RPM School Announces New 'The Beatles And You' Course For Summer 2022

RPM School, the premier interactive experience for interpreting, learning, and playing rock and popular music, has announced it will be offering "The Beatles and You: The Composition, Performance, and Recording of Their Classic Songs" this July. The course features two different online sessions from which students can select:

• July 5-11: Special five-day intensive course
• July 18 through August 26: Six-session course on Mondays

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. More info and registration details can be found here.

"The class was amazing," commented a recent student. "It was challenging and yet at the same time, accommodated all kinds of level of play. I'd take it again in a heartbeat."

Faculty members Walter Everett, Cameron Greider, and Jack Petruzzelli bring many 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 special guest lecturers.

"I came to the class thinking I knew so much-wrong!" commented another student. "The instructors pulled out all the stops for us. Music, history, class materials, guest speakers....They truly put the Beatles in context. It's an excellent deep dive."

University of Michigan professor Walter Everett 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-of What Goes On: The Beatles, Their Music, and Their Time. Jack Petruzzelli is a founding member of The Fab Faux (which Rolling Stone has called "the greatest Beatles cover band...without the wigs"), a veteran session musician, and touring bandmate of Patti Smith and Joan Osborne. Cameron 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."

Various other courses are also scheduled at RPM School for Summer and Fall 2022. Topics for future offerings include the Music of Motown, the Blues Experience, and the Women of Rock. More information can be found on the RPM School website. A video describing the five-day "The Beatles and You" course (taught through the University of Michigan) can be found here.