Nobody becomes a guitar virtuoso overnight. It takes hours and hours in the woodshed, unlocking tricky patterns and exotic chord voicings, working on your picking, chords, scales and ear…not to mention a real desire to become great. And although there is no substitute for hard work, the Rock Guitar Professional certificate program is designed to help you make the most of your time and talent. Use the skills you learn to become a melodic craftsman like Eric Johnson or David Gilmour, a monster shredder like Berklee alumn Steve Vai, or an in-demand hired gun ready to take on any style from Texas blues to progressive rock at a moment’s notice.

You’ll start with the basics in Guitar Scales 101. Written by Berklee’s Chair of the Guitar Department Larry Baione, this course will take you beyond the same box-pattern pentatonic sounds you already know, and unlock the secrets of the major, Dorian, melodic minor, and harmonic minor scales up and down the entire fretboard. By the end of this course in your certificate program, you’ll have the knowledge to confidently navigate the instrument, develop your technique, and effectively use these scales in your own playing.

Next, you’ll dig into Guitar Chords 101 and move beyond the open-position and barre shapes you may already know. In this course, you will take a look at how chords work—what the role of each note in a chord is, why some chords lead to others, what notes you can leave out, what notes you can add, and more.

Once you have a handle on chords and scales, you will put them to work in Classic Rock Guitar, where you’ll analyze the rhythm and solo work of past and modern greats of rock guitar. Through careful study of guitar-heavy classics, including Clapton's "Crossroads" and "Layla;" Hendrix's "Wind Cries Mary" and "All Along the Watchtower;" Gilmour's "Comfortably Numb" and "Money;" and Page's "Good Times Bad Times" and "Kashmir;" among others, you’ll learn principles of phrasing, improvisation, rhythms, and modes, and how to use them in a rock guitar context.

Following this foundational rhythm knowledge, Rock Guitar Soloing will teach you how to pull off thrilling solos that combine creativity, drama, and flair. Through video, audio, diagrams, and discussions, you will investigate the technical aspects of what makes a successful solo, and learn to add variations of tone, phrasing, theme, variation and other improvisational techniques to your repertoire.

Finally, in Steve Vai Guitar Techniques, you will take an under-the-hood look at the secrets and techniques of one of the greatest electric guitarists of all time, and help you make those techniques part of your own repertoire. This course focuses on how Vai accomplishes the techniques and sounds featured on some of his most famous recordings, and why he chooses certain techniques for certain passages. Through musical exercises, listening examples, hours of never-before-seen video, song transcriptions, performance assignments, and even a live chat with Vai himself, you will learn the secrets behind Vai's compositions and virtuosic techniques, as well as how to make them part of your own personal style.

With the help of Berklee's world-famous approach to guitar study, your dream of becoming a rock deity is closer than ever—you supply the desire and time, and the Rock Guitar Professional Certificate will provide the skills and expertise to help you build a sustainable career as a professional, in-demand, and fearsome rock guitarist.