Rockschool Ukulele Grade 4 – (2020)

Overview

Rockschool Ukulele Grade 4 (2020) is the official Grade 4 examination book from RSL Awards, designed for intermediate ukulele players progressing through the Rockschool graded pathway.

The book combines six contemporary performance pieces, technical exercises and supporting tests, providing a complete resource for Grade 4 examination preparation. The repertoire covers a broad range of styles, while the technical material develops more advanced scales, arpeggios, barre chords and rhythmic techniques.

Key Features

• Official Rockschool Ukulele 2020 Grade 4 syllabus

• Six benchmarked contemporary performance pieces

• Repertoire spanning soul, pop, Latin, rock and reggae

• Professionally recorded backing tracks and full recordings

• In-depth track walkthroughs and artist/genre information

• Technical exercises covering scales, arpeggios and chord voicings

• Sight Reading or Improvisation & Interpretation

• Melodic and Harmonic Recall Ear Tests

• General Musicianship Questions

• Supports preparation for the Grade 4 examination

Featured Repertoire

The six Grade 4 performance pieces are:

• Use Me – Bill Withers

• Let Her Go – Passenger

• Havana – Camila Cabello

• Under the Bridge – Red Hot Chili Peppers

• Ghost Town – The Specials

• Me & Julio Down by the Schoolyard – Paul Simon

The selection exposes students to contrasting musical styles while requiring greater control of rhythm, chord changes, phrasing and musical interpretation.

What Students Will Develop

Students will develop:

• Stronger rhythmic accuracy and consistency

• More advanced strumming and picking control

• Barre-chord technique

• Greater chord vocabulary and harmonic awareness

• Major, minor and seventh-chord fluency

• Pentatonic and blues-scale familiarity

• More developed melodic phrasing

• Improvisational skills

• Harmonic and melodic aural recognition

• Greater stylistic awareness and expressive control

• Confidence performing contemporary repertoire

Technical Exercises

Grade 4 technical work is divided into three groups:

Group A – Scales

Students work on:

• Major, natural minor and harmonic minor scales from E♭, E and F

• C♯ minor pentatonic across two positions

• E major pentatonic across two positions

• D blues scale on strings 3 and 4

• G major linear scale pattern on one string

• C natural minor linear scale pattern on one string

The scale work is performed at 80 bpm using eighth-note rhythms.

Group B – Arpeggios

Students develop:

• Major arpeggios

• Minor arpeggios

• Dominant 7th arpeggios

• Minor 7th arpeggios

• E♭ dominant 7th arpeggio across four strings

• C minor 7th arpeggio across four strings

These are also performed at 80 bpm using eighth-note rhythms.

Group C – Chord Voicings

Students work on:

• Harmonised major scales using barre-chord shapes

• I, IIm, IIIm, IV, V, VIm and VIIdim chord sequences

• Muted chords with 16th-note strumming or

• Triple-stroke technique

This section develops more advanced rhythmic and chordal control.

Product Details

• Brand: Rockschool / RSL Awards

• Series: Rockschool Ukulele

• Instrument: Ukulele

• Level: Intermediate

• Book: Grade 4

• Syllabus: 2020

• Publisher: RSL Awards

• Publication Year: 2020

• Pages: 56

• Product Code: RSK200129

• Includes: Performance pieces, technical exercises and supporting tests

• Audio: Online audio / downloadable backing tracks