Academics at Berklee
Written: Mar 31 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: too many to name
Cons: grading and attendance policies are a little lax
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| doctorawesome's Full Review: Berklee College of Music |
The Academics at the Berklee College of Music are pretty strong. I have been attending this college since 1998 (four semesters) and I have had very few classes that I haven't liked. This is due to the teachers, the course content, and the environment.
First off I have to tell anybody who is reading this that might not have the patience to read the entire thing that the teachers here are top notch. Almost all of the teachers that I have had have been helpful, entertaining, friendly, funny, experienced, knowledgeable, and engaging. Credibility is probably the most important trait for a teacher to have and I will tell you from my experience that there are few if any teachers here that lack credibility. Most teachers are just about world-class players, and many have experience in a wide variety of other aspects of the music industry. Berklee definitely hires its teachers based on experience performing the skills that they will be teaching rather than Phd's who have a lot of experience learning about the skills they will be teaching. My accounting teacher is a real accountant who handles real performers, my legal aspects teacher is a real lawyer who worked with many Boston bands before becoming the house lawyer for WGBH, and everyone on staff who plays an instrument (even my accounting teacher) is actively gigging, recording, writing, and/or touring. The other great thing about the staff is that they are all (quite necessarily) musicians, and (not to stereotype) musicians are just really fun people in general to talk to and learn from. And the last thing is that you will know your teacher, unlike universities that I have visited where you are lucky to get a good view of him from where you are sitting. One final staff-related reason that I chose Berklee over some other music colleges is the diversity of the staff. I am a bass player, and all of the colleges that I looked at had just one bass teacher. Granted they were all really good, but Berklee has about twenty bass teachers that are all really good, and that are all teaching slightly differently. If you are interested in jazz you go to one guy, classical another, funk another, rock another, Latin another--all in the same department of the same school.
The course content here is pretty impressive as well. I have read interviews with many now famous alumni who still swear by the Berklee method of teaching. I can't explain why or how it works, but I have noticed such vast improvements in my own skills since coming here that I just have to recommend the Berklee method. Every student is required to take certain core music courses regardless of the major, and this gives every businessman and producer that comes out of Berklee an edge over the same major coming out of another school because to work in the music industry and know nothing about music is stupid. I believe everybody has required private lessons, reading and playing labs, ensembles, on their principle instrument; as well as ear training and harmony (theory) and other basic musicianship courses. This core education really does make everybody a well-rounded musician and does it quickly and efficiently (like hooked on phonics for musicians).
The environment at Berklee is perhaps the biggest selling point for me. I can't tell you enough (and I'm sure you've noticed) that having small classes suits the needs of a student (especially in creative situations) so much better than large lectures. Teaching is very personal, and teachers are genuinely interested in the progress of their students. There are no T.A.'s, so the student deals only with the teacher at all times; and even in the one large class that I was in, the teacher still steered the lecture in different ways to suit the needs of the students asking questions. I have sat in on classes at the University of Arizona, and I'll tell you exactly what it's like: You sit down in a giant room packed with a few hundred other students, and the professor comes in and talks until the class ends. It's hard to describe the typical class here at Berklee because it's really different depending on how many questions students have, whether the teacher shares a story of their experience with the issue at hand, etc. All I can say is that I've gone through both methods of teaching and I prefer the personal level much more. I literally can do my girlfriend's U of A homework from Boston because the lectures are just an illustration of the text books, and I can look all of that information up on the internet.
Just to wrap it up here, I want to say that I have noticed how my reviews sound a little like the propaganda that the school sends to prospective students, but it only sounds like it because it's all true. Most of that literature that they give out is based on student accounts of the education here. I will just sum up the academics here at Berklee in this final sentence: Nobody will teach you modern music better than Berklee.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
doctorawesome
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Member: Aaron Loeser
Reviews written: 4
Trusted by: 1 member
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