****Excellent ***Good **Fair *Poor : VIDEOCASSETTES

“Rockschool.” Lorimar. Six tapes, $19.95 each. So you want to be a rock ‘n’ roll star? Here’s a great place to start. Originally a BBC-TV series featuring three young musicians (later a synthesizer player joined them) covering essential early steps, “Rockschool” became a PBS series (with rather superfluous introductions by Herbie Hancock added) that was only partially shown in Los Angeles. These six tapes, each containing two or three half-hour shows, encompass the entire PBS versions, and coupled with the excellent “Rockschool” books ($9.95 each from Simon & Schuster), they’re just great for getting into guitar, bass, drums and/or keyboards. The videos aren’t perfect--the musicians do a bit too much playing and not quite enough instructing, but they’re very good at conveying basic information and useful tips. Volume 1 (of both tapes and books) is definitely the place to begin. Information: (714) 474-0355. ****