It's been away, but now it's back, back, back. Rockschool, that is. After four repeats of the first series, Britain's only musicians' TV show is on the air again. We talked to Rockschool producer Chris Lent about the changes he had instituted.

"This time, we're not just concentrating exclusively on guitar, bass, and drums. We're including keyboards, synths, and some of the wonders of digital technology such as samplers, signal processors, and MIDI controllers. And, most importantly, we're looking at vocals. We've tried to slow down the show a little, and to feature more music," Chris told us, "though it's still action-packed."

This new series adds keyboardist Alastair Gavin to the regular band of Deidre Cartwright (guitar), Henry Thomas (bass), and drum-humming Geoff Nicholls (drums). Alastair was picked by Chris Lent from an initial 20 or 30 hopefuls. "He is very versatile stylistically. I liked the way he took chances at the audition, layering sounds. And he has a very deadpan sense of humour — he looks schoolish, but is quite lunatic underneath. Which is how I see Rockschool as a whole, really," Chris concluded.

Vocals will be handled by the four presenters. "I felt five would be too much. Also, it's harder for a singer to cover all fields — it's better to interview a heavy metal vocalist and a soul singer than get someone to sing both."

Rockschool 2 was made with the financial assistance of an American Public Broadcasting Service channel. Reflecting the US involvement, there's a greater proportion of interviews with Yankee stars, such as Herbie Hancock, Omar Hakim, and Jan Hammer. British musicians involved include Midge Ure, The Communards, Bill Bruford, Selwyn Brown, Andy Summers, and Tony Banks. As you can tell from the two programmes already shown, some of these players are almost as good talkers as they are players — doncha just love Omar Hakim's voice?

The shows are going out on Tuesday evenings at 7.35pm, BBC2, and the subjects they cover are roughly as follows: on 3rd November, Rockschool leads with simple synth techniques, chord structure, and a basic singing lesson. The 10th's show explores dynamics for all the instruments, tapping on, and soloing in general, the 17th's deals with MIDI, guitar synths, FM, and electronic drums, and the 24th's concentrates on rhythm work, in particular keyboards. On 1st December the show copes with sampling, voicing for all the instruments, and vocal harmonies, and on the 8th, the last programme in the series puts everything together for an examination of song structure and arrangement. It also features guest singer Juliet Roberts from Working Week.

There's something in Rockschool for all musicians — you don't have to be a learner to appreciate a talented player explaining how he does it. Chris Lent encourages you to watch the shows over and over to get the best out of them. But if you forget to set your video, the first repeats are scheduled to begin in the New Year, from 11 pm on Sunday January 3rd (BBC1). In the meantime, Chris is working on an Open College course entitled Rockbizz which will cover the practical skills needed to organise a rock band — almost a rock'n'roll management course; more details on that next month.