Steve Cooper

Bio

Steve Cooper is a well-established session guitarist who has performed throughout the UK & Europe for more than twenty five years. His performing and recording experience is vast and covers a wide spectrum of artists and styles.

Live performance and recording credits include international artists such as Robert Plant and Lionel Richie plus Jason Donovan, Journey South, Brenda Edwards, U.S soul legend Marc Broussard and all girl pop band, Solid Harmonie.

Steve is the guitarist on Channel 5's prime time music show, 'Jane and Friends' featuring BAFTA winner Jane McDonald. The show has run for two seasons, averaging over a million viewers per episode, which has cemented its reputation as a headline show on 5, who also won the coveted Edinburgh Television Festival 'Channel of the Year' prize in 2018.

In addition to performing with Jane, Steve co-wrote two original songs featured in the TV series and worked with a wide a variety of the featured guests from music, stage and screen including Kerry Ellis, Gwen Dickey, Shayne Ward, Russell Watson, Zoe Burkett, Tony Hadley, Duncan James and Lee Mead.

Steve is a renowned music educator and he is currently Course Leader for Popular Music at the University of Wolverhampton where he specialises in teaching guitar, performance, harmony and songwriting. He is an acoustic and electric guitar examiner to diploma level with RGT and is currently appointed as an external examiner in Popular Music at the Edinburgh Napier University and Popular and Commercial Music at Canterbury Christ Church University.

Steve has worked closely with Roland (UK) as an artist ambassador and has regularly participated in masterclass sessions across the UK giving an insight into the life of a working musician.

Steve's work on the use of the iPod as a music teaching tool is internationally recognised and was published in two peer reviewed academic journals in 2008, The British Journal of Music Education (BJME) and the Journal of Music,Technology and Education. In 2013, Steve's book 'Never Mind The Bee S#arps' was published, reaching number 1 in the iTunes (UK) music book charts. Click books for further information and links to all available formats.

As a guitar arranger and transcriber, Steve has completed more than fifty published works for Music Sales including album folios by Queens of The Stone Age (Songs for The Deaf), The Vines (Highly Evolved) and The Clash’s ‘Complete Chord Songbook’. Other arrangements include tracks by Foo Fighters, Morrissey, System Of A Down, Velvet Revolver, The Killers, Funeral For A Friend, Maximo Park, Nine Inch Nails and Kaiser Chiefs.

Steve holds a first class honours degree in Music and Popular Music, a Masters in Higher Education teaching, a Licentiate Diploma in guitar from the London College of Music and is a teaching fellow of the Higher Education Academy.