berklee school of music

Bombastic · Post by **Bombastic** » Thu May 10, 2007 1:06 pm

I am considering a few online courses, ie composition and production courses through the berklee school of music. Is it worth the high price? I live in the UK is it worth doing an external course about music. external would suit me as I work full time. but has anyone on here done it? if so, is it worth the money?

http://www.soundclick.com/util/getplaye ... 11500&q=hi

knj19 · Post by **knj19** » Thu May 10, 2007 1:31 pm

hi mate, i am in exactly the same situation as you.

im from wales and am looking in to this also. would be great if anyone who has done any of the courses could giv some feedback!!

Bombastic · Post by **Bombastic** » Thu May 10, 2007 2:20 pm

have you received anything at all, like documents, or have you seen any useful review websites where people review universities, etc??

knj19 · Post by **knj19** » Thu May 10, 2007 2:38 pm

no, i have not recieved anything at all, and have not read anything about the courses.another one i am lookin at too is online ableton course by point blank in london but again i do not know if its worth spending the cash.

Bombastic · Post by **Bombastic** » Thu May 10, 2007 3:24 pm

I used to live in London and went to the CityLit on weekends to do the online Ableton course there. Im not saying it was the greatest course, but I learned a lot because I was able to practice and then ask specific questions when there were problems. Basically I went in know a little, but by the time I left the course I was able to do almost anything I wanted with Live including video.

It might be worth looking at local colleges, etc and seeing if they have weekend or weeknight courses in Live, its worth doing..

I wanted to do something like Berklee as I wanted something more official, like a diploma or something, so I could start applying for music production jobs, at the moment I have nothing (Except experience), which puts me in the same box as about 1 million other people..

SolonOfAthens · Post by **SolonOfAthens** » Thu May 10, 2007 8:03 pm

I have a friend who did a four year degree at Berklee. She did it on site in Boston and she really enjoyed her time their. I noticed a big improvement in her technique and presentation when she was done. A lot of famous artists have gone there like the Dixie Chicks and some others that I can't think of right now.
I'm not too familiar with their online stuff though. I would imagine it isn't bad.

pabloaugustus · Post by **pabloaugustus** » Thu May 10, 2007 8:10 pm

Bombastic wrote:I am considering a few online courses, ie composition and production courses through the berklee school of music. Is it worth the high price? I live in the UK is it worth doing an external course about music. external would suit me as I work full time. but has anyone on here done it? if so, is it worth the money?

http://www.soundclick.com/util/getplaye ... 11500&q=hi

I'm considering some courses there as well, but am a little skeptical.....It seems like the best thing about it is that they make you complete projects....which you could do on your own if you are motivated. You are going to be just learning from whatever book(s) they have you buy anyway.

It seems to me like their pop arranging, harmony, theory, etc to be the most useful courses. You should be able to learn the technical stuff (i.e. how to use ableton), however it may save you some time.

But thats all speculation...has anybody taken these courses????

ScholarlyGent · Post by **ScholarlyGent** » Thu May 10, 2007 8:11 pm

Here's my humble opinion for what its worth.
I've taught production and midi composition classes before and I cant imagine having a proper course without offering the students hands-on experience. I'm sure you will learn something via the online courses but I'm also sure you will miss something by doing it that way. Taking something from a book to actually applying it is a major leap, especially when your dealing with a highly technical subject. Hand-on experience or even watching someone demo a method or procedure really makes a difference in the learning process for most people.

Bombastic · Post by **Bombastic** » Fri May 11, 2007 7:32 am

This is where I agree with you ScholarlyGent, and why I wrote this post. Of all my "educational" experiences with music, the CityLit course was the best. As before, not because of the quality of teaching. but the hands on approach to it all.. The practice time you have, and the opportunity to work with other like minded students. Its fun too as you get to make friends who are interested in the same things as you. Anyway, the reason I write is because I doubt that an online course will give you the same thing, and really wanted to see from a student or ex-student what the experience was like for them. Considering the costs and lack of hands on Im sure its worth the investment.. but theres not much else out there either....

pabloaugustus · Post by **pabloaugustus** » Fri May 11, 2007 10:22 am

ScholarlyGent wrote:Here's my humble opinion for what its worth.
I've taught production and midi composition classes before and I cant imagine having a proper course without offering the students hands-on experience. I'm sure you will learn something via the online courses but I'm also sure you will miss something by doing it that way. Taking something from a book to actually applying it is a major leap, especially when your dealing with a highly technical subject. Hand-on experience or even watching someone demo a method or procedure really makes a difference in the learning process for most people.

I totally agree with you about online production classes. Especially when you're shelling out made cash that would get you a decent RL course. I think the online class would be no more effective then learning out of a book, which as you pointed at has many drawbacks.

However, I believe that an online course could be pretty effective for teaching music theory, arranging, pop harmony, etc. At the public university where I studied music we didn't really apply much theory anyway, just learned the "rules" that western music scholars derive from studying past composers, rules that the composers themselves never used at all...yeah, I'm pretty bitter about my music theory education, I wish they could have taught us jazz or even pop harmony, something a little more useful.

beats me · Post by **beats me** » Fri May 11, 2007 3:14 pm

Everytime Ableton sends out their newsletter reminding me about the Berklee online class I get all excited but then I realize that between books, DVDs/CDs, and this forum I am already learning a lot. The only thing missing is structure and deadlines, which may be what some people need.

I also agree that one on one and in person training could be more helpful, if for no other reason that you are surrounded by people with the same interests. I'm lucky enough to live in Northern California where there are all kinds of music instruction available from the junior college level to insanely expensive specialty institutes. I'm planning to get into some kind of program in the fall.

For now I found a privately owned studio that I am going to go to a couple times a month and instead of paying to record my music the owner is going to teach me production and how to get the most out of my equipment. It isn't free but it's better spent money than at a bar getting nothing accomplished except a hangover and vague memories.

Dogen · Post by **Dogen** » Fri May 18, 2007 11:01 pm

I see this post is a week old but in case you're still considering Berklee I can give you my experience.

I've taken 5 or 6 online courses at Berklee and I've gained a HUGE amount of knowledge and improved my skills across the board. Now I haven't taken any of the production classes so I can't speak to that aspect but I've heard good things from others who have taken them.

I've taken nearly all of the theory and harmony classes and my musical knowledge has been vastly expanded as a result. I was a fairly competent songwriter before the classes but now I really understand what's going on behind the curtain for the first time in my life (and I've been writing music for 15 years.)

As was mentioned, one of the great things about the classes is that they force you to complete projects. This is a great help to those of us that don't always follow through and finish our tracks. It gets you in the habit of doing that and seeing the end result helps to motivate you even when you're working on your own outside of the class.

Another cool thing is that you have a weekly chat session with the professor and you can ask them anything and everything about music, the business, etc. Additionally, the professors listen to and critique your work and other students also critique you. I found that I learned a lot by seeing what the other students were doing right and wrong.

My opinion is that if you're looking for theory, harmony, songwriting or lyric writing courses then you can't go wrong with Berklee. For the production stuff, it may or may not be as effective.

The only bad thing I can really say about Berklee is that it's pretty expensive. But I guess knowledge doesn't always come cheap.

Dogen

berklee school of music

berklee school of music

Re: berklee school of music