An online workshop, The Beatles and You: The Composition, Performance, and Recording of Their Classic Songs, is being offered in summer 2022, devoted to the group’s compositional, performing, and recording procedures, and what their resulting music means to their listeners.
Participants choose their level of involvement—from multimedia lectures to lively small-group discussions, and from hands-on arranging and coaching to “virtual band” recording projects—in order to fully explore the Beatles’ musical world. All photos, diagrams and demonstrations are shared in a loose, supportive atmosphere.
Participants can choose from two different courses presented by RPM School, an interactive experience for interpreting, learning, and playing rock and popular music:
July 5-11: Special five-day intensive course
July 18 through August 26: Six-session course on Mondays
More info and registration details can be found here.
Faculty members Walter Everett, Cameron Greider, and Jack Petruzzelli bring decades of collective experience to work closely with participants in studying compositional methods, listening thoughtfully to, and recreating note-for-note the music and lyrics they love best. The Beatles and You will also feature a couple of special guest lecturers.
Watch the instructors explain the concept
Everett, a Univ. of Michigan professor, has taught 29 different college-level music theory analysis courses ranging from electives in popular music for non-musicians to the guidance of Ph.D. dissertations. He is the author of the two-volume study, The Beatles as Musicians; The Foundations of Rock; and—with Tim Riley—What Goes On: The Beatles, Their Music, and Their Time.
Petruzzelli is a founding member of the Beatles cover band, The Fab Faux, a veteran session musician, and touring bandmate of Patti Smith and Joan Osborne. Greider is also a highly sought-after session player and producer, having worked with artists such as Chris Cornell, Joan Baez, Rufus Wainwright, and Sean Lennon.
“The music of the Beatles is the perfect medium for learning to expand the listener’s imagination in all kinds of music,” says Everett. “There is no body of music that brings more people joy than that produced by the Beatles. No matter how much we might know about great music, there’s always more we can learn from each other.”
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