Does your arrangement really hold your interest? This is the first question you want to address when critiquing your work. If you find yourself falling asleep at first listen, never fear! We can help you break it down.

Here are some questions I got from the Arranging 1: Rhythm Section course which helped me improve my arrangements drastically!

• Do you like your intro?
• Does it draw you into the tune the way you wanted it to?
• Do you like the first eight measures of your “A” section?
• Did you make any variations in the following eight bars of your “B” section?
• If not, are you really happy with hearing the same exact thing again, if the music repeats here?
• If you’re doing a song, and you have a transitional bridge next, is it really effective moving into the chorus?
• Do you feel you’ve achieved a climactic point in the chorus?
• Do you feel that your arrangement overall has effective ebbs and flows—an “emotional contour?”
• Do you really like your ending?
• Is there any part in the arrangement where you get bored and want to be hearing the next section already?

Here is an assignment I worked on in this course. I have included the “before” version—

—and the “final” version which was recorded after going through these questions.

Beyond changing some of the samples and slowing the piece down, I made some variations in the B section, built on the transitional bridge, added a unison chorus with a descending bass line, and wrapped up with a bluegrass “tag” ending. All in all, this arrangement holds my attention more than the first one.

Although much could still be improved, this process plus feedback from my instructor Sarah Brindell and my peers helped a great deal!

What do you think?

Pro Tools 8 has six powerful virtual instruments: Boom, Vacuum, DB-33, XPand! 2, Structure Free, and Mini Grand. It isn’t surprising that the overall goal of the course is to teach students how to use these powerful instruments while showing how to use several effects plug-ins but the creative assignments in the course are what really caught my attention.

Students will be working on small weekly assignments using each of the 6 irtual instruments but at the same time, they will be working on engineering a lager project in which each channel strip will be a different virtual instrument! Dave is expecting to see lots of different styles of music such as Rock, Pop, Blues, Classical, Reggae, Electronica, etc. in these assignments which gives students a lot of creative freedom to explore their new found tools.

The open musical nature of this course will make it a great place for diverse musicians and producers to learn and work together. It is recommended that students have a good grasp on midi sequencing in Pro Tools 8 before taking this course. Pro Tools 101 and Producing with Pro Tools are good prerequisite courses if you need a refresher.

Find out more at berkleemusic.com or contact a Student Advisor:
1-866-BERKLEE (USA) | +1 617 747 2146 (Intl) | advisors@berkleemusic.com

A tritone is a musical interval of three whole steps, or 6 half steps. The interval is also known as an augmented fourth, a dimished fifth, or the ‘devil’s interval’ due to it’s dissonant sound.

This interval has been and continues to be utilized in music of all styles and can be found in tunes like “Maria” (from West Side Story), “Purple Haze, “and even Rachmaninoff’s famous Prelude in C# minor.

Tritone substitutions in chord progressions use the same concepts used to build tritones, but the focus is on the harmonic level, not melodic. These substitutions can be used in 12 Bar Blues, ii V I progressions, and many more complex changes as well.

Let’s take a standard ii V I progression in the key of C major to show a tritone substitution in action.

The typical progression would be as follows…

The chord substituted in the progression will be the dominant 7th, the G7 chord. Three whole tones above the note G is the note Db, which will be our new root for our dominant 7th chord.

The new progression would be as follows…

Musicians use tritone substitutions to vary the feel of repeated chord progressions and to facilitate stepwise motion. Re-harmonizing is one of the more interesting advanced topics taught here at berkleemusic and is covered in Getting Inside Harmony 2, which is authored by esteemed Berklee Professor and Assistant Film Scoring Chair Michael Rendish.

Interested students should either complete Getting Inside Harmony 1 or have equivalent experience.

• Listen to a Tritone Example MP3
• Explore Berkleemusic’s online Music Theory courses and certificate programs

Student Advisor Michael answers one of our most commonly asked questions about studying music online with Berklee.

Berkleemusic’s online winter term begins January 11, 2010. Find out more at berkleemusic.com.

I felt a strong desire to branch out and explore the Blues and Rock keyboard styles that I love listening to and luckily I found Dave Limina. Dave is a professor in the Berklee College of Music Piano department and has had extensive experience as a pianist, organist, composer, and arranger. Dave teaches Berkleemusic’s online Blues and Rock Keyboard Techniques.

Through video, interactive exercises, discussions and audio examples, Dave easily took seemingly complex musical ideas and made them understandable and attainable for our class.
We learned how to comp and solo in the Chicago Blues, Texas Shuffle, Slow Blues, Rock & Roll, and New Orleans styles (my favorite). Common blues licks such as the cascade lick and professor longhair’s licks are also intertwined within the core content so we can add some virtuosic flare to our playing.

In my opinion this is the perfect course for any players who have been playing the keys for a while and want to branch into Blues, Rock, Gospel, and other modern styles of music. Students should have good basic keyboard playing and reading skills along with knowledge of major scales, 7th chords, and basic rhythmic notation. You will be submitting recorded assignments as .mp3 files. Since I am new at recording, I opted to use a free and easy to use program called Audacity to record my playing. I now have several great recordings I can share with peers and fellow musicians. You can download the program to make your own recordings here.

I created this .mp3 which showcases the “Slow Blues” and “New Orleans” styles. The New Orleans piece is an original tune I wrote for one of my lessons…

Blues & Rock Keyboard Recording (MP3)

Be sure to check out Blues and Rock Keyboard Techniques. You should also watch this amazing performance from Berklee Professor’s Dave Limina and Russ Hoffman below.

Happy Playing!

- Michael Moyes