Studying Music Online

Mark Hopkins is a Student Advisor at Berkleemusic.com. He finished his studies at Berklee College of Music, as a Guitarist/Songwriting Major, in 2009. Mark is a regular gigging musician who has toured extensively and released 6 albums in the past 10 years. You can hear some of Mark’s music at www.markhopkinsmusic.com.

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As a student advisor this is a question I get asked often. Students are quite perplexed by how online courses work; I am here (as a guitarist and Guitar Master Certificate holder) to clear up all those gray areas for you!

The main argument is… “why shouldn’t I just invest my money into a private instructor?” Well, you definitely could go that route, but writing this blog as a guitarist of 22 years I can attest to the fact that great teachers are few and far between. I have spent mucho dinero on private instruction that got me in a room with a bunch of great players, who mostly like to talk about themselves. Before you know it your hour, or worse – half hour- is done. For me, as a life long student of music, I need a raging fire under me to motivate and push me to the next level! Private instruction doesn’t really deliver on that 100% of the time, but our online courses do.

I went through the guitar program at the main campus and after finishing up at Berklee I got a job here at Berkleemusic! Taking advantage of the amazing guitar curriculum we offer, I jumped into the Master Guitar Certificate right away. I was simply looking to maintain and juice up my chops- ya know, get in that shed and start chopping wood! I can say, with all honesty, it delivered… and then some. Every week I was challenged with 1-2 assignments where I was responsible for performing with a backing track and submitting it to my teacher. I love this format! It pushed me to up the ante on each assignment during the 12 week courses. Even courses like Chords and Scales 101 were absolutely amazing in helping revisit my fundamentals and technique. After completing all 8 courses involved in the Master Certificate I am an even better player than when I left the main campus. I noticed a huge difference in my playing and musicality. Not only do I feel intensely more comfortable on my neck, but I am hearing things at a deeper level than I was before.

With a bigger set of ears, my musical communication with my Trio has vastly expanded. I have now reached the point where I finally feel comfortable and understand how to craft my guitar tone the way I always heard it. With classes like Getting Your Guitar Sound you get to unleash the inner gear nerd from within and explore amps and effects like never before with the software Amplitube. If you are a tone nut (like me) and want to learn more about how your gear works, while also improving yourself as a player you will dig on that class hard. I got to play through amp mods that I have always dreamed of: Orange, Marshall, Vox and even old Fender Blackface amps. I have a 71 Twin Reverb that I mic’d and A/B’d with the vintage Fender amps in Amplitube… you cannot tell the difference. In fact, I have used a bunch of these amps on my latest tracks because they are so convincing! Not to mention I can come back to a guitar solo 3 days later and the tone is dialed in exactly the same so punches aren’t an issue at all. Y’all gotta check that class out it was one of my faves!

I genuinely believe in the education we offer here at Berkleemusic and I continue to take classes online whenever I can. It’s a great investment that you will never regret, and it’s a gift that you will cherish your whole life and a guitarist. I don’t think I’ll ever stop seeking out education, knowing more about my guitar makes it that much more enjoyable to sit down and play every day.

See ya guys soon, I’m off to the wood shed.

Mark Hopkins
www.markhopkinsmusic.com

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Berkleemusic’s next term begins on April 2nd, 2012.

Find out more at berkleemusic.com or contact a Student Advisor:

1-866-BERKLEE (USA) | +1 617 747 2146 (Intl) | advisors@berkleemusic.com

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Michael Moyes is a Senior Student Advisor at Berkleemusic.com. He finished his studies at Baylor University, where he studied Piano Performance and Business. Michael has performed Piano as a soloist, in combos, and accompanied by full Orchestra. He holds Master Certificate in Arranging and Orchestration from Berkleemusic. You can hear some of Michael’s music on the Berklee Music Network and on Soundcloud.

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“Learning licks and expecting to know how to improvise is akin to memorizing phrases in a French book and expecting to know how to speak French. One can only truly learn language by conversing with other people”

This paraphrased quote showcases the ‘vibe’ (sorry) that Gary Burton gave off throughout our conversation about his new Gary Burton: Jazz Improvisation course. Gary taught his style of improvisation here at The Berklee College of Music for over 20 years while at the same time playing with Chick Correa, George Shearing, Stan Getz, and other world renowned improvisers.

Every song has a story to tell and it is our job as improvisers to provide our own unique accent, inflection, timing, etc. Simply playing mixolydian runs every time we see a dominant 7th chord or dorian arpeggios over ii chords is missing the point of improvisation. True improvisers should be fine tuning ideas and giving them emotional content as they perform much like you would do with words when having a verbal conversation.

Gary stressed the importance of knowing what you are going to say and planning how you will say it before opening your mouth, striking the keys, or lifting your mallets. When a president gives a speech, they have some ideas prepared: an introduction, main points, and a conclusion perhaps. Without having an idea of what you are going to say you might sound like this…

“Hello, my name is President Burton and um, today I’m going to talk about some very important things…like the errr…economy and…global warming…”

Sure, the speaker hit some points: the economy, global warming, etc. but failed to tell us a story. As listeners, we are left craving more information, hopefully from a better speaker. As a former transcriber of Jazz solos, I have fallen into the trap of parroting others styles and licks without really saying much of anything. Lucky for me and many of you, Gary is sharing his extensive wisdom with us so that we can form our ideas and communicate on much higher levels. See you in class.

Michael Moyes

*(this class filled up almost immediately last term so we recommend getting in early)

Check out this video of Gary for more…

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Berkleemusic’s next term begins on April 2nd, 2012.

Find out more at berkleemusic.com or contact a Student Advisor:

1-866-BERKLEE (USA) | +1 617 747 2146 (Intl) | advisors@berkleemusic.com

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Mark Hopkins is a Student Advisor at Berkleemusic.com. He finished his studies at Berklee College of Music, as a Guitarist/Songwriting Major, in 2009. Mark is a regular gigging musician who has toured extensively and released 6 albums in the past 10 years. You can hear some of Mark’s music on myspace.com/markhopkinsmusic

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My name is Mark Hopkins, and I am a student advisor for Berkleemusic. I was lucky enough to get a chance to chat with my favorite guitarist, Wayne Krantz, while he was in town playing the Regatta Bar.

We talked about his experience as a Berklee student, the importance of music fundamentals and his approach to composition. It was quite an honor to pick Wayne’s brain and if you are a fan of music, like I am, you have to see this interview.