PITTSFIELD, MA -- MercyMe is a Grammy nominated Christian rock band. They're in Pittsfield for a recording session, but they're not making new music. They're teaching it.
"We're here teaching our songs on WorkshopLive to be learned from students who come on WorkshopLive and want to learn how to play," said MercyMe guitar player Barry Graul.
WorkshopLive is a website, but it's also a recording studio. Bands from all over the world come in for recording sessions, which are turned into online music tutorials. The company says most bands don't know how to teach music, but they do know how to play it.
"One of the guys said, 'I've never done any teaching before.' I said, ‘That's not a problem. That's what we do.’ We give them all the preparation they need in advance of coming in to the studio and when they get here, we just execute," said Mike Thomas, WorkshopLive senior vice president of business development.
Learning to play music like a rock star has never been easier, thanks to a website that has major recording artists teach amateurs how to play. Our Ryan Burgess talked to Grammy nominated band MercyMe to find out more.
If you want to learn how to play music from one of the bands, you can log onto WorkshopLive's website and choose a subscription. For the consumer, you can expect to pay as little as $5 to $10 a month. For the band, they can expect to earn some major royalties.
"When a student gets online and I'm playing a chord that I can't tell you what it is, it pops up on the screen and they can read the chord in several different forms. If they know how to read music, they can read it in notated form or they can read it on tab. It's an unbelievable tool that I would have killed to have had when I was 16 [years-old] learning how to play guitar," said MercyMe guitar player Mike Scheuchzer.
"They teach them in a very step by step manner so that even an amateur hobbyist with a little guitar background can learn to play," said WorkshopLive chief content officer Nathaniel Gunod.
Learning to play like a rock star from a real life rock star is music to anyone's ears.