ABRSM, LCM, RGT Guitar & Piano Exams - our Focus for 2016

Happy New Year to all of our students and subscribers, new and old! As I sit and reflect on the previous year at Guitar School, I really can't believe how quickly the time has passed. We have achieved so much together over the last 12 months. Our students achieved many
Distinctions and Merits in their guitar and piano exams. Whilst I achieved some good results in the studio, working on backing tracks and a selection of acoustic cover versions of some well known songs for my YouTube channel. You can check out the following acoustic covers by clicking below:

Catfish and the Bottlemen ‘Hourglass’
Oasis ‘Fade Away’

In my first blog of the new year, I thought I'd look ahead at 2016 as I highlight my main focus for the year ahead. Much emphases will be looking at the ABRSM, LCM, RGT Syllabus in acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass guitar, rock guitar, ukulele and piano playing. At this point, I would like to stress the importance of practicing for these exams in your own time at home, thus helping you to achieve the level of musicianship required to enable you to achieve good pass rates in the examinations. 

There will be three opportunities to sit the guitar and piano examinations this year with the last dates for exam entries in the UK being as follows: Spring 2016 - 1st February, Summer 2016 - 1st May, Winter 2016 - 1st October. As always I will try and enter as many students as possible throughout 2016, with the hope of a record breaking year for the number of students entered. If you are not currently working towards a syllabus and would like to start, please let me know ASAP and we will get started. For our advanced students we will be looking at some famous guitar solo’s whilst we try and put some speed techniques into your playing to enable you to conquer those mammoth guitar parts.

In edition to the exams I would also like to make recording a large focus point this year, as I aim to record as many students performances as possible. I will be offering a FREE mixing and mastering service to all our students that wish to record their tracks, students will be able to record whilst in lessons so there will be no extra studio recording fees endured. I will also be teaching the art of home recording whilst the student records their performance so they will be able to achieve good results from their recording sessions at home. I myself will also be recording as many tracks as I have the time for and releasing them through my YouTube and Soundcloud channels. If you haven't already, please follow all social media pages here to be the first to hear the tracks as they are released:

www.youtube.com/user/markellwood22
www.facebook.com/guitarschooluk
www.twitter.com/guitarschooluk
www.facebook.com/somethingaboutthegirl
https://soundcloud.com/something-about-the-girl  

All said, it looks like another crazy busy year for us all here at Guitar School… Are you ready!? I can't wait to get started! :)

FREE GUITAR BACKING TRACK AND HOME RECORDING

During September and October 2015, I have been hard at work writing, recording and producing a brand new backing track for you to practice your lead guitar playing. The track features a Jazz/Blues style in the key of C Major/A Minor. You can download or play the track directly from our website via the DOWNLOADS page from the scroll bar above. Use the track to practice your melodic shaping and phrasing using the C Major, C Pentatonic Major, A Natural Minor, A Pentatonic Minor, C Blues or any of the model scales within the key of C Major. If you are not a Guitar School student and do not have access to such scales, please feel free to email me and I will forward you the scale sheets for you to work on. 

Working on the track has given me the bug for recording again. And over the past few weeks I began working on a set of acoustic cover versions, which I plan on uploading to my YouTube channel. Recently purchasing a pair of original Yamaha NS-10M monitors combined with our studio KRK Rokit 6’s to help with the mixing, I hope to have a really professional product at the end of this process.

It’s been a long time since I have uploaded a YouTube cover. I have never been comfortable with recording songs via an iPhone, or uploading, due to it’s poor quality audio and video features.

With this in mind, I set about recording the acoustic guitar parts via an external condenser
microphone to obtain a more professional sound. Home recording doesn’t have to be an expensive process these days. If you need any guidance on equipment or techniques, I am more than happy to advise you on the essentials you’ll need to create your very own home recording studio. 

The run up to Christmas will see a slight refurbishment of the home studio. This will enable it to  become a much more usable space for recording. Adding vintage synths, vocal pre-amps,
acoustic sound absorbers and base traps to help with the quality of productions for our recording artists in the future.

If you have a song, spoken word or musical idea you would like to record, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. I love to work on new and exciting projects.

Keep rockin’!

6 NEW GUITAR TABS INCLUDING GREEN DAY AND THE BEATLES

Throughout August 2015 I have been keeping busy transcribing tracks into guitar TAB for my guitar, bass and ukulele students. Managing to transcribe a mammoth 6 songs in total. Tracks included Green Day ‘Wake Me Up When September Ends’, The Beatles ‘Blackbird’ and ‘Day Tripper’, Kings Of Leon ‘Sex On Fire’,and also Johnny Cash ‘I Walk The Line’ and ‘Hurt’. I feel it is very important to cover a wide variety of styles into my lessons whilst introducing as many different genres as I can to my students. This enables them learn more about the history of music, as well as teaching the student how to play the songs they know and love. Whilst showcasing the songs to my students, I used an array of guitar effect pedals from the
Digitech and Boss range, many of which can be found on the shop page of our website, under the shop, guitar accessories and pedals page.

During September 2015 I plan to transcribe at least three more guitar TAB’s. These will be Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’, ‘Love Walked In’ by Thunder and also ‘Homesick’ by the hugely popular Indie rock outfit Catfish and the Bottlemen. Cutting down the transcriptions to just 3 this month will also allow me time to finish a backing track I started last month. The track has been recorded at 100bpm and features a Jazz style rhythm. The lead guitar at the start of the track has a Blues style example of guitar playing. 

The backing track and lead playing example will all be finished and ready for you to work on by late September. You will be able to download the full track free of charge from my website.

And finally If there is a particular track or style you would like me to work on or you‘d just like some help or advise please drop by and say hello via the contact options on my website. You don’t have to be a Guitar School student to benefit from my transcriptions or lesson example backing tracks. 

Bye for now...

RGT/LCM GUITAR EXAMS, GUITAR SCHOOL AWARDS & 4 NEW GUITAR TABS

It's been another busy month at Guitar School as we finish off preparing for the first examinations of 2015. I’d like to wish Andrew Gerrard, Daniel Fauset, Jasmine Lloyd and Nathan Greaves the very best of luck for their exams this spring.

In March I handed out our annual awards to recognise achievement over the past academic year 2014/15. Joshua Shaw was honoured Guitarist Of The Year for the second year running, Lewis-Lee Price picked up our Most Improved Player and Jasmine Lloyd was awarded Best Newcomer. Keep up the amazing work your all putting in, it's really paying off for you all!

I myself have been busy arranging some tour dates for the incredibly talented Billy Bibby (Former Catfish and the Bottlemen). His new
material takes on an acoustic vibe and his shows are very captivating. In April and May you will be able to catch Billy at these following venue’s -

Chester Commonhall Social - 17th April
Mancot White Bear - 18th April
Wrexham Rewind Bar - 23rd April
Manchester Night & Day Cafe - 24th April
Mold Glasfryn - 26th April
Holywell Old Wine Vaults - 15th May
Watergates Bar - 22nd May
Colwyn Heights Pen Y Bryn - 24th May 

New transcriptions this time round come in the form of Bruce Springsteen Thunder Road, Fleetwood Mac Big Love, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts I Love Rock N' Roll and Damian Rice 9 Crimes. All guitar TABs and piano scores are now up on our website under Shop/Sheet Music for you to download.

Other big news this month, comes as I enter our Guitarist Of The Year Joshua Shaw for the brand new Sky Arts TV program 'Guitar Star'. You can watch Josh's audition video for the show at www.facebook.com/guitarschooluk. I'm sure you'll all join me in wishing Josh the very best of luck!

Keep rockin'! :)

GETTING THE RIGHT RESULTS IN AUGUST 2014

It’s been another amazing summer for our students here at Guitar School. As you may know it’s been exam time last month with the LCM (London College Of Music), and our students did not disappoint.

In the RGT Acoustic Guitar Playing category we have seen Claudia Mckinlay and Victoria Mealing pass their grade one with a Distinction. Whilst In the RGT Electric Guitar category Mia Moss became our youngest student to pass her Preliminary Grade in Electric guitar with a massive 98% at just 8 years old. Huge congratulations to you Mia!

The star of the show so far this year though has to be Joshua Shaw who has just completed his Grade Six in electric guitar playing with a Merit. Josh was just 14 at the time of sitting this exam and as I’m sure you can imagine grade six is no walk in the park! Josh has been a student at Guitar School from the age of 10 years. Already one of our most promising young musicians here, now with his concentration set towards grade seven a career in the music industry surely beacons. We aim to get him as many UCAS points as we can from sitting these exams and aiming for a place at LIPA when the time comes.

I plan on entering as many students as possible this winter so there is no time to relax! Keep practicing in your spare time and leave those X box’s ALONE! :)  

WORKING IN THE COMMUNITY

I am delighted to announce that I will be putting together a monthly gig guide for our local radio station ‘Radio Deeside’.The guide will offer you all the information you’ll need about all things music in our area. Providing you with ticket prices, box office numbers, opening times and a short feature on each artist, there will no longer be nothing to do on a Friday night!

his will also hopefully be a chance for local artists to get themselves heard on the radio. If your a solo artist or in a band performing in Flintshire why not tell us a little bit about yourselves and send us your demo to gigs@radiodeeside.com Who knows, you might just make our playlist on Radio Deeside!

Radio Deeside is a community radio station that relies on fund raising and charity events to operate a quality service. And could offer a huge oppurtunity for local business. The guys are currently renovating the old staff room at Deeside Leisure Centre to become the new home of Radio Deeside.

GUITAR SCHOOL STUDENTS EXCEL!

I am super proud of all our students who have sat their guitar examinations with the LCM (London College Of Music) last month. Aiden Parry was sitting his first ever guitar exam and managed to pass it with a Distinction. Whilst Thomas Hudson was sitting his grade 8 and managed to achieve a Merit! A huge Well done to you both.

Thomas was the third student in the whole of North Wales to ever take the grade eight exam in electric guitar playing. Robert Woods and Ian Bamford who also study here at Guitar School both passed the grade eight with a Merit and are now continuing to study their diploma’s here.

We really are leading the way in guitar education in North Wales and it’s lovely to see the recognition our efforts really deserve. There will be a record number of students entering for the winter exams and I’m looking forward to seeing them all succeed in their ambitions.