night.  Sometimes to Baby Shark, sometimes to Olivia Rodrigo, sometimes to Blur, and sometimes to Matt Sewell’s Gayatari Mantra.  Her urgency to dance curtails eating tea sometimes.  It’s a joy to leave my food cooling and dance with a two year old, as I did when I was a two year old.

A CREATIVE SPACE FOR YOUNG MUSICIANS

For a while we’ve been thinking of ways to create a safe and creative space for our young music community. Many ideas were discussed before finally settling on our Youth Forum. In October 2021 we hosted our first event, and it was lovely for us to hear the thoughts and ideas of our young students as they all met online for the first time.

In our first forum we discussed what works, and what doesn’t for children learning music in schools here in Wales.  As we reflected on the comments of our students, it was clear that one of the most common problems was a lack of access to musical instruments in schools for children to play.  Our vision for 2022 is to offer every child the opportunity to learn to play a musical instrument, so this was an ideal discussion for our first event.  At this point, we’re delighted to announce that as of next year, Guitar School will begin to donate a wide range of musical instruments to local schools for children to play in their break times.  This has been made possible from the kind support of our students' parents, Blackstar Amplification and Welsh multi-instrumentalist, Novo Amor, who have all donated generously to our campaign so far.      

As our youth forum grows we want our young students to be involved as much as possible. These events will always be free of charge, and our students, their families and friends will always be welcome.  We will hold creative monthly workshops to keep you all engaged and connected throughout the academic year.  

So onto our next event, our first creative workshop will be held on Monday November 22nd at 7:30pm and our topic will be ‘Collaboration’.  This will be a chance for our young students to develop their songwriting skills, as we work together to create some original songs in a series of creative online events.  In this workshop our students will learn - 

The basics of using a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) for your music production.

    How to install, set-up, and navigate your chosen DAW interface.

    How to record, add and import audio files into your DAW project.

    How to mix and export your files in your DAW.

    How to share your ideas with other members of our youth forum.

    How to collaborate with other musicians.

So if you’re a budding songwriter, or would love to learn how to begin creating your own music in the comfort of your own home, this is the place for you.  We look forward to welcoming you on Monday 22nd as we begin to work on our first project together. 

VINTAGE STATESBORO V440WK POSSIBLY THE BEST ACOUSTIC GUITAR UNDER £110

Vintage have been designing quality guitars in the U.K for over 25 years.  This particular model, one of the Statesboro range of acoustics, is the largest in it’s collection. Designed by English guitarist and blues historian Paul Brett, the Vintage V440WK is finished in a rather fetching dark satin ‘whiskey sour’ colour with a subtle, contrasting sound-hole rosette.  The top, sides and back are all made of hand selected mahogany which maximises the sound (and the guitars looks).  The neck, also made from mahogany, is 650mm (26 inch) scale length and its profile fits neatly to the hand making it easy to play.  The flexible range of the Vintage Statesboro includes concert and parlour guitars plus electro-acoustic versions of certain models.

Fitted with bronze light strings the guitar, when strummed even moderately, has a big, bright sound that is full of character.  Not ‘booming’, but is enough to be heard even through distorted electric guitar chords of melodic heavy rock music, without losing the acoustic guitar fingerprint that was required of it.  When finger picking style is used the instrument's sound is clear and precise with the notes ringing true.  One thing that this guitar certainly has is volume and it punches well above its weight in build quality, looks and sound. 

Rolling in at only £109 GBP not only is it an ideal beginner's guitar, but also fills a space for more advanced guitarists who may need a quality sounding instrument without breaking the bank.  As stated before it looks and sounds like an instrument much more expensive than it is.  Vintage have used very solid feeling chrome machine heads along with a 43mm white ABS nut, a compensating white ABS saddle and a tech wood bridge to allow this guitar to be both practical and hard working.  This would make it a valuable workhorse to any player's armoury of guitars.

We’ve been using the Vintage V440WK for some time in lessons and at  workshops and it’s always delivered.  Recently we tested it for home studio recording and it surpassed everything that was expected of it.  I believe that it would also be impressive in live situations, where it’s sound quality and playability would be a clear bonus.  

Summing up – the Vintage V440WK is a good looking, solidly built acoustic guitar with a massive, clear sound, capable of crossing genres and styles with ease, both visually and sonically.  Conservatively priced given the quality of construction and luscious sound that it creates, this guitar is comfortable to play and invites you to perform.  The V440WK would make a serious beginner's guitar but would also be a creditable addition to any intermediate player’s collection.

PAUL MCCARTNEY DID IT IN HIS SLEEP

Songwriting is a complex art and a topic that could be discussed forever more. There are many different ways for a musician to write a song or create original music, there is no one-size fits all approach, and there is no right-way to do it. Whilst it’s true there is a structured method on how to create a song using music theory, in reality, many of the legendary songwriters are self taught. Some know none or very little music theory, and it’s not often they’d begin their songwriting process in this way.

Part of the beauty of songwriting is it’s different each time, it’s a unique process of creativity. To create a piece of music that didn’t exist before is something truly magical. Songs are special, songs are beautiful, songs mean different things to different people. They have the power to transport you back to a time of happiness or sadness. Some songs have huge instrumental arrangements and some have absolutely none, again there is no formula for this and that’s part of the magic. It doesn’t have to be a Bohemian Rhapsody, think of Bobby McFerrin's 'Don't Worry Be Happy’ or Suzanne Vega’s ‘Tom's Diner’. These two songs featured no musical instruments at all, just the voice, a cappella. The purist of songs, just a melody and a fine story to tell is sometimes all you need.

Paul McCartney did it in his sleep

Paul McCartney is regarded as one of the most successful songwriters of all time. During his time with The Beatles he wrote over 70 of the band's songs on his own. Many more followed with Wings and has continued throughout his solo career. Over the years he’s written songs in many different styles and genres but there’s one that has a very interesting story about it’s creation. The one in question went on to become the most covered song in pop music history, and it all began with a dream.

So, how did Paul McCartney write ‘Yesterday’ in his sleep? This is a question I’m often asked and it’s one I have pondered over for many years.  Did he? Is that a thing?  The answer is yes, and when you think about it it’s quite easy to understand how it was done.  We all dream about things we think of during our day.  Places we have been, something we have seen, a smell, a feel, a taste.  A songwriter is no different, musicians are always thinking about lyrics, melody, harmony, rhythms, arrangements, song titles, album titles, the list goes on.  It’s always there in the back of a writer's mind. So it’s 100% feasible that Paul awoke one morning with the melody for ‘Yesterday’ in his head after dreaming it that night.

At the time of writing the song Paul had a piano at his bedside. When he awoke that morning he rushed to the piano to play the melody and find the accompanying chord progression. At the time he wasn’t sure if he’d written, or subconsciously stolen the melody, and had to be reassured numerous times that it was an original. Playing it to everyone he met, asking if they recognised it, Paul says “Eventually it became like handing something in to the police. I thought that if no one claimed it after a few weeks then I would have it.” Once he was confident that the melody hadn’t been written before, he slowly began to develop the song. At this stage he had no lyrics, no song structure as such, just the basic melody and the accompanying chords he had found on the piano that morning. Then came the words.

“Scrambled eggs, Oh my baby how I love your legs, not as much as I love scrambled eggs'' 

These lyrics were fitted to the melody that had been in his dream. Songwriters will often write random lyrics to enable them to remember the phrasing of the songs melody. A lot of the time the artist will revisit the lyrics at a later stage. The ‘Scrambled Eggs’ title became a joke between The Beatles, as they struggled to think of an appropriate name for the song. When Paul finally settled on ‘Yesterday’, it’s documented that it was somewhat of a disappointment, as the fab four had been having so much fun singing ‘Scrambled Eggs’. The song developed over the coming months, eventually becoming the beautiful piece we know and love today. If only every song was this straightforward to write!

A writer can be inspired at any moment, often when they’re least expecting it.

You could be out on a family walk, enjoying a morning coffee or on the school run when inspiration strikes. The only thing for certain, is creativity will not and can not be forced. You can’t say “I’ll write a song on Tuesday”, or “I have some free time on Wednesday so I’ll write then”. Some days ideas will flow, and other days they just won’t be there at all. You have to be patient, but like everything in life, if you put enough hard work in, you’ll get your Scrambled Eggs.

This week I have arranged ‘Yesterday’ for solo-fingerstyle guitar. You can download a free version of the guitar TAB and music notation here. Good luck and as always enjoy your playing!

WHAT DOES MUSIC MEAN TO ME BY CHARLIE GLADSTONE

Recently I asked a few friends to share their thoughts on their love for music. Our first story has been written by Charlie Gladstone. Charlie is is an entrepreneur, creative director and enthusiast. Here, Charlie writes passionately about his love for music and community.

The short answer here is a great deal. I don’t know where it came from - certainly not my
parents who had no interest in music whatsoever - but I was hit hard by the bug when I was
six years old.

My first record was Little Jimmy Osmond’s Long Haired Lover…. (I know, but everyone has to
start somewhere and with no older siblings or cool friends that was just what grabbed me).
Pretty soon I was hooked; Top of the Pops was my weekly highlight and I tuned in to the
Sunday evening chart show on Radio 1 with deep, butterfly-inducing fervour. Would the
bands I loved, my bands, be in the charts?

Soon I had started to spend every penny of my pocket money on records. Then came music
mags, especially the NME (a bible of sorts) and then - heaven - gigs. By the age of 13 I was in
really deep, music was my principal passion. I loved football too and being outdoors, but
music was the main thing.

It’s stayed that way. I’m 57 now and I still buy records every week, read the mags, go to
shows (or did before Covid and will again soon), chat music whenever I can, listen all of the
time. I am deeply - profoundly even - interested in music and retain knowledge in ways that
surprise even me.

Why do I love it? It speaks to me, it comforts me, it consumes me, it lifts me up, it brings me
down, it excites me, it infuriates me. I think about it, dream about it, live it. Part of the
answer to why? is that I am one of those people that might easily be characterized as an
enthusiast, I am predisposed to find joy in stuff. I have a lot of enthusiasms - reading,
walking, food, football, design, travel, art - that I think about every day. But music is the one
that I hold above all of the rest and in seeking an answer to the question at the top of this
piece I have been trying to figure out what that is.

Of course, the answer is that it’s a lot of things. But one thing that occurs to me is that music
is about people and community more than it is about anything else and that excites me,
because I love people and they are, perhaps, at their very best when they’re joined by
shared love and enthusiasm.

In trying to find the catalyst to writing this piece I was flicking through a new and very
beautiful coffee table book about the band The National, a group that really speak to me.
And there, in a double spread photo, was the singer in the middle of a seething crowd. He
does this at every show, jumps across the safety barrier and takes a walk amongst the
audience. It’s a bit like Jesus walking amongst his believers, but with more sweat, more
camera phones and a thousand smiles.

That, I think, is the essence of community, the band and fans coming together in a moment
of deep shared euphoria. Until that moment they are a sort of community, living where they
live and all thinking about - or indeed being - the National. But that community is separated
by distance. And then they all make plans and travel and stand and wait and then - boom -
that moment happens, that intense sense of belonging hits them….we’re all here, in this
together, happy, sharing our love for this magical thing called music. These are our people.
This is our community.

So, I think that that’s what I love most about music, community. I love the chat in a record
shop with others that feel the way I do. I love that chance meeting at a party or an event
when you discover that someone you’ve never met before feels the same way that you do
about The Smiths. I love my gang of family and old friends that come to gigs with me; I love
the fact that we all love the same songs, the same messages, the same record sleeves.
We’ve all listened and read and studied the sleeves alone so that when we come together
to hear those songs that we know that we truly belong where we are.

This morning I was listening to the outstanding final show played by LCD Soundsystem
before the split up (long story…they reformed a few years later). This was a big deal and
they played a series of farewell shows in huge arenas in New York. Anyway, this is a band
absolutely at the peak of their power, playing all of their hits. But it isn’t the music that
really speaks to me, it’s the community. At the very beginning of the show they play one of
their bona fide classics, Dance Yrself Clean and as they launch into the opening bars the
crowd roars like I have rarely heard people roar; deep, raw, joyful and - this is the main
thing - they scream as one. I don’t know quite what each one of them is thinking but I think it
goes something like this ‘we’re here and it’s now and I love this band and so does everyone
else here and I want to hug them and jump up, and down and for this magic to never, ever
end. These are my people, this is my place, the rest of the world can wait’.

Picture by Department Two

INTERVIEW: KIDSMOKE

This week I sat down with self proclaimed ‘dreamy indie-pop’ band; Kidsmoke to discuss their debut album A Vision In The Dark which landed June of this year. Described as ‘exquisite’ by the Sunday times and ‘Delightfully melancholy’ by the BBC, Kidsmoke are one of the most exciting bands to come out of Wales in recent years.

GS: The title of your album is ‘ A Vision In The Dark’ Could you tell me how you chose this title?

K: “A Vision In The Dark” is a lyric from the final track on the album “The Bluest You”. We had a couple of different working titles, but we eventually settled on this as we felt that it best described the light and dark themes of the album.

GS: How would you describe the album to someone who hasn’t heard it before?

K: Melodic, happy, sad, dreamy, full of harmonies. It’s for fans of Wilco, The Smiths, Prefab Sprout, The Go Betweens, The National, The Cure...we have a lot of influences, this list could go on for days. 

GS: Was there any particular idea which you could label as the starting point of the album?

K: We just felt like it was the right time, we’d done a series of singles and EPs and had the tracks together that we thought would work well. There wasn’t exactly one moment, it was more like a decision we made over time - it was something we’d always wanted to do so it made sense.

GS:  Would you describe your music as having a psychedelic vibe? If so, why do you think that merging psychedelic music with the theme of love works so well?

K: I’m not sure it’s quite psychedelic but we carry influences from bands that you could label as such. Instrumentally creating tracks that take you out of yourself and into a dream like state is certainly something we prioritize.

GS:  Are you often thinking, when composing your music, how you’ll perform it on stage? 

K: Sometimes yeah, but we’re trying to move away from that for the second album. It’s important to work on what’s best for the track and not worry about the live performance so much. They are becoming two separate cases for us. I think any band starting out probably has a higher emphasis on live performances and the first album is usually what you’ve been gigging up to that point.

GS: Is there a particular place you go to write songs, or do you have a particular routine when composing?

K: For this album typically I would write an instrumental demo which I send to Lance to complete the vocal melody and lyrics. However once we’re all together rehearsing we will rework anything that perhaps doesn’t lend well to a live performance or anything that can be improved. Sophie really helps with the harmony arrangement and Ash rewrites the drum parts. I think for the next album it will be even more collaborative.

GS: Your music videos suggest that you guys travel a lot together, does this give you inspiration?

K: Traveling together is a huge part of being in a band, we’re lucky to have played a lot of different places over the last few years and done a lot of traveling - we haven’t any bust ups either which is pretty good going.

GS: How did it feel to get an invitation from Robert Smith, from The Cure, to play his Meltdown Festival?

K: It was amazing to be asked to play Robert Smith’s Meltdown. We have to thank our pals The Joy Formidable for putting us forward for that as we’re all big fans of The Cure, so it was a special feeling to know he’d listened to our music and given us the green light. He left us a note in our dressing room thanking us for playing, Soph has it on her fridge.

GS: Which instrument, if any, would you say your music is centred around?

K: Guitar

GS: You’ve been releasing music for over seven years, how do you think you have evolved as a band in that time?

K: Probably the biggest evolution has been in getting to our current line-up, we’ve had some great Kidsmoke members over the years but this is definitely our strongest team. Like the Manchester United 1999 treble-winning kind of team..

GS: Finally, where do you go now as a band?

K: Our plans for this year have been quite drastically affected by the pandemic, but we still managed to get our album out as planned (via Libertino Records) and we’re using the time at home to get writing again for album number 2. Things are still up in the air with touring at the moment, but we are looking forward to playing some shows again once it’s safe to do so.

Take a listen to the latest single Layla’s Love by Kidsmoke here.

GET GRADED IN GUITAR WITH LCME

Go for it and get your grades with the prestigious London College of Music Exams (LCME).

Here at Guitar School, we are all about getting good at music.  Whilst we would never put any of our students under pressure to take an exam, getting your graded guitar exams under your belt really will boost your confidence and give you the skills you need to be great at music.

We use LCME as our exam provider.  It is the prestigious London College of Music Exams (one of the world's most respected music exam boards) and certificated by the University of West London.  It organises internationally recognised exams in electric, rock, acoustic, jazz, classical and bass guitar (as well as countless other instruments), from total beginner to Diploma.  From Grade 1 onwards, graded and diploma exams are regulated by Ofqual, with UCAS points available for grades 6-8.

There are so many benefits associated with taking music exams with LCME, and there are also so many different types of music exam that it can feel a bit daunting trying to understand what is what!  However, in general, you can take practical exams (playing an instrument) or theory exams (a written paper).

Not least will passing a music exam give you a big dollop of faith in your ability as a musician, but it will also give you a great benchmark with which to assess your own progression, ability and developing skill set.  Graded exams offer clear targets to which you can aspire.  There are two preliminary / introductory levels (Step 1 and Step 2), which are then followed by the 8 different grades, with grade 1 being the beginners’ starting point, and grade 8 being a very good level of achievement.  By the way, it takes an average of 10,000 hours of hard graft to get from beginner to grade 8 so it’s no minor accomplishment.  The Step 1 and Step 2 introductory levels act as prep tests, which are a fantastic preparation to entering a ‘real’ exam environment, and then of course you get the post-grade 8 diplomas for those who want to pursue music seriously.

Furthermore, graded exams are an invaluable way to get feedback from top musicians and music professionals, and provide a reliable and independent assessment to the standard your playing is at.  You will receive constructive comments on your technique, style, interpretation etc.  It is also a supportive and positive way for students to know how well they are progressing.  Plus, the process of preparing for the exam will help you to develop all aspects of your playing, to support guitar techniques, as well as knowledge of music theory.  And you will gain a useful and internationally recognised qualification at the end of it!

Thousands upon thousands of students, young and old, have worked their way through varying levels of LCM exams.  The exams have given countless students the confidence to continue with their studies, a belief in their own abilities that money can never buy, and a really cracking grounding for a handful of super talented guitarists to go on to bigger, better and pretty impressive musical escapades in their adult lives.

Admittedly, at Guitar School we are all about the benefits of learning a musical instrument.  However, there is no better feeling and endorsement of your skills and hard work when you receive that certificate which says ‘PASS’ 'MERIT' or 'DISTINCTION on it!

If you are interested in finding out more about guitar exams at the London College of Music Exams, or you would like further information on learning the guitar, piano, drums or ukulele please contact us via the details on our CONTACT page.