Rockschool Guitar Grade 1 (2024)

Overview

Rockschool Guitar Grade 1 (2024) is a beginner-level graded guitar resource designed for students who have established their basic playing skills and are ready to develop stronger technique, musical reading and performance ability.

The book contains nine performance pieces: six arrangements of well-known rock, pop and contemporary songs, together with three Rockschool Originals. It combines repertoire with technical exercises, supporting tests and downloadable audio, providing a complete resource for preparing for the Grade 1 examination.

RSL describes Grade 1 as suitable for players who have typically been learning for around six months to one year and have mastered the key basic guitar skills.

Key Features

• Official Rockschool Guitar 2024 Grade 1 resource

• 9 performance pieces

• 6 contemporary hit-tune arrangements

• 3 Rockschool Original compositions

• Major and minor scales

• Major and minor pentatonic scales

• Power chords and open-position chords

• Double-stops

• Staccato notes and accents

• Slides

• Riff playing

• Playback skills

• Sight Reading

• Improvisation & Interpretation

• Melodic Recall and Rhythmic Recall Ear Tests

• General Musicianship Questions

• Band and artist Fact Files

• Recommended listening

• Downloadable audio

• In-depth walkthroughs for the tracks

• Amp settings and tone advice for each track

Featured Repertoire

Rockschool Guitar Hit Tunes

• Where Is My Mind? – Pixies

• Come As You Are – Nirvana

• The Tracks Of My Tears – Smokey Robinson & The Miracles

• Born Under A Bad Sign – Albert King

• Who Knew – P!nk

• More Than A Feeling – Boston

Rockschool Originals

• Ignite

• Downtown Detroit

• As Night Falls

The repertoire covers contrasting rock, grunge, soul, blues, pop and contemporary styles, giving beginners exposure to different approaches to guitar playing.

What Students Will Develop

Students will develop:

• Major and natural minor scale familiarity

• Major and minor pentatonic scale patterns

• Open-position chord playing

• Power-chord technique

• Double-stops

• Staccato articulation

• Accents and slides

• Basic riff playing

• String-to-string coordination

• Rhythmic accuracy and synchronisation

• Basic music reading

• Playback and listening skills

• Simple improvisation

• Basic melodic and rhythmic aural recognition

• Greater confidence playing with backing tracks

The Grade 1 repertoire is designed to remain manageable for developing players. Performance pieces have a maximum duration of approximately 1 minute 15 seconds, allowing students to focus on notation, note values, sound, technical control and synchronisation.

Technical Exercises

Group A – Scales

At ♩ = 70 bpm, students prepare:

• C Major

• A Natural Minor

• A Minor Pentatonic

• G Major Pentatonic

These exercises develop basic scale fluency and introduce students to both major/minor tonalities and pentatonic vocabulary.

Group B – Chords

Students prepare:

Power Chords

• Two-note power chords played in a continuous sequence

The open-position chords are individually strummed as directed by the examiner, while the power chords develop basic movable chord technique.

Group C – Riff

At ♩ = 70 bpm, students perform the Grade 1 riff with a backing track.

The riff introduced in the opening bar is then played in the same shape against different root notes in the following bars. This develops basic riff transposition, fretboard awareness and rhythmic synchronisation.

Product Details

• Brand: Rockschool / RSL

• Series: Rockschool Guitar

• Instrument: Guitar

• Level: Grade 1

• Syllabus: 2024

• Publisher: Rockschool Ltd / RSL

• Publication Year: 2024

• Pages: 48

• Product Type: Graded Music Exam Book

• Format: Paperback / Softcover

• Audio: Online downloadable audio

• Language: English