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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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 currently working towards 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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What do the films Crimson Tide, Pirates of the Caribbean II, and Inception have in common?

Besides all being scored by Hans Zimmer, they all include elements of MIDI orchestration. MIDI Orchestration is the art of sequencing a piece with virtual instruments with the goal of making it sound like real musicians are performing it.

Since full Orchestras are hard to find (and expensive to hire), I took Orchestration 1 with Ben Newhouse this past Summer term to try and learn how to do this myself.

It quickly became clear that the days of 8 bit midi music a la Super Mario Brothers (NES) are gone; samples are very sophisticated now! When presented with 3 different orchestral audio examples and asked to pick out the one that was created with midi orchestration, I guessed wrong. A bit deflated, I asked around and a couple of my esteemed Berklee colleagues also couldn’t tell which production didn’t have live performers.

The audio samples and DAW technology available today allow composers without the luxury of a full orchestra at their command to compose and produce professional orchestral music. I purchased the East West Gold Symphonic Play Orchestra (at the discounted student rate) and worked with it extensively throughout the 12 week course. Other great libraries like Kontakt, Vienna Symphonic Library, and Garriton Personal Orchestra are also great libraries that can be used in the course. This brings up Ben’s second golden rule of Orchestration…

Rule 2: Use the best samples available.

In MIDI Orchestration, the samples are your performers, and you want performers who will make your music sound great. Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 is a great composition, but it will not sound like one if performed by your local middle school orchestra. Similarly, your latest masterpiece will not sound like a great piece of music if sequenced with the General MIDI bank on an average keyboard.

Just as you aspire for your piece to be performed by the New York Philharmonic, you should aspire for your MIDI orchestrations to be created with the best available samples.”

Orchestration taught me how to effectively write for each section of the orchestra so that my compositions could be played by a true full orchestra or produced digitally using modern technology.

Here is a project of mine so you can get an idea of what you may be creating:

The Pumpkin Waltz

The course is perfect for students who know how to read/write music and are familiar with using a DAW to sequence their music. Having a love of classical and film music from composers like Bartok, John Williams, Danny Elfman, or anyone else is plus! Check out Orchestration 1 if you want more information…

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Berkleemusic’s online winter term begins January 10, 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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I had a conversation with instructor Dave Franz last week and we spent some time talking about his new online course, Pro Tools: Virtual Instruments and Effects. Those of you who know me are familiar with the fact that I am a production novice (n00b), but I felt compelled to write a quick blog due to the unique layout of his course.

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.

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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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Hey again. Michael Moyes, Student Advisor for Berkleemusic here. I have been furthering my harmonic knowledge this term and have been spending some time thinking about Tritones and their numerous functions in music of all types.

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…

Dmin7

G7

CMA7

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…

Dmin7

Db7

CMA7

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

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Berkleemusic’s online winter term begins January 11, 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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Student Advisor Amy H answers one of our most commonly asked questions, and explains how students interact with their instructors and classmates online.

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

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

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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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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.

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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 there, Liam McCormack, Student Advisor at Berkleemusic here! As we are approaching our Fall Term, starting on Sept 28th, I wanted to take a moment to speak about one of my favorite courses that Berkleemusic offers online, the Lyric Writing: Tools and Strategies online songwriting course.

I was a Songwriting major at the Berklee College of Music and I am very familiar with the content in the Tools and Strategies course. In fact, it was Berklee’s exemplary Songwriting curriculum that really drew me to the college. This course is a wonderful introduction into the world of lyric writing and instructs students on brainstorming lyrical ideas, developing rhyming structures, and many of the other subtleties that go into crafting lyrics to communicate a certain emotion and/or story.

Through experimenting with different rhyme patterns, line lengths, syllable stresses, and much more—you will learn how to take your lyrical ideas and creatively map them out to make your song the best it can be for your listener.

In addition to all the great advice and tools you will pick up in the course, you will also benefit immensely from the feedback coming your instructor and your fellow students. As a songwriter, I can recount many times where I have spent hours and hours on a song and then a listener makes a comment or asks a question about the lyrics–and that feedback opens a whole new creative perspective that inspires further revisions and lyrical improvements.

Lyric writing is a form of expression. Expressing a certain emotion–expressing your unique perspective–perhaps through a narrative story, or simply a catchy sing-a-long chorus.

The Lyric Writing: Tools & Strategies course enables you to channel and organize your thoughts and feelings into a catalog of accessible and imaginative songs. Have fun with it!

I hope you check out this  course and many of our other exciting Songwriting courses.

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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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My name is Michael and I am an advisor here at Berkleemusic. I come from the world of classical piano where some may argue, reading and interpreting music is more important than creating it.

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

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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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