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Rocksteady - Music Education for Everyone - February Newsletter
Rocksteady - Music Education as it's supposed to be!
Rocksteady is a music academy formed by two professional musicians with the aim of providing quality, yet affordable music education for contemporary musicians, both privately and as a programme in schools across the UK. We are also currently operating a "Rock school" from Alton Community Centre in Hampshire on week nights. Here we bring you the first in a series of newsletters to keep you up to date with what's going down!
Rocksteady Newsletter February 2008
Many exciting things can happen in a month and January turned out to be no exception. So, being the nice people that we are, we thought we'd keep you updated on all things Rocksteady so that you can get excited too.
The students at Alton have been going from strength to strength in the last few weeks, whether they're in private or group lessons. The band workshop students put together a fantastic version of Australia by The Manic Street Preachers earlier in the month but have been since working on something even more adventurous, here's the press release:
"The band workshop students at the Rocksteady Music School in Alton are recording a CD for charity. Rocksteady tutors Mark Robinson and Ian Fellows split the group into two bands and gave them the task of recreating the jazz classic "equinox" in whatever style they chose, be it rock, blues, metal, dance or anything imbetween. The students then recorded their work on professional level equipment and are going to learn about the mixing process. You can follow the student's journey to recording the CD online with a video diary at http://www.rocksteadymusicgroup.com/under the Alton section. The CD featuring two versions of Equinox by the students and one by the tutors will be on sale on the 15th of February at the Astra Music Shop, 27 Market Street, Alton. The cost of the CD will be £1 and all proceeds go to charity."
What's more, a Youtube Channel has been released to document the making of the CD, from rehearsals and writing through to the recording and mixing stages!
Check it out for yourself and subscribe to get all the updates at www.youtube.com/RocksteadyMusicGroup
We also had another fantastic session at the Milton Cross School in Portsmouth last weekend with all the students making a fantastic effort, whatever their level. Some students had been playing as little as one month and were still playing a part in the performances at the end of the day! The bands learned Kula Shaker's version of "Hush" and put on some sterling performances at the end of the day. This workshop also saw the introduction of professional bass player Ali Martin as a Rocksteady tutor. Ali is a fantastic teacher and bass player and the students learned a lot from his wealth of experience in band situations. Cheers Ali!
There's also been some rumours flying around about the possibility of weeklong workshops in the Easter holidays where guitarists, bassists and drummers of all levels come together to learn some neat tricks on their instruments as well as putting together bands every day. The rumours are yet to be confirmed but stay tuned for more info.
There are still a few spaces on the band workshop in Alton after half term so get on the phone/e-mail, whatever it is you like to do to book your place! There is also one space going for private drum lessons but we bet it won't be there for very long!
Hope to see you all soon.
Mark Robinson (Director/Head of Guitar)
Ian Fellows (Director/Head of Drums)