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 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 a combo, and accompanied by full Orchestra. He is recently completed his Master Certificate in Arranging and Orchestration from Berkleemusic. You can hear some of Michael’s music on the Berklee Music Network.

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1:23AM on Friday April 4th—ears and mind exhausted, I submitted my final assignment for Orchestration 2. This particular assignment also happened to be my last requirement for my Master Certificate in Arranging and Orchestration. It took me 2 years to complete this beast and I have been letting out a huge exhale since.

Writing music has always been a dream of mine but it’s not my core profession (yet). Tackling a Master Certificate while working full time as an online student advisor, being a husband, and trying to have a social life was tough, but would I do it differently if I could do it all again? No….and then again, maybe yes.

It is easy to get overwhelmed when working towards an ambitious goal. In a couple of my classes I fell into the trap of waiting until the end of each week to start working on lessons and assignments. When an advisor can’t follow his own advice, there is a problem. Carving out bits of time in the morning before work or in the evening after dinner ended up being the formula for me to stay relatively stress free, complete my work on time, and learn more from my professor and classmates. This method won’t work for everyone but I know students who use a lunch break at work to review their assignments, carve out time on Sundays to get a head start on next weeks lesson, post to discussion boards while on the tour bus, or even set their alarm one hour early every day so they can write or record distraction free. I assure you, the rewards will be plentiful and I am already seeing the benefit.

I have written plenty of pieces at this point and I am well equipped to write for Film and TV which was at one time merely a pipe dream. Former classmates of mine have morphed into industry contacts. Professors like Ben Newhouse and Beth Denisch have my back and are interested in hearing new music I write. Having relationships with people who readily endorse your work and give you great feedback and advice is invaluable. Essentially the seeds that I planted 2 years ago are starting to sprout and I am in a place I never thought possible. You can check out my Arranging and Orchestration projects on my Berklee Music Network profile.

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Berkleemusic’s next term begins on June 27, 2011.

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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Watch a short video with our Student Advisors discussing Berkleemusic’s Certificate Programs. These multi-course online programs provide students with:

• Solid qualifications and marketable skills for success
• 1-3 years of extensive training with Berklee faculty
• Berklee-certified credentials for their resumes

Browse Berkleemusic’s Certificates

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Berkleemusic’s online spring term begins April 5, 2010.

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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Hi everyone, I’m Julia Polanco, advisor at Berkleemusic. We just launched the Advisor Blog and I wanted to share with you my favorite certificate of the week: the Specialist in Voice Technique and Musicianship.

Being a vocalist, vocal coach and a Berklee Alumni, I can speak from experience when I say that most singers are not always “respected” in a musicians’ world. A common belief is to think that all there is to being a vocalist is singing a melody line and reciting lyrics. Wrong! We are as gifted musically as any other instrumentalist. It is up to us to take our musicianship to the next level, not just to sing along but live our music, understand it, and interpret it like a trumpet player or a piano player would perform their tunes. Yes, your voice is an instrument and a powerful one, so use it right!

Our Specialist Certificate in Voice Technique and Musicianship is a collection of three courses. It will not only take your vocal and technical skills to an advanced level, but your musicianship as well. Add to it your talent and your dedication and it is the recipe to success for a respected and a trusted vocalist. Let’s take a look at the courses included in my favorite certificate.

Music Theory 101 is the key to understanding pulse, meter, triads, basic chord progressions, music notation and its relationship to a comping instrument: the piano. You will learn how to read, write, and notate music. It is extremely important especially when you have to prepare for an audition or for a rehearsal. It is best to know what the lead sheet you are giving your accompanist is about. Finding out as you are performing for the audition of the year that the song you’ve dedicated so much time to is in a different key, that you are out of tune since there was no intro and you didn’t know where to start is mortifying (yes, I’m speaking from experience).

Basic Ear Training 1 will teach you how to identify different parts of a song, rhythm, key signatures, intervals, and major/minor tonics and triads. You will find it especially useful to get your sight-singing skills up to speed and you will love the fact that you can finally hear harmony parts in a song, find your melody line without hearing the backing track, and start to arrange vocal parts for your background vocalists.

Voice Technique 101 is the icing on the cake. You will get rid of bad habits, polish your breathing technique, you will turn into a healthy singer with daily practice routines, you will feel your range expanding fast and your voice sound more powerful in no time. Getting rid of bad habits is hard, especially when you’ve been singing “the wrong way” for years. Starting fresh with an excellent foundation and no preconceived ideas is the best thing you can do when it comes to mastering such a delicate and fragile instrument in contemporary music.

I highly recommend this certificate to every inspiring or advanced vocalist out there. No matter what your goal is: whether it is towards your career or your personal growth, the most important thing is to approach it as an art and reach for perfection.

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Contact a Berkleemusic Student Advisor
1-866-BERKLEE (USA) | +1 617 747 2146 (Intl) | advisors@berkleemusic.com

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Hey, it’s Amy Heidemann!  Like my fellow advisor Liam mentioned, we get to chat with students everyday, so we wanted to feature a “Weekly Favorite” Certificate Program to give you guys the inside scoop.  I’m actually in the midst of the Master Certificate in Music Business and Technology myself, so you’re getting the DIRECT inside scoop here…

My ultimate career goal is to be a self-sufficient artist.  I want to write, perform, record, produce, and market my music!  The reason I chose the Music Business and Technology Master Certificate is because I already have a pretty solid background in performance and songwriting.  I wanted a program to teach me the business lingo and important topics on royalties, publishing laws, and marketing techniques for getting my music out there.  I also needed to know how to record my own, professional sounding demos at home.  There are so many great Certificates to chose from, so why this particular one?

First, I like that it splits Business and Technology right down the middle.  You get half business courses (all essentials for any artist or producer) and half technology or production-based courses.  Hiring a lawyer to consult me about that certain paragraph on a contract or agreement about money issues just doesn’t sit right.  I want to know the basics on how to read contracts and get what I want in terms of revenue and copyright ownership. On the other hand, when I write a song or want to put something down, I can just flip on my system and go!  I am also excited to learn how to edit my performances, tweak the vocal sound, and get a real effective demo put online as an mp3.  Paying $50 -$100 per hour at a studio got very frustrating, especially when it didn’t come out sounding the way I wanted.

Finally, after you’ve gotten into Publishing, Marketing, Recording, Producing, and other valuable areas of study, you have three elective courses.  I chose Critical Listening 1 because I had some issues with feedback and noise interference in my audio tracks.  Finding the solution for this can take a good amount of trouble-shooting, so I figured, why not eliminate it entirely?

Since I chose the Critical Listening course from the provided list of “Recommended Electives,” I am now able to choose the other two electives from ANYWHERE in the catalog.  So, naturally I took a guitar course (so much fun)! Rhythm and Groove Guitar with Bruce Bartlett taught me the real meaning of “pocket.”  Now my rhythm playing/accompaniment to my singing is a lot more natural sounding and diversified.  Prior to this course, I caught myself playing only one rhythmic figure—problem solved.  I’ll be saving my final elective for later because I’ve heard Berkleemusic is launching some awesome new courses this Fall.  In fact, Berkleemusic launches new courses almost every term—so why get tied down?

In conclusion, the Master Certificate in Music Business and Technology is a fantastic program that fits me perfectly.  I’ve recommended it for many other students who have similar interests and they always seem very relieved that there’s a Certificate Program that fits their goals so perfectly.  Get in touch with a Student Advisor if you’d like to find out if this is a good fit for you. If not, there are many other Certificates we’ll be featuring in later weeks.

If so, I’ll see you in class!

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Contact a Berkleemusic Student Advisor
1-866-BERKLEE (USA) | +1 617 747 2146 (Intl) | advisors@berkleemusic.com

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