Rockschool Just Got Schooled

 It's not all doom and gloom in and around the music school of course. On most days it is a great place to be for students, parents and teachers alike! Everyone likes the place, most of the people coming here like us - not just for our knowledge but as human beings as well. And that is a good feeling, as being miserable in a workplace is definitely not for me! 

I enjoy teaching, if I didn't then I simply wouldn't be doing it. I appreciate even the most incremental improvements that I see with students from week to week, and most students improve every single lesson even if they didn't practice much (or at all). That is also down to my style and method, as I maintain a positive attitude and try to be as helpful, friendly yet professional as much as is humanly possible with every single student (and parent). In essence, at our music school everyone (hobbyists and professional levels alike) feels included and our place is a safe space for everybody where every lesson is like a masterclass. 

When I started teaching regularly about 13 years ago, there was not too much material available even on the always popular drum kit/set as there is now. I quickly learned about the British exam boards and their syllabi with sheet music/books included, which contain to this day, popular music songs along with great educational/technical supplements ranging from Grade 0 to Grade 8 level for beginners as well as advanced students. 

Back in the early 2010s Youtube was still relatively new, and there was not too much free info on drum related matters, especially high quality drumming educational material on the website, so I was always searching for a variety of physical books and videos to use as my educational material.

Fast forward to 2025 and I constantly bump into new YT channels which do a fine job in providing resources for those who want to learn. Perhaps that is one of the reasons why music boards such as RSL Rockschool have difficulties. 

I, along with many of my peers, stopped with them (since earlier this year), as I no longer find them a good value and, more importantly, their standards have dropped significantly. While previously there would have been only physical sheet music/books available for use as teaching material, now everything is online. People have been uploading everything from RSL Rockschool onto the online platforms including not only the sheet music but the backing tracks as well. And there are hundreds more aside from Rockschool available on YT which are of even better educational quality. This year, I have found that I could teach almost everything using just Youtube related material. I still employ physical books of course, as I don't want children to only stare at screens, but the songs we choose together all come from Youtube. This would have been impossible just a few years ago. 

Of course, if one wants to sit an actual drum exam then they would still have to make do with one of the British exam boards. The interesting thing here is that there is a growing competition on this aisle as well, as more and more people are drifting away from the dinosaurs (ABRSM) and the profit-above all companies (RSL Rockschool) and are looking for better options (myself included). At least half a dozen smaller exam boards have popped up since Covid and I am sure this trend will continue in the foreseeable future. I might just find one that my students and I can end up liking.

Education is never about money; people who think they can make a lot of money with education need to get their heads checked! The same goes for an education company like Rockschool. I believe that somewhere along the way they just got greedy and thought that they can scale the business all the way to the sky when countries such as China started showing interest in British exams. But then Covid hit and many things fell apart for these exam companies. I should know, as at one point I was working closely with Rockschool for a few years. I am not intimately familiar with their situation now, but I know some of these companies are struggling to keep up with a constant flow of revenue, or at the least, they cannot hit their targets. So standards drop, and the students get lower quality feedback, and less for their money in general. 

But with creators creating great resources on the internet and traditional music material appearing free on social media including Facebook, Tiktok and Pinterest apart from Youtube, why would anyone pay money for them after all?