Rock School hotting up in 2008

As the nights draw in rapidly there is no sign of hibernation at Rockschool HQ. 2008 is shaping up to be a big year, with new qualifications, publications and projects being most feverishly developed...

Our Teaching Diplomas are up and running, and the newly amended, fully accredited Debut Grades in Guitar, Bass and Drums are ready to rock and roll. We have also added in Count-Ins to the full band tracks on all our syllabus books. There are plans to add a band based Keyboard Syllabus, exciting Performance Diplomas are imminent, and several other new ventures gestating.

We have grand plans for the massive new combo expo next June, the London International Music Show (LIMS), which incorporates both The London Guitar Show and Drummer Live with Music Technology and the Unplugged Show. Keep an eye out for us there, especially on the Education Day. Before that, we will be exhibiting in January at Music Learning Live at the Sage in Gateshead. Do come and see us.

Dr Simon Pitt, our Chief Executive, has been appointed to the board of the International Guitar Foundation (IGF). Rockschool already supports the IGF’s impressive summer courses on the campus of Bath Spa University, and we will be making our presence felt there in the Summer of 2008.

For those of you that haven’t found us yet, we are on Facebook. Rockschool is keen to build up a community for all you budding rockstars (and teachers), and Facebook is a good place to start. So come along and sign up. Talk to us and to each other, and share your stories, your videos and so on.

Speaking of videos, we are also on Youtube. Go to youtube.com/rockschoolUK and subscribe to our videos. Feel free to respond with your own videos of you playing Rockschool pieces.

We can also announce that work has begun on a series of DVDs to accompany the Rockschool grade books. We have enlisted the help of the lovely Charlie Webster to present these guides to preparing for your Rockschool exam.

Lending technical expertise and his own brand of wisdom to our guitar series of DVDs (initially grades Debut to 3) will be Andy Moore.