Sheet Music Reviews: RSL Piano Syllabus

How do you teach rock? The answer for a lot of us, growing up, was that you don't. Instead, you found a recording of [insert name of childhood Rock-god here] and wore the tape out, trying to emulate that sound. I was always made to believe that teaching anything that didn't fall under the Bach-Beethoven-Brahms syllabus was heretical, to be confined to private practice. Sound familiar? Then like me, you might be forgiven for missing the quiet revolution which has taken place in contemporary music teaching.

Rockschool Ltd (RSL) began in 1991, reaching 38 countries worldwide, and has gone on to offer Grades in contemporary music instruments, but also in music production, music theory, teaching diplomas as well as Level 2 and 3 vocational qualifications. This year, however, sees the launch of the revamped RSL Piano syllabus.

Fresh new look

The RSL piano syllabus mirrors the well-established eight Grades structure, with preparatory (Debut) and Diploma exams available on either side. For the student, RSL produces a glossy, bound volume of six pieces, together with all the scales and technical exercises you need for the exam, as well as examples of the unseen material.

Each Grade book consists of six pieces, either in arrangement for solo piano, or with the vocal line still intact. RSL, however, offer two streams of exams. Students can either opt for the graded examination or the performance certificate. The graded examinations are similar to ABRSM and Trinity and include: three prepared pieces, technical exercises, an unseen section, aural tests, as well as a series of general musicianship questions, among others. Weight is placed on each element as follows: repertoire 60%, technical exercises 15%, sight-reading or improvisation 10%, aural tests 10%, and general musicianship questions 5%.

The performance certificate, which is available at all levels from debut to Grade 8, includes technical exercises, unseen work, and allows students to perform up to five pieces.

At all levels, students can offer up their own choice of repertoire in exchange for two of the three pieces (graded examination) or three of the five (performance certificate). All pieces should be of a similar technical and musical level to the repertoire from the grade book and must be accompanied by a backing track.

RSL also offers a parallel Keys syllabus. While there is some understandable crossover, both in terms of repertoire and skill, the keys syllabus encompasses programming and patching – skills which are required of the modern synth player.

Strong backing

When it comes to the exams for both, most pieces are treated to an excellent backing track. In the case of piano, this generally consists of drums, bass, guitar and vocals, which feature not only impressive musicality but stand-out production, with the sound being recorded and carefully mixed by the good folk at Abbey Road Studios. The tracks are available to download as MP3s from the RSL website, which is particularly handy for storing on phones for practice sessions.

While RSL has increased the number of available backing tracks, most of us will spend the majority of our professional lives performing with other musicians, rather than pre-recorded backing. Yes, playing with a drummer, recording to a click track, and the whole biosphere of amplified music-making is very different from playing a Schubert pianotrio, but the elements of communication and fl exibility required are as universal in popular music as they are in the classical world. Presenting young rock musicians with musically inspired, well-crafted tracks is central to their development, and second only to having them play with real-life bands.

One plea I'd like to make to Rockschool is that it includes wav files alongside the MP3. Given the obvious amount of time and energy which has gone into these tracks, there's an opportunity here to train a whole new generation of musicians on the difference between compressed and uncompressed sound files.

The most impressive aspect of the new syllabus may well be the repertoire list. This is conspicuously absent from the syllabus document available on the RSL website, but encompasses a pleasing range of styles, refl ecting the reality of a contemporary pianists’ career. These include:

Debut:

‘Next to Me’ (Emeli Sandé) ‘Imagine’ (Lennon)

‘Beauty and the Beast’

‘Lean on Me’ (Withers)

‘Love Yourself’ (Bieber, Blanco & Sheeran)

‘La Valse d’Amélie’ (Tiersen)

Grade 1:

‘Tattooed Heart’ (Ariana Grande) ‘Hallelujah’ (Cohen)

‘Can You Feel the Love Tonight? (John & Rice)

‘Wildest Dreams’ (Taylor Swift)

‘Let It Be’ (Lennon & Mccartney)

‘I'm Not the Only One’ (Sam Smith)

Grade 2:

‘Thinking Out Loud’ (Sheeran)

‘This Is Me’ (From The Greatest Showman)

‘Pink Panther Theme’ (Mancini)

‘Feeling Good’ (Nina Simone)

‘Roar’ (Katy Perry)

‘Walk On By’ (Dionne Warwick)

Grade 3

‘Unfaithful’ (Rhianna)

‘Somewhere Only We Know’ (Keane)

‘Don't Know Why’ (Norah Jones)

‘A Whole New World’ (From Aladdin)

‘Skyfall’ (Adele)

‘Paradise’ (Coldplay)

Grade 4

‘All of Me’ (John Legend)

‘Respect’ (Aretha Franklin)

‘Let It Go’ (From Frozen)

‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’ (Elton John)

‘I See Fire’ (Ed Sheeran)

‘Livin’ On A Prayer’ (Bon Jovi)

Grade 5

‘A Thousand Miles’ (Vanessa Carlton)

‘Teardrop’ (Massive Attack)

‘Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic’ (The Police)

‘Dangerous’ (David Guetta Ft. Sam Martin)

‘Life on Mars?’ (David Bowie)

‘You've Got A Friend in Me’ (From Toy Story)

Grade 6

‘Defying Gravity’ (From Wicked)

‘Africa’ (Toto)

‘Cantaloupe Island’ (Herbie Hancock)

‘He's A Pirate’ (From Pirates of The Caribbean)

‘In the End’ (Linkin Park)

‘The Way It Is’ (Bruce Hornsby and the Range)

Grade 7

‘Rosanna’ (Toto)

‘Live and Let Die’

‘A Song for You’ (Ray Charles)

‘Schindler's List (Theme)

‘Cornfl ake Girl’ (Tori Amos)

‘I Got the News’ (Steely Dan)

Grade 8

‘Bohemian Rhapsody’(Queen)

‘End Credits’ (From E.T.)

‘Birdland’ (Weather Report)

‘These Are the Days’ (Jamie Cullum)

‘Spain’ (Chick Corea)

‘Rather Be’ (Clean Bandit Ft. Jess Glynne)

A significant number of musical theatre and jazz pieces are interwoven among standard rock and pop fare. The keys syllabus has an understandable pop bias, but with several crossover points, particularly the musical theatre repertoire. For example, Grade 1 Keys includes the Max Martin classic ‘Can't Stop the Feeling!’ with the classic four-chord combination prompting discussions of how to recreate the pumping effect of the keys part.

The exercises, found in both syllabuses, move from a scale and riff-based approach to more groove and improv focused work in the later grades – I was particularly pleased to see chord voicing exercises included from Grade 1. For anyone who has suffered through performances of pop songs with all-root position triads, this is the promised land of practical music theory, and long may it last!

It's difficult to say how this syllabus matches up with the classical offerings. In the earlier grades, the pieces in both syllabuses outshine those found in both ABRSM and Trinity courses, and the exercises certainly allow for students to be stretched and challenged – I was excited to see the Cmaj9#11 sitting in the Grade 5 syllabus. By Grades 7 and 8, however, the technical demands have mostly levelled out, that said, even I would struggle with Snarky Puppy's ‘Lingus’ (Grade 8 Keys). In an age where accessibility has been the driving factor of many new exams, it's reassuring to see a vocationally-driven syllabus that prepares students for life as contemporary musicians.

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