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Past Faculty SpotlightsThe Berklee College of Music Faculty is at the heart of Berkleemusic. Our instructors are recognized experts on their respective fields - they've produced and engineered hundreds of artists and numerous award-winning projects, and their student's work have earned Grammy award nominations.
After almost 30 years devoted to the craft of songwriting, Berklee College of Music professor Pat Pattison knows a thing or two about turning a catchy rhyme or winsome melody into a song that personalizes a universal theme, such as love, for each listener.
Long before Roberta Radley ever faced a classroom of music students or became the Chair of the Ear Training Department at Berklee College of Music, she was herself a young musician who entered Berklee to supplement her performance experience with theoretical knowledge. Her ear training method is designed to teach her students all of the basics that she herself once needed to learn.
There was a time was when new songwriters found themselves down at the local library, trawling through back issues of Billboard to find the producers and music publishers who might springboard their songs into hits. That's what Eric Beall did, long before he became the Vice President of A&R at Sony Music Publishing.
A master pianist, interpreter, improviser, and arranger, who is the former chair of the piano department at Berklee College of Music, Paul Schmeling is the course author of the Berklee Keyboard Method online course.
"Cobain was a lot smarter than his insouciance would lead you to believe, or more Machiavelian at least," says producer, former Rykodisc president, and Berkleemusic professor George Howard.
Music lore is full of stories of legendary talents who got bamboozled out of their royalties, and up-and-comers who thought they had it made when they signed a label deal, only to find themselves with no hit record, and a huge debt on their hands. But with a wealth of new information and distribution possibilities now available to emerging musicians, there's no excuse for making the kind of uninformed decisions that lead to such dire straits.
"Reason is an amazing piece of software, because it's a virtual studio in a single application," says Erik Hawkins, who teaches the online course, Producing Music with Reason.
Songwriters invest their hearts and souls into writing, and may spend hours alone in a room, carefully crafting lyrics that express messages that are often very personal. But there are always moments when one could really use an outside opinion. |
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Berklee College of Music is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC)
