RSL Awards Classical Guitar grades for the 21st-century! Striking a balance between radical redesign and recognisable structure, RSL Classical Guitar adheres to four key principles: championing composers from the global majority, true representation of gender, acknowledging the history and tradition of guitar pedagogy, and enabling students to feel comfortable studying music in a popular and classical environment. With works from a diverse selection of composers across classical, contemporary classical, jazz and pop, the syllabus provides an engaging stimulus for learning guitar from beginner to advanced level.
All repertoire comes with exemplar audio (including backing tracks where applicable) providing a fully immersive and flexible approach to practise, lessons and the guitar exams. Connecting with the history of Rockschool, the repertoire includes a selection of pop tracks at each grade, arranged for the grade level as solo pieces, duets and pop arrangements with full band backing tracks. The pieces at each grade expose students to an array of styles and instrument-specific techniques, like scales arpeggios and technical work, contributing to improved musicianship and instrument mastery!
RSL Classical Guitar Syllabus Download
The pieces at each grade expose students to an array of styles and instrument-specific techniques, contributing to improved musicianship. Technical exercises and rudiments will reinforce the fundamentals of guitar playing, with sight-reading and improvisation training contributing to increased musical know-how.
At each grade there is a selection of benchmarked classical tracks and popular music arrangements. Diverse and engaging, including greater representation of female composers and composers from the global majority, our repertoire will challenge and inspire students as they develop their guitar technique.
RSL Classical Guitar includes repertoire from the likes of Laura Snowden, Debbie Cracknell, Ignatius Sancho, Florence Price, Naoko Ikeda, Leo Brouwer, Francisco Tárrega, Fernando Sor, Beyoncé, Ed Sheeran, Coldplay, Gary Ryan, Nick Powlesland, Peter Nutall, Taylor Swift, Helen Sanderson, Andrew York, Tatiana Stachak, Heitor Villa-Lobos and Frantz Casseus... to name but a few!
Exemplar performances are included for all performance pieces, including backing tracks for duets and pop tracks. Each backing track has been professionally recorded at commercial quality to give your students the feeling of doing a fully-fledged performance wherever they might be practising. Slick count-ins and fresh arrangements mean every practise session can feel like a concert performance!
RSL Classical Guitar has been designed with industry relevance, student engagement, and academic rigour in mind. Upon completion of an RSL Graded Music Exam, every candidate will have earned a globally recognised qualification, which has been designed to support progression routes towards higher education and the creative industries.
Grades 6 to 8 are UCAS recognised aiding Higher Education applications. Candidates can gain up to 30 UCAS points for completion of these Level 3 qualifications.
Download your free copy of the RSL Classical Guitar syllabus specification!
RSL Classical Guitar Syllabus SpecificationWe have exam centres all across the UK and in +40 other countries around the globe. Find your nearest centre.
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