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Master Certificate

Writing and Producing

9 Courses (27 credits)

$11,655
Complete certificate tuition
(Plus Registration Fee $175)

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The days of record labels paying for months of studio time for artists is coming to an end. With this decentralization happening in the music industry, the best course of action for aspiring writers is to first learn the skills required to master the craft of songwriting and arranging, and then grasp the important production techniques required to create a polished and professional sounding track.

Berkleemusic’s Master Certificate in Writing and Producing trains students to become hit-making songwriters and arrangers, as well as well-versed producers. By teaching Berklee’s time-tested techniques along with cutting-edge software, this program will prepare you to become a contemporary writer/producer with a wide range of useful knowledge and applicable tools to succeed in the evolving music industry.

The program begins with Desktop Music Production, where you’ll gain a complete understanding of the concepts and production techniques you'll need to create, produce, and record professional-sounding arrangements. With hands-on lessons and projects, you'll master concepts like digitization, signal flow, multi-tracking, equalization, signal processing, MIDI, and everything you need to turn your Mac or PC into a virtual multi-track studio.

Once you have this foundational production knowledge under your belt, you’ll delve into ins and outs of commercial songwriting. In Songwriting Workshop: Writing Hit Songs, you’ll study the way that hit writers work. You’ll learn the tricks and techniques used by the masters—and employ them to write your own potential chart-toppers. Then, in Commercial Songwriting Techniques, you'll learn a ten-step process to reproducing the time-tested traits of successful songs while still maintaining your unique voice—a practice critical to the success of any songwriter.

With a strong foundation in writing hit songs, you’ll move onto study matching the right music with your lyrics by studying arranging. In Arranging 1: Rhythm Section, you'll learn how to write for the rhythm section (drums, bass, guitar, and keyboards) and create killer arrangements that really groove. This course directs you on everything you'll need to create an effective arrangement—including rhythm section notation, adaptation of the melody and chords, intro's and endings, articulations and dynamics, and how to create an emotional contour throughout the arrangement.

With the basics covered, you'll move on to apply your knowledge in Arranging: Contemporary Styles. In this course, you'll learn to create and apply your own grooves and style mixes to your arrangements with the same techniques used by many successful contemporary artists and producers in a number of styles, including rock, pop, soul, R&B, Brazilian, Afro Cuban, funk, and hip-hop.

You'll then expand your music production knowledge, skills, and experience by becoming fully immersed in a rich curriculum developed by Berklee College of Music’s expert faculty for the world’s most powerful production software and sequencers available. The music production component of this certificate begins with Critical Listening 1, a course that will help you recognize the importance of the mixing process through a combination of weekly training drills, analysis of classic recordings, and comparison of various mixing styles. You’ll learn to identify width and depth, frequency range, dynamics, and the different mix approaches used in various musical genres. By the end of the course you’ll be able to recognize techniques such as panning, alternate types and uses of reverb, delay, compression, and different types of distortion. Not only will you learn what elements are most important in a mix, but also how to optimize a mix to make it as compelling as possible. You’ll have the ability to expand your songwriting, arranging, or production knowledge through the study of three more electives in these areas.

By the end of your studies, you’ll possess the multifaceted skill-set needed to start or advance your career writer/producer in the industry today.

Substitutions may be requested for electives. Please contact our Continuing Education Registrar at registrar@berkleemusic.com or call (617) 747-2146 to see if your request suits the overall academic requirements for your chosen program.

Required Courses

BMPR-101 Desktop Music Production
Michael Bierylo, David Mash (12 weeks, 3 credits)
Master the tools and techniques for producing great-sounding music at home…and create high quality recordings ready for CD or MP3!

BMW-130a Songwriting: Writing Hit Songs
Jimmy Kachulis (12 weeks, 3 credits)
Move your listeners and express yourself more effectively by crafting your songs the way hit writers do.

BMW-125 Commercial Songwriting Techniques
Andrea Stolpe (12 weeks, 3 credits)
Learn to write for commercial success by reproducing the time-tested characteristics of hit songs while maintaining your own unique voice.

BME-130 Arranging 1: Rhythm Section
Suzanne Dean (12 weeks, 3 credits)
Essential learning for anyone interested in arranging music for a band, Arranging 1: Rhythm Section explores all aspects of writing and arranging for the rhythm section.

BMW-150 Arranging: Contemporary Styles
Dan Moretti (12 weeks, 3 credits)
Learn to create your own original grooves by analyzing, writing, sequencing and recording the rhythms and styles that have influenced western contemporary music.

BMPR-162 Critical Listening 1
Dan Thompson (12 weeks, 3 credits)
Create compelling, professional-sounding songs by learning to identify the production elements that contribute to a well balanced, artful and professional-sounding mix.

3 Elective Courses

Recommended Electives

Please contact our Continuing Education Registrar to request elective substitutions.

BMPR-173 Producing Music with Logic
David Doms, Jeff Baust (12 weeks, 3 credits)
Strengthen your technical understanding of Logic Pro and heighten your overall creative abilities in music production in this 12-week course. Harness the power of Logic's extensive software instruments, and learn to record, edit, and mix your project like a pro.

BMPR-175 Producing Music with Reason
Erik Hawkins (12 weeks, 3 credits)
Gain a firm understanding of the functionalities and capabilities of Reason software. Explore Reason's rack of virtual instruments, effects, mixers, built-in sequencer and patching system, and learn real-world production setups and techniques used by today's top producers.

BMPR-180 Producing Music with Ableton Live
Kai Turnbull (12 weeks, 3 credits)
Remix and produce in any number of contemporary styles, including drum and bass, R&B, breakbeat/trance and house music using Ableton's Live audio and MIDI sequencing software, a sequencer you can play like an instrument.

BMPR-126 Producing with Pro Tools
David Franz (12 weeks, 3 credits)
Whether you are a seasoned Pro Tools user or new to the home studio, our 12-week course will guide you through everything you need to know to create great-sounding home recordings using Digidesign's Pro Tools software. Learn Berklee's renowned production techniques from set-up to mix down, and get a chance to talk gear, studio configurations, philosophies of production, and even speaker placement.

BMPR-177 Producing Music with SONAR
Steve MacLean (12 weeks, 3 credits)
Complete all aspects of a multi-track recording using MIDI, audio, loops and plugin effects using Cakewalk’s SONAR Producer Edition.

BMW-120 Lyric Writing: Tools and Strategies
Pat Pattison (12 weeks, 3 credits)
Generate more and better ideas. Express them in compelling and original ways.

BMPR-142 Audio Mastering Techniques
Jonathan Wyner, Marc-Dieter Einstmann (12 weeks, 3 credits)
Mastering is the final, critical, step in the post-production process. Gain a thorough understanding of what is involved in creating a final master recording ready for duplication, replication, or online distribution.

BMW-133 Songwriting: Harmony
Jimmy Kachulis (12 weeks, 3 credits)
Learn how harmony can help you to articulate the essential meaning of a song, and the best ways to adapt chords and progressions to suit your unique songwriting style and ideas.

BMPR-165 Orchestration 1
Ben Newhouse (12 weeks, 3 credits)
Learn to write and apply traditional orchestration techniques to both sampled performances and live orchestral performances.

BMPR-163 Music Production Analysis
Stephen Webber (12 weeks, 3 credits)
Develop the skills to listen to music like a seasoned music producer. Learn to identify the elements of effective records, and gain the skills to bring these elements to your own productions.