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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Does anyone else listen to WNYC’s radio lab? I thought so. How about when you are on the subway, exercising, cooking dinner, picking your kid up at daycare, or at any other socially acceptable moment? Great!! Looks like I’m in good company.

Recently I heard an archived podcast called “Music Language” and it completely blew my mind. Everyone should listen to it after reading the rest of this blog.

To get things started, here is my definition of perfect pitch…

Perfect Pitch – The ability one has to identify the pitch of a frequency without having the aid of a musical instrument or a reference tone. If I play you a middle C and then follow-up by playing a sequence of notes that you correctly identify, that doesn’t prove you have perfect pitch!!! Even musician and educator worth a damn understands that perfect pitch can NOT be learned.

Well, after listening to “Musical Language” I am not so sure anymore. Cognitive Psychologist and possessor of perfect pitch, Diana Deutsch is very interested in tone languages such as Mandarin Chinese. Languages like Mandarin rely very heavily on tones since the pitch frequency and fluctuation of a word is intimately connected with the meaning.  One popular set of words to showcase this is (Mâ, Mā, Mà, and Ma) which can mean mother, hemp, horse, or a reproach depending on the inflection and pitch. This relationship with tone is so hardwired in native speakers that their day to day pitch consistency is identical. Professor Deutsch made audio recordings of people speaking a few chosen words on multiple days and the pitch was indistinguishable one day to the next. See what I mean? Totally mind blowing stuff! It’s like me saying “good morning” everyday but having the frequency sound identical (regardless of whether I am sad, happy, tired, or hungry) every single day. What does this have to do with perfect pitch? In the US and other Western nations only about 1 out of 10,000 people have perfect pitch. People who were raised speaking and listening to a tone language have been shown to be 9 TIMES more likely to have perfect pitch.

My initial reaction: My 8 month old son will only be listening to Mandarin Chinese from here on out.

Let’s alter my original definition …

Perfect Pitch – The ability one has to identify the pitch of a frequency without having the aid of a musical instrument or a reference tone. If I play you a middle C and then follow-up by playing a sequence of notes that you correctly identify, that doesn’t prove you have perfect pitch!!! Even musician and educator worth a damn understands that perfect pitch can NOT be learned (unless you are between 6 and 12 months old and are regularly exposed to a tone language).

So if replicating these notes doesn’t confirm that you have perfect pitch, what is happening? It means you have relative pitch, which can indeed be learned through ear training. If you have a reference note (like the middle C from the definition), hearing the intervals between that note and the others can help you tease out the correct pitches. How does this work?

Let’s use a childhood classic to get a few pitches in our head. The root note is C. When we get to the note D “your”, you should note that the difference between the notes (the interval) is a major 2^nd (get that in your ear!).

 

Now listen to the beginning of “Silent Night”. Same deal, major 2^nd.

 

You can find hundreds of examples of all intervals (ascending, descending, augmented 4ths, Major 7ths, etc.) to exercise your brain and develop relative pitch. For an ascending tritone, think of Bernstein’s “Maria” from West Side Story. A descending perfect 5th? The Flintstones theme! There are also ear training courses like Basic Ear Training 1 and Harmonic Ear Training that will help you develop an incredibly intimate relationship with sound and harmony.

Let me ask you this musicians: Why do you want perfect pitch so badly? What are you missing out on? The folks I know who have perfect pitch tell me that they always hear car horns honking F# or elevators dinging with Db’s. As awesome (and maddening) as that sounds, I will stick with what I can control and develop my ear through ear training. I’ll leave the Mandarin to my son.

-Michael

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Berkleemusic’s next term begins on January 14th, 2013.

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

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

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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Weird question, right? I only ask because I was recently in Helsinki, Finland meeting with other Music educators from around the world and well, this discussion kept popping up. Many of us were talking about how to prepare students who want to make their entire income strictly from Music. Chair of Professional Music Kenn Brass recently told me that only 7% of US residents make all of their dough from musical ventures. Berklee grads do a bit better than average but still come in at around 30%. 100% of your income means enough to cover, rent, food, transportation, your vintage vinyl collection, and if you have anything left over, new gear! Bill and Theo Huxtable illustrate this more elegantly than I can…

Are you going to make enough for ALL THAT by playing in a wedding band, having a youtube clip go viral, performing on live TV, and then touring the world???

Errr, I guess it’s possible, but not very likely. Musicians (including Karmin) have to gig and gig and gig and be open minded for opportunities that may be outside their wheelhouse. I used to play a lot of wedding ceremonies; easy street for a classical pianist: Pachelbel’s Canon, Trumpet Voluntary, a couple Chopin Preludes, etc. What happens if a jazzy cocktail hour gig comes up? A high school Broadway production? A Nickleback fan club sing-along? Should I adapt to different styles I may not like to make a living OR should I say “I am a wedding pianist, that is what I do and I should be paid handsomely for dedicating my life to the continuation of this valuable art”.

I had never thought about playing gigs as ‘selling out’ but that may be because I am a product of my capitalistic society. People I met from Norway, Russia, and other countries felt very differently about the music profession. If Robert Schumann spent his 31 short years playing chamber music would we know his name today? Would music composition or performance have advanced as it has if Chopin didn’t dedicate all of his time and energy to composing painstakingly complex Etudes, Preludes, and Ballades? I don’t know. Should a government support its talented musicians financially so that they can put all of their passion and effort into creating incredible music? Perhaps they will create the next Beethoven or Beatles or Adele and bring pride to their country. There could be thousands of musicians who have what it takes to change the world so why are they using their energy to paint houses so they can pay their rent? These discussions and questions always funneled into differences between capitalism and socialism.

I guess I see their point and I think they see mine as well. I think the next Mozart or Rolling Stones or Justin Bieber will surface regardless of whether they are paid through government commissions or by rising to the top while gigging and making ends meet. We all have to live within the scope of our own realities. That being said, if some powerful government entity is reading this and wants to pay me a salary to dedicate my life to creating music, please post in the comments section and we will hash out the details.

-Michael

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Berkleemusic’s next term begins on January 14th, 2013.

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

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

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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For the purposes of this blog, lets imagine that I am taking the role of the renowned psychiatrist Dr. Leo Marvin and you are my ambitious patient, Bob Wiley.

If you don’t know these characters, do yourself a favor by finding a VCR (the preferred way to watch a classic of this magnitude) and pop in “What About Bob?”.  Now Bob Wiley has just about every possible phobia known to man. Despite Bob’s difficulties, he makes an astounding transformation from a man who fears anything and everything to a capable, and valued member of society.

It is surprisingly common for students to call me and tell me they are going to quit their jobs, study Music Business full time and then become an A&R, a highly competitive job that requires extensive experience in the music industry. In short, quitting your job for a risk this big is not a good idea. I am in no way saying that people with such lofty goals are in the same category as Bob Wiley, but I often find myself giving advice that I learned from his psychiatrist, the great Dr. Leo Marvin. Baby Steps….

Student: “I have 3 kids and a mortgage and I work in the legal field. I don’t like my job so I am going to quit and start a record label.”

Michael: Baby Steps…

 

Student: “I write songs using a computer program. I am thinking about dropping out of college to move to LA and give Film Scoring a shot”

Michael: Baby Steps…

 

The “Baby Steps” idea definitely comes into play when you are interested in getting into the music industry (in any capacity). The talents who are discovered performing on YouTube and rocket straight to the Ellen Show are few and far between. It is ok to take your time and develop a foundation that you can build your future career on.

Step one: Come up with Measurable and Attainable Goals

It is fine to have a stretch goal like “I want to make music my primary means of survival”. The chances of this becoming a reality increases greatly if you have the foresight to break it down and get specific. For example, in 2011 I was studying Orchestration and I gave myself the goal of writing 10 new songs in one calendar year. The purpose was twofold: Get familiar with the regular writing demands required to do this professionally and to further develop my craft and portfolio. The exercise was challenging and contributed greatly to my goal AND I didn’t have to bet the farm to meet it.

Another exercise works for performers and teachers. Set a goal like the following “I want to make $500 this year from gigging/teaching banjo lessons/doing studio work/anything else related to music.” This will teach you how to manage your opportunities and how to follow-up! If you have convinced someone to study music with you and they have taken $100 worth of lessons and suddenly dropped off of the face of the earth, you need to make sure you nurture the relationship so that they come back and of course, tell their friends. Baby Steps…

Step two: Be Persistent

So, you have been baby stepping along and things are going great! Lets say you have a ton of music produced and you want to get some of that sweet, sweet royalty money. You have heard that Music Libraries and Sound Catalogs are a good way to get your foot in the door so you send some demos out and wait…and wait…and continue to wait.

You will keep on waiting unless you are persistent and leave no stone unturned. Call, email, and even show up at every music library you can find and be prepared to tell them why they should listen to your tracks. Have everything labeled and neatly organized to make it as easy as possible for them to hear your work. Just because you get one person to listen to your stuff does not give you an excuse to stop calling more libraries.

Step three: Never leave an opportunity on the table

I have tried my hand at transforming nonsensical synth midi recordings into orchestral scores so that an ambitious hobbyist could hear his creations performed by a studio orchestra. One time I had a gig transcribing extremely complicated Liberace piano solo’s from old video clips for a client who was dead set on reviving the old tunes. I even had the opportunity to score music for a group involved in supervised (yet illegal) intravenous drug use (that was a wild one). Sure, I made money in some of these cases. Others were utter financial failures. What gained in every instance was experience, and just as importantly, a reputation. Now if a transcription/film scoring/weird orchestration gig comes up I have demo’s to show them AND I have references. Be creative and realize that getting out of your comfort zone can lead to a breakthrough!

Working with music is extremely rewarding. Even if it takes you longer than you want to reach your financial goals, enjoy the ride. We are performers, producers, orchestrators, songwriters, artist managers, and more. It is amazing that people are willing to pay us to do something so fun! Take baby steps and you can make a transformation…just like Bob.

-Michael

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Berkleemusic’s next term begins on September 24th, 2012.

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

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

 

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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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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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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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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I am all over this topic. Not because I know microphones, on the contrary, I’m what the french call, les incompetents. The reason mic’s are on my mind is because I am a MIDI orchestrator, pianist, and banjo instructor (you read that correctly) who is finally diving into the world of live recording. I hope you can learn from my journey…

There are 3 types of microphones I looked at.

1. Dynamic
2. Condenser
3. Ribbon

Dynamic microphones are commonly used for live performances, speeches, and any other run of the mill uses due to their ruggedness and versatility. The SM57 and SM58 models are some of the most popular mics in the world. You can crank up the gain and throw them on the ground (not advised) without worrying about them breaking or distorting. Another benefit is that dynamic mics do not necessarily require a pre-amp or phantom power. They are great for voice and instrument miking but you may be sacrificing some clarity.

Dynamic Mic (MP3)

Condenser microphones are the ones you would often use in studio settings. These mics will capture every minute detail with painstaking accuracy. I borrowed a KSM27 and tried to record some banjo licks last night but every time I stopped playing I could hear my cat eating in the kitchen, my next door neighbor watching The Bachelor, and a phone conversation from a couple zip codes over. It was far too sensitive for my acoustically untreated bedroom in an urban Boston neighborhood. The level of detail that you would get in a good recording environment is excellent with these mics, which is why they are perfect for studio recording. You do need external power though and you want to be careful not to crank them too loud as they are sensitive and the diaphragm can be damaged.

Condenser Mic (MP3)

Ribbon mics probably shouldn’t even be mentioned here since they are out of my price range and too fragile for someone with my patience. They do sound fantastic when used on acoustic pianos though. I was fortunate enough to have an engineer record a piano concerto using some Royer R – 101’s and the result was amazing!

I am going to go with a dynamic mic for starters since my recording studio is a noisy, family inhabited bedroom. I need the sonic forgiveness a dynamic mic offers for now. Down the road, I will invest in a good condenser to record violin, cello, etc. Adding a couple live instruments to a MIDI orchestration can make an enormous difference!

Of course, I am probably going to take the new Mic Techniques course as well. You can have the freshest ingredients in the kitchen but you are going hungry if you don’t know how to cook. (write that down)

-Michael

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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 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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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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