Studying Music Online

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. He also teaches bluegrass banjo in the Boston area. You can hear some of Michael’s music on the Berklee Music Network and on Soundcloud.

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I learned how to read music in third grade. Violin was the instrument of choice since the public school system wouldn’t let you play the sax until 4th grade. After perfecting ‘Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge’ and other classic notation mnemonics, I spent a lot of time figuring out how to read bass clef so I could play the piano. Over the next 20 years I played piano concerto’s, sight read as an accompanist, taught several instruments, wrote full scale orchestral pieces, and transcribed complex jazz piano solos. Reading notation hasn’t been a problem since elementary school…until now.

When I was 15, I became infatuated with Béla Fleck and his 5 string banjo stylings. My parents bought me a cheap Asian import banjo and I immediately started digging into bluegrass classics like Cripple Creek, Foggy Mountain Breakdown and more modern Fleck compositions like Sunset Road, and Sinister Minister.

*If you don’t know what I am talking about, you need to get this album immediately…

Learning these pieces was relatively quick and easy thanks to one seemingly wonderful tool. Tablature! Any guitar player, and most other fretted instrument players are familiar with the magical numeric system that simply tells you what finger to place on what string. How do you think so many guitar players know how to play stairway to heaven?

About a year ago I dusted off the ol’ banjo and started to play again. Having given advice about the importance of not relying on tablature to hundreds of students, I knew it was time to practice what I preach. Little did I know, learning to read musical notation on a different instrument involved a complete rewiring of my brain. It is not easy.

Here is my plan of attack…

Learn all chords and inversions - Simply knowing how to play a D chord is not enough. If I am playing a D chord on the 7th fret, I want to think about which notes are ringing on each string. Low D string 7th fret = A, G string 7th fret = D, B string 7th fret = F#, High D string 7th fret = A. This means that this chord is a D 2nd inversion. Learning that the 7th fret on either D string is an A will help greatly when reading notation.

Learn scales - Much like chords, you can start a scale at several different places in the fretboard. You can also find common patterns that help you as you go up and down the neck. Although it can be tough on the ear, you don’t have to start with the root. Learning the 12 major scales up and down the neck can be accomplished with just 3 patterns. Look for these patterns and make note of which notes are on which frets.

Play all the D’s, B’s, C#’s, etc. - There are 8 D’s on a 5 string Banjo. Learn where they all are. You can cross reference the location of these notes with the chords and scales you are working on.

*Banjo notation sounds an octave lower than written
**Shortened 5th String is not represented in this tab

Play lots of songs - Pick easy songs, short songs, songs in keys like G, C, D, or others with limited sharps and flats. If you want to start off with a song in Bb minor, more power to you but you may be fighting an uphill battle. I personally like fiddle tunes, nursery rhymes, and easier classical pieces like selections from Mozart piano sonatas. You can find a ton of notation just by googling. Pick one song per day and find the notes in the lowest position possible. Once you have them down, play along with a metronome. To make things more difficult, start the song on a different string/fret or play it up an octave. It is important to pick a new tune every day or so. Otherwise, you may find yourself subconsciously memorizing tunes instead of really thinking about what notes you are reading. If you spend 30 minutes a day doing this, you will notice a genuine change. To test yourself, go back to a piece you sight read a week or two ago and start over. The difference is amazing.

Why is it important to read music? This is a whole other blog post but in the meantime, ask Stefan Lessard or any of our other students who are commercially successful artists how getting back to education has helped their playing.

-Michael

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Berkleemusic’s next term begins on June 25th, 2012.

Music Theory 101 is a good place to start!

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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Brian Choi is a Student Advisor at Berkleemusic.com. He finished his studies at USC, where he studied Business. Brian is an avid Reason, Pro Tools and Final Cut user who routinely gets into any production gear he can get his hands on.

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When EdX, the joint partnership between MIT and Harvard launched this month to offer online learning to millions of people around the world, Anant Agarwal, who is in charge, said, “Online classes are the single biggest change in education since the printing press”. Online text is good, but here at Berklee College of Music, we also integrate video/audio performance and live interaction. Our faculty has been experimenting with online education for nearly a decade and we have the largest and most current online music curriculum in the world. The interaction between our excellent faculty including celebrity musicians like Gary Burton and Steve Vai and our students is no longer just for virtual reality geeks—it is as real as it gets—and you can instantly hit the repeat button to rehearse.

Before the end of this decade, online education will eclipse traditional education. College campuses will not be empty, but the majority of students may only see it once in a while. Why? Our hectic lifestyles require education to evolve with the changing expectations and needs of students. As a school at the forefront of this revolution in teaching and learning, Berklee wants to cater to an ever-growing population of musicians who want to be part of our network. We build a community made up of online and physical campus students, alumni, faculty and staff. The best thing is you do not need to travel to Boston to be part of it anymore (although you are most welcome).

Having experienced Berkleemusic first hand as a Student and now as Staff, I’m still surprised by the amount of people I speak with that have a hard time believing they can learn online. Why does online education still have a stigma even after so many years of success?

Educators are in disbelief, of course. Their whole career has been spent in the regular classroom. Until they try online education, I guess it is hard to believe. Skeptics worry about the lack of interaction and personal touch of a traditional classroom. Until I was able to take online courses with Berklee, I thought so, too. It was actually better for me. I never would have been able to take classes otherwise with a full time job. Being able to work around my schedule was great. In many ways, I felt like it was more interaction than I had while I was in college. I was no longer in huge lecture halls where I barely interacted with other students or my professor. I had live chats each week, great feedback on all my assignments, and I felt part of a community. I interacted with other students in my class like I had never had before. This opportunity to network and interact with a very diverse group of people from all over the world made it a great experience. And much of the learning comes from classmates, through assignments, discussions, and forums.

Teachers do need to adapt. They must get used to not being the single focal point of learning. Students are learning just as much from each other. Teachers are helping facilitate the peer learning process, but students these days learn and collect information differently then in the past. They are quicker. Rapid feedback is expected. Those teachers who adjust to that change become successful in online education. Going online first is no longer a technical skill, but a mentality.

As Colleges and Universities are no longer limited by time and space, how do students react? Berklee students love it. They embrace online education like never before. Flexibility, accessibility, and convenience are the major tenets of online education. This is attractive to all students. Someday I can even envision seeing thousands of people studying together from all over the world in one class with a hologram of their professor who is across the world beamed out from their computer standing right in front of them in their living room. All the classroom materials will be easily downloaded and slide shows will be uploaded to a server so everyone can follow along with the lecture. The professor can call on any student. Any student who speaks or plays an instrument can be beamed on to a virtual stage in everyone’s living room. It will look and feel like an actual classroom in the comfort
of your own home. Or, in actual fact, a live, virtual stage. Okay, maybe I’m getting a little ahead of myself here, but you get the point.

Education for everyone, anytime will be the norm, so be ready. Send me your thoughts about where you see online education in the future. I would love to hear from you.

Brian

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Berkleemusic’s next term begins on June 25th, 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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Jason Peté is a Student Advisor at Berkleemusic.com. A Berklee College of Music graduate (Music Business and MGMT major and Voice principal, ’07), Jason has a background in vocal performance in genres ranging from Jazz, Pop, Gospel, Classical and Musical Theater. His performance experiences range from background vocals with major artists such as Gloria Estephan, Paul Simon, Livingston Taylor, and The Yellow Jackets to solo gigs in the New England and West Coast areas. He continues to pursue music, performing for audiences across the country.

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School’s out for summer (for some of you), so you’re applying for jobs and drafting emails left and right in the hopes of landing your dream position! Or maybe you aren’t applying to jobs. We all use email communication more and more each day. I thought I would write in with some tips for email… we’ll call it email etiquette 101. The following will come in handy for job-seekers and anyone looking for a way to draft successful emails.

1. Use the subject line for the general synopsis of your email- fill out the “subject” field with a topic sentence and it should correspond to the contents of your email… a quick peek as to what your email is about. Avoid ones like “Hi Jason” — “checking in” — “following up” without including *what*, exactly you’re following-up / checking-in on.

2. If you’re emailing with a new subject / idea / topic, please start a fresh email.

3. Address the email recipient by the appropriate title and be sure you’ve spelled their name correctly: Mrs. Marcell may or may not be married, so go with Ms. Marcell, it’s an appropriate title for both married and unmarried women.

4. When applying for a job, do your research to find out the hiring manager’s first and last name and refer to him/her as such in your email submission- extra points for looking as though you’ve researched the business you want to hire you

5. Don’t reply to general emails with specific questions (i.e. Company newsletters with your resume submission) This is a no no!. Remember Ms. Marcell we referred to earlier. You want to be sure she receives your resume not the marketing representative who may or may not forward it along to her (chances are Joe marketing guy will send your email right to the trash).

6. Avoid WRITING IN ALL CAPS or in all small case. An all caps email translates as aggressive and can be distracting. THIS IS QUITE A CHALLENGE TO READ, while this and even a Combination of This looks perfectly fine.

an all lowercase email looks unprofessional and more like notes vs a finalized/proof-read email. See the difference?

7. Use proper sentence structure: First word capitalized with appropriate punctuation… Multiple instances of exclamation marks (!!!) or ??? can be interpreted as rude or condescending.

8. Email content should be concise; not as formal as a term paper per say, but to the point.

9. Spell and grammar check is also a must- misspelled words and run-on sentences are distracting.

10. For some people, email is not their job. Please allow some time before following up with a check-in email. Keep this in mind especially when emailing about a job- allow the hiring manager some time before getting back to you; patience will do you well here.

11. Avoid giant attachments and long-winded emails – especially if you’re sending a resume. Convert your resume to PDF format (Google search PDF formatting if you don’t already know how to do it). PDF format is helpful to ensure all the hard-work you’ve put into styling your resume remains and transfers accurately when sent across computer platforms. A PDF file is essentially an un-editable image that’ll look the same whether viewed on MAC or PC platforms.

12. CCing vs BCCing. The “CC” in both CC and BCC actually means Carbon Copy. When copying someone on an email using the CC field, all recipients are able to see who the email was sent to.

BCC on the otherhand- stands for Blind Carbon Copy- use this function as needed, but this is suited for an email where all recipients don’t necessarily need to see each other’s email addresses. For the occasion when you as the sender want to reach several parties with general information, but want to keep their address private, use BCC.

13. Include your contact information: Put at least your first and last name in your signature. If your email communication warrants a telephone call, add your telephone number to your signature as well or find a way to highlight your number toward the end of your email: “I look forward to speaking with you- you can reach me at XXX-XXX-XXXX”
If your telephone number is in your email signature, try something like this: “I would appreciate a call back at your convenience… my contact information appears below.”

I hope this helps! We’ll dive into résumé/cover letter writing next time.

-Jason

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Berkleemusic’s next term begins on June 25th, 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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Brian John is a Student Advisor at berkleemusic.com. He has a Bachelors in Piano Performance from Miami University of Ohio, and a Masters in Composition from Longy School of Music. Brian’s background is primarily in Classical music, but a 4 year stint in a home-grown jam band gives him a unique perspective on both genres. He continues to compose and perform for people across the US.

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Structure – the one word that musicians across the world shudder to think about when it comes to their daily schedule. Whether you are working 9-5 and gigging whenever you can, or you are a full-time musician and wearing all the hats you can possibly imagine, establishing a consistent structure to your day seems nigh on impossible.

Recently, I find myself completely absent of any time to write and create music. This is not to say that I don’t have any down time – we all have down time that we use to surf the web, catch up on TV, or have a drink with friends. It has taken a while, but the realization is dawning that the reason I don’t feel like I have time to write is because I have not carved out a consistent time to write.

My schedule is like everyone else’s – I’m over-committed to after-work activities, and I always take on more collaborative projects than I can comfortably handle. Currently I’m singing in a choir, working 4-6 hours a week on a collaboration with an artist, and trying to rehearse for a gig in June where I’m sitting in as a keyboard player. O yah, and I’m planning a wedding as well. Congratulations aside (assuming you’d congratulate me right? anyone? Bueller?) my weekly schedule is anything but predictable.

What finally drove the point home was this simple image at the end of a Kickstarter video:

I realized that I don’t do that – it is not that I CAN’T do that, I simply don’t. I imagine that I am also not alone in this. Carving out a time when you can turn off the internet, turn off the phone, turn off all other obligations and simply focus on the creative process is crucial. This is not something you can just sit down and spend 15 minutes on here and there. This is something that takes time to get into the creative mind-set, to get in touch with all those ideas bouncing around, and to get them down in some tangible form. It is unreasonable to think that you will do your best work when you are more focused on a) you haven’t written in a while and b) you only have ‘x’ amount of time RIGHT NOW to get something done before you have to go do that other thing.

Certainly this is not going to be easy – I would have to wake up early, and my sign would say ‘Do not disturb – writing until 7AM’. Still, what is waking up early versus pursuing what is important? Take a long hard look at your own schedule – when would your ‘Do not disturb’ time be? What is preventing you from taking this time? We always blame outside factors – the job, the tour, the many hats we all wear. However, the blame always falls on us, and our inability to turn off the outside world and focus. This is important – I should do it. You should do it. So go write something already.

-Brian J

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New Berkleemusic’s next term begins on June 25th, 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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The music community recently lost my favorite drummer/lead vocalist of all time (sorry Phil Collins). Levon Helm of “The Band” passed away a few weeks ago but not after teaching the world some classic tunes like “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”, “Up On Cripple Creek”, and of course “The Weight”. These songs are known and revered by many a music lover, plenty of whom play and sing solely by ear. I play/sing with a choir group in South Boston led by a prodigious gospel/rock pianist by the name of Pastor Burns Stanfield. He has a knack for hearing progressions in his head and laying them down like a thunderous hailstorm of harmony and rhythm. I remember one occasion where the sustain pedal actually broke off due to his driving foot stomping. Many of the other highly talented choir members are a bunch of city folk to whom music is still very much an oral tradition. Lyrics are scribbled on pieces of paper, SATB parts are hashed out on the fly, and a song will (almost) never sound the same twice. The music is very accessible for all who want to perform, and the lack of polished music theory rigidness creates an arguably more emotional experience for both the listeners and performers.

Now, onto the other side of the coin. This choir group doesn’t stick to Hymns. Pastor Burns loves “The Band” and we often play some of their tunes for special events. After several years of listening to the chorus of “The Weight” performed incorrectly, I hit my breaking point and decided to lay some knowledge on the choir. The part that always gets everyone flustered is after the last “Take the load off Fanny” line where the singers rest on the first beat, then have an arpeggiated “And, And, And…..” followed by two singing “You put the load right on me” staggered by a beat. That is a tough enough sentence to write, so you can imagine how difficult it was to try and explain it verbally. The concept of a time signature is the missing link here. You need to understand how 4/4 time and 3/4 time works to hear this accurately, and perform it as The Band intended. The “You put the load right on me” measure switch to 3/4 time is quite significant.

To explain the concept, I notated the chorus for “The Weight” with a program called noteflight we have been using in our Theory courses. It is my first go at using the program so bear with me.

Notice measure 5 is in 3/4, meaning there are only 3 quarter notes in the measure. Try playing the file while counting out loud and see how it goes. The little numbers on the top are beat numbers so you can count, clap, stomp along with the tune. I am not going to get into what time signatures are in this post but we do cover rhythm in our Music Theory courses. If you are interested in learning about notation, rhythmic dictation, and harmony, you should check out the Music Theory 101 course.

RIP Levon Helm

-Michael

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Berkleemusic’s next term begins on June 25th, 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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Doug Orey is a Student Advisor at Berkleemusic.com. He graduated from the Berklee College of Music in 2009 where he earned a degree in Music Business and Management. He is currently an avid gigging musician heavily involved in the Boston rock scene. He is the lead singer/rhythm guitarist and main songwriter for The Field Effect (www.thefieldeffectmusic.com/). He enjoys pizza and also has a beard.

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In my last post I tackled some things to help you with your presence on Twitter. This post is all about the things that can hurt you when amassing a following. These things are easy to avoid and just as easy to do.

Auto Tweets

This is something I actually fell victim to. A lot of your social media is going to be tied together. Be careful not to blast your followers with multiple copies of the same tweet in short succession. For instance, my band’s WordPress Blog was set-up to push any new posts to Twitter and Tumblr. Problem was that our Tumblr was also set-up to push to Twitter! In a matter of seconds our followers were hit with redundant tweets. I quickly put a stop to this, I know personally I have unfollowed people for such things.

Ask for Followers/Likes

This is something that I see all the time. It’s one thing to promote your Facebook page or website on Twitter. Those two sources are where people can get more information about upcoming dates, news and listen to your music. Asking for likes on social media is not the way to build a dedicated fan base. “Liking” something for “Following” someone is a passive act. Seeing a high number of “Likes” or “Followers” is definitely an ego boost and feels good…but are these fans buying your record and coming to your shows, or just clicking “Follow” and forgetting about it? If you’re nearing a personal milestone such as 500 followers or 1,000 likes, it can’t hurt to point that out and maybe garner a bit more attention. Look at it as a relationship though; you don’t want to seem needy.

One too Many Retweets…

Share what YOU have to say. It’s great to retweet interesting stuff and share things your fans are saying but people are following YOU! I have unfollowed on a number of occasions because all they did was retweet things over and over. You might think, you don’t have anything interesting to say and that is where you are wrong. Conor Oberst of @brighteyesband could tweet “I prefer Skippy brand peanut butter” and 90% of his fan base will think “WHOA! Conor Oberst likes the same peanut butter I do!!!” You can keep it light, just remember to keep it you.

Don’t Think You’re Better Than Your Followers

Too often I see major stars openly dissing their fans. Most recently, Rihanna went after a fan on twitter. Not cool Rihanna, not cool. You have to remember that not everything you do will jive with your fans but never under any circumstances should you attack them. People might talk trash, but let it go. No need to go after them. You could very easily loose more fans by doing so, let them talk, no one will notice.

So these have been my thoughts on the Twitter game. This is the approach I am taking and it seems to be going well! Let me know what you all think! What are you doing to keep fans engaged on Twitter?

Doug

www.thefieldeffectmusic.com
@thefieldeffect

Check out our Online Music Marketing course if you are interested in leveraging all of your digital marketing efforts.

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Berkleemusic’s next term begins on June 25th, 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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Doug Orey is a Student Advisor at Berkleemusic.com. He graduated from the Berklee College of Music in 2009 where he earned a degree in Music Business and Management. He is currently an avid gigging musician heavily involved in the Boston rock scene. He is the lead singer/rhythm guitarist and main songwriter for The Field Effect (www.thefieldeffectmusic.com/). He enjoys pizza and also has a beard.

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Every musician should be on Twitter. It’s a quick, simple and direct way to engage and grow your fan base when you are away from the stage. Just like everything else, there is a right and a wrong way to using Twitter, and you want to be sure that you are using it for good and not EVIL! Below I’ve outlined a few tools, tips and tricks that can help you manage your Twitter presence and max out it’s potential.

Content, Content. Content!

Not a day should go by with out a tweet from you or your band. But Doug, I have nothing cool to say or talk about! That’s where you are wrong. Your fans want a little glimpse into your day to day. What are you doing when you’re not rocking faces? Something as simple as “Listening to the new @yellowbirddd_ track and it rules!” puts you on their level and might help them discover artists you enjoy. Bottom line is don’t over think it. Share what you’re doing, listening to even eating. Tweet a picture of your view from your seat in the back of the van while you’re touring. People connect to your music. Let them connect to you as well.

Interaction = Awesome Sauce

No doubt you follow some of your favorite musicians on Twitter. How often do you see fans soliciting re-tweets and replies from the superstars? It would just make by birthday if I got a RT from @KarminMusic!!! Obviously the more popular you become and the more followers you amass it will become difficult to respond to every tweet, but setting aside just 10 or 15 minutes a day to tweet at some fans can make their week, month or even year! Let them know they are appreciated, welcome new followers, it takes all of 30 seconds to write 140 characters or less. If they tweet back at you then you’re showing up in their feed and all of their followers see it as well. Don’t forget your fellow musicians in all of this. You’re playing the game together, always nice to have some allies!

Navigating the Vast Realm of the Twitterverse

So your music rules and people are paying attention. You’ve been interacting with your fans and pumping out the tweets but now there are so many you can’t keep up! There are a few tools out there that can really help you manage all this awesome madness.

TweetDeck – Personally I use TweetDeck. It’s the official aggregator of Twitter and is super easy to set-up and use. You can use it through the web, install it as a Chrome App if you use Google Chrome as your Browser or install it on your Mac through the Mac App Store. It displays your Twitter Feed, Mentions, Direct Messages and custom searches all on one screen. It can also sync up multiple accounts so if you and your band members all have personal twitters you can manage those as well!

HootSuite – HootSuite tends to take things to the next level. With a paid subscription you can get detailed analytics on your Twitter traffic and even further customization in terms of display and search options. A label rep, manager outside marketing team, and not the band itself will most likely utilize the paid options. You do need to save sometime to write songs and practice after all.

Twitter Mobile App – Chances are at least one if not all of your band members have a smartphone. Great way to hit your followers on the go, the van can be a boring place on those long drives between gigs…unless you have a small TV and a VCR, but seriously you can only watch Twister so many times! Tweet a picture of the audience from stage, let them feel the thrill of staring out into a packed house!

So for a quick recap – stay active, interact with your fans, there’s an app for that. Share your thoughts below and be on the lookout for a follow-up blog about some things NOT to do on Twitter!

Doug

www.thefieldeffectmusic.com
@thefieldeffect

Check out our Online Music Marketing course if you are interested in leveraging all of your digital marketing efforts.

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Berkleemusic’s next term begins on June 25th, 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 at www.markhopkinsmusic.com.

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After years of studying every instrument I could get my hands on: Guitar, Bass, Drums, Harmonica, Trumpet, Trombone and Sax I realized I have been delaying the inevitable…Slide Guitar!!!

I have been a fan of slide guitar since I was in middle school, but never got the courage to attack it. Now that I have a decent amount of musical education under my belt I figured I would take the plunge. Oh what a plunge it was, or should I say is! It’s like relearning how to play guitar; which to me is exciting more than words can express.

For those of you not privy to slide guitar, it is one of the most expressive ways to play the instrument and no one personifies that nowadays more than, my personal hero, Derek Trucks. You’ll notice that in the video clip below Derek makes his SG take on a vocal like quality- something that can only be achieved with slide guitar. Plus he has a killer touch on the instrument which reinstates the mantra “tone is in the hands of the player”.

Derek plays slide, much like his predecessor Duane Allman, in open E tuning which takes a bit to get used to when you have been playing guitar for over 20 years in standard tuning. How do you get used to open E – well I am not sure there is a right and wrong way to go about it, but I can tell you a few things I am doing that have drastically helped me.

1) Take your guitar to someone who knows what they are doing that can set up your instrument for open E slide. Make sure you do not set the action too high because you will want the option to go back and forth with the slide and fretted style.

2) Draw a map of your fret board (writing in all notes) from 1st to 12th fret so you can familiarize yourself with the differences between standard and open E. If you know your theory this will immediately help you visualize your fret board.

3) Find a slide that feels comfortable. It shouldn’t feel bulky and obtrusive. Also, find one with a timbre that really resonates with you (no pun intended). I prefer glass, but a lot of players dig on metal/brass as well.

4) Buy some CD’s and start listening and copying everything you hear. Don’t just buy Allman Bros. and Trucks albums, get the best of Sam Cooke and Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin etc… Learn to play lyrically and vocal like. This will in turn spill over into your standard tuning skills as well.

That is a great place to get started. Now let’s learn a few things to get the ball rolling! In this first clip let’s discuss vibrato.

Now that you have that under your belt let’s examine one of the most important aspects of learning slide…Right Hand Technique.

I hope this was interesting to you guitar nerds out there. I am really enjoying the process of slide guitar; and if you, like me, want to play more soulfully inspired music- this is one way to get yourself to that next level.

Best of luck guys!

-Mark Hopkins

www.markhopkinsmusic.com

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Check out our new Acoustic Blues Guitar course which gets into some awesome bottle-neck slide techniques.

Berkleemusic’s next term begins on June 25th, 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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Brian John is a Student Advisor at berkleemusic.com. He has a Bachelors in Piano Performance from Miami University of Ohio, and a Masters in Composition from Longy School of Music. Brian’s background is primarily in Classical music, but a 4 year stint in a home-grown jam band gives him a unique perspective on both genres. He continues to compose and perform for people across the US.

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A common phrase I hear is ‘organized people are simply too lazy to look for things’. While this is amusing, and perhaps true, the flip-side to this statement is ‘disorganized people often can’t find things they are looking for’.

As a musician, I feel like I have about the same odds of winning the lottery as getting organized. For years it has been this unattainable goal, this ideal sitting high above me on a lofty pedestal.

The problem about getting organized is that, if you don’t start out organized, it can seem like an insurmountable task. I’ve been trying to dig myself out of a hole ever since moving to Boston 5 years ago, and while I’ve gotten started a few times, I’ve ultimately fizzled out. Being organized is not simply something that keeps you from finding an important document come tax time (although we’ve all been THERE). It has gotten to the point in my musical career where being disorganized is literally keeping me from moving forward, making connections, and potentially making money.

I’ve realized that there is no silver bullet to getting organized – it will take time and hard work. However, I’ve been working on a few steps that can be applied to anyone who is in my position. So far, it seems to be working out, and while I’m only on step 2 it is certainly better than doing nothing!

Step 1: Identify the areas of your life and career that need to become organized. For many, it could be finances – self-employed musicians need to track everything in order to not pay through the nose come tax time. For me, it is compositions – being a composer, it is important for me to have a comprehensive list of works with all of the relevant information in once place.

Step 2: Choose one of the areas identified in Step 1, and create a system that you can use to organize this area from today forward. For me, it ended up being a google document – it’s something I can update easily, quickly, and it’s always accessible. It also means I don’t need to worry about having multiple files and versions sitting around. By creating this system, you provide a way to start getting organized simply by inputting everything that is new. Don’t worry about the old stuff yet – establish good habits by updating this system regularly and not falling further into the ‘disorganization hole’.

Step 3: Start working through the back-log. This is the scary part, the part I’ve been avoiding. It’s also the most difficult part to tackle first, which is why my previous attempts at organization have failed. Most people who try to get organized think they have to have everything caught up before they can move forward with ‘being organized’. By pushing this bit to step 3, it allows you to form good organizational habits while actually making less work for yourself by the time you get around to this step.

At the beginning of this post, I mentioned that being disorganized is potentially costing me money. In terms of being a composer, I want people to buy and play my music. However, because I have never been organized I am missing critical pieces of information for every piece I’ve written. This missing information prevents me from registering music with performing rights organizations, from getting them copyrighted, and finally from getting them up on a website in order to make them available for other musicians to find/purchase/perform.

How is being disorganized costing you money? Remember, time is money – stress is money – missed opportunities are most definitely money. If you have other techniques or strategies to get organized, I’d appreciate you sharing below – I need all the help I can get!

-Brian J

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New Project Management for Musicians online course is enrolling now

Berkleemusic’s next term begins on June 25th, 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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If you are familiar with the site www.soundcloud.com, or have produced any music with a DAW, you are familiar with what a waveform looks like. When looking at a waveform, we can easily see where the relative loud and quiet parts of a song will be. Basically, what you are looking at is a summary of the songs dynamics.

In the below waveform you can see that the music starts quietly, pauses a couple times, then swells with a large crescendo which brings the overall intensity to a peak. Eventually it quiets down again and finishes with one last swell. A large amount of dynamic range is typical in orchestral pieces (which this is).

Kamaishi City by Michael Moyes

On the other end of the spectrum, here is a contrasting piece from the artist “mysticgroove” that you can see has a smaller dynamic range. This is a common sight in much of (but not all of) today’s electronic, pop, and rock music.

Planet X by mysticgroove

This visual ‘wall of sound’ is very much compressed whereas the first example is hardly compressed at all.

What is compression?

Compression reduces the volume of loud sounds while amplifying quiet sounds so that the waveform pushes, pulls and shapes itself into a more uniform looking figure. The end result is a volume level that is more or less steady throughout the piece. Depending on the amount of compression added, you may no longer see (or hear) subtle or even obvious dynamic changes. If I wanted to, I could even attempt to compress that first piece so that the waveform looks the same as the 2nd.

Here is another example. This is 2 audio files of the same piece, one compressed and one not. (The compression is crude and is overdramatized to illustrate my point) The selection is from the dynamically diverse Beethoven’s 9th Symphony – 3rd movement…

Beethoven 9th Symphony – Uncompressed

Beethoven 9th Symphony – Compressed (poorly)

One personal advantage to having a compressed audio file is being able to listen with headphones on the subway without having to constantly adjust the volume. When listening to film or classical music I often times turn up the volume so I can hear a solo piano line only to have my eardrums blasted when a chorus of trumpets enters the mix. Compression has the positive effect of making your mix sound loud which is a real benefit in many types of music.

A big disadvantage (and this is a big one) is losing the dynamic intricacies of each instrument, the room’s natural reverb, and the composer’s intended sonic landscape. In a pure listening environment like a concert hall, a living room with good speakers, or even a quiet car, dynamics in all sorts of music add a great deal of emotion. Berkleemusic professor and author Ben Newhouse writes in his Orchestration 2 course…

“Part of what makes orchestral music exciting is the vast dynamic difference between a flute solo and a full tutti (multiple instruments all playing the same notes in unison). Compression would reduce the difference between those extremes, minimizing a characteristic we love about orchestral music.”

In pure orchestral CD releases, compression is typically not used to keep the experience as close as possible to a live listening experience. In Film music, some limited compression can create some sonic space so that dialogue, sound effects, and music can live together.

Compression may be a necessary evil depending on how you intend to have your music listened to. This is a hotly debated subject and you can find countless articles about it online. Now you are hopefully armed with some information to make the call for yourself!

-Michael

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Berkleemusic’s next term begins on June 25th, 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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