10 Artist Lessons we want to see in GarageBand '09

MusicRadar's most-wanted celebrity music teachers

The MusicRadar Team, Tue 27 Jan 2009, 4:12 pm GMT

Sting has already enrolled as a GarageBand teacher.

Apple has announced that its iLife '09 software bundle is shipping as of today. This contains the latest version of GarageBand, and one of the key additions to this is the option to purchase and download Artist Lessons.

Each of these video add-ons features a famous musician explaining how to play one of their most famous songs – the likes of Sting, Norah Jones, Fall Out Boy and Ben Folds have already signed up.

Apple has plans to produce more, though, and MusicRadar has come up with a hit-list of people that we'd like the company to get. We might be living in fantasy land, but any of the following would be great.

1. Keith Richards teaching Jumpin' Jack Flash

One of the world's most famous rock riffs, but also one that most guitarists can never quite nail properly. In our video, Richards would show all, from proper fingering and stringing to rhythm technique. Plus, Keith could explain how he came to write the riff, complete with a recreation of him nodding off and snoring for 45 minutes on tape.

2. Bernard Purdie teaching Rock Steady

The homepage of Purdie's website states that he's "The world's most recorded drummer". There's a good reason for this: he's ruddy brilliant. OK, he didn't write Rock Steady, but it's his drumming that gives the song its awesome level of groove, and that break in the middle is possibly the greatest of all time. Forget learning it – we just want to watch Purdie play it.

3. Paul McCartney teaching Hey Jude

A bit of an obvious one, this – McCartney teaching anything is surely on Steve Jobs' – but it's a lesson that would be massively popular nonetheless. With its basic chord progression and simple rhythmic structure, it's a great 'first learn' for Beatles-loving pianists, though surely we can all sing the na-na-naa-naa section at the end without further instruction. We suspect that the Beatles/iTunes situation may have to be sorted out before anything could happen, though.

4. Stevie Wonder teaching Superstition

As Wonder played all of the keyboard instruments and drums on this 1972 classic, it could take the form of one somewhat protracted lesson, or two separate ones. In particular, we'd love to see exactly how those Clavinet parts were played on the original recording. Prospective pupils be warned, though:if you can't bring the funk then get the funk out.

MusicRadar