Studying Music Online

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.

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!