Music

Passed Rock School Grade 7 (Electric Guitar) Exam… Unofficially

- lmn

Two years ago, I successfully passed the RSL Awards Rock School Electric Guitar Grade 6 exam with a distinction. Since late last year, I have been preparing for the Grade 7 exam. As I’m no longer living in the UK, my guitar tutor Nicolas and I decided that I would do a mock exam over Skype that he would assess and give me a score, unofficially. We did this yesterday evening, and I’m very pleased to say that I passed the exam. And as per Nick’s assessment, it was a “strong performance” and I received a score of 88 out of 100 which is just short of a distinction. Of course, this is not an accurate assessment given the constraints we were under but it’s heartening for me to know that I obtained a score that is a certain pass.

I hope to appear for the next, and final Grade (Grade 8) in the Electric Guitar track in the next year or two. And, as in my previous RSL Awards post, here are YouTube videos of the three songs I chose to perform in the exam…

New Guitar Video – Man in the Box by Alice in Chains!

- lmn

This is one of the first AiC songs I heard that got me into the band. While I had the broken finger, I also took some time off the fast licks and finger-intensive playing to learn some wah coordination and this was a great song to begin with. I used a Vox wah pedal here that I bought years ago. A bit squeaky but it worked alright. There’s still a few rough edges in this final recording and this is the result of the time I was willing to spend on perfecting it. Another Rush song coming up afte this!

New Guitar Video – Jacob’s Ladder by Rush!

- lmn

I just finished recording and uploading the video of me playing this piece on YouTube, and I’m happy to share the link here! I’ve been learning to play it for a while now, and it was one of the pieces I could actually play as my broken little-finger was recovering after a minor bicycle accident. It’s so much fun to play with the 11/8 (or 11/16, whatever) time sections early on and the 13/8 (or 13/16, whatever) time sections towards the end of the piece! It’s fairly straightforward otherwise, but really requires some attention due to the repetitions that one tends to get carried away with. I love the solo composed by Alex Lifeson on this one, as I do most of his very clever guitar work! And as much as I could perhaps play it better, I’ll go easy on myself and settle with what I have in this video.

I’ve been learning to play another awesome song by Rush, that I’ll hopefully record and upload soon, stay tuned!

Passed Rock School Grade 6 (Electric Guitar) Exam

- lmn

A couple of weeks ago on Jun 9, 2017 I gave my first music certification exam – RSL Awards Rock School Grade 6 (Electric Guitar). I’m very pleased to share that I passed it with a distinction! Before the exam, I recorded my performances of the three pieces I chose to play as a part of it. The entire piece is given except the solos which have been composed by me. I uploaded them on YouTube, initially to share with my tutor, and now with everyone else! Here they are…

Merry Christmas!

- lmn

My lovely wife Nina and I recorded a little video where we play a cover of the song “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane, to wish all our loved ones a merry Christmas.

So here’s wishing everyone a merry Chirstmas and a very happy New Year from the both of us!