OT: Berklee school of music

guitartilldeath · Post by **guitartilldeath** » Sat Jan 10, 2009 9:58 pm

Tell me about the Berklee Mentality.

jizzle123 · Post by **jizzle123** » Sat Jan 10, 2009 10:03 pm

my bestfriend is currently going there and i go visit him sometimes its a very very nice school all there equipment is top of the line you get 24 hour access to studios. basically he loves the school he says its very hard as you get loaded with home work and you are graded on how well you play but if you can do the work it will make you a great guitar player all the books are berklee books that are written by the teachers who use them. its an amazing school and its not cheap if you have the money and skills you can get far with a berklee education.

Post by **bclaire** » Sat Jan 10, 2009 10:12 pm

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by guitartilldeath
 Tell me about the Berklee Mentality.
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To be fair, I'm basing that on the people I encountered during and after college which was quite some time ago...

tugartheman · Post by **tugartheman** » Mon Jan 12, 2009 3:13 am

Oberlin Music Conservatory

polishdog90 · Post by **polishdog90** » Mon Jan 12, 2009 3:48 am

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by guitartilldeath
 Did anyone here go there?
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I just auditioned and December and I hope to get in.

xTRUTHOFMYYOUTHx · Post by **xTRUTHOFMYYOUTHx** » Mon Jan 12, 2009 9:45 pm

my highschool photography teacher went to berklee. he once told the class the story of how he attended berklee, then toured in a band playing guitar and then he decided that he couldnt tour and play in a band forever and he wanted to get married. so he got married, had a kid, and is now a photography teacher at a public highschool in a dump of a town in california. not what i would have done with a berklee degree but whatever.

Sethery · Post by **Sethery** » Mon Jan 12, 2009 9:53 pm

One of my best friends Aric goes there, he can't say enough good things about it. BUT, get ready to be in debt for the rest of your life.

Borderline Productions · Post by **Borderline Productions** » Mon Jan 12, 2009 9:59 pm

He probably rips on guitar.

The guy who did the show Home Movies was a Berklee grad.

Visited there with my son a couple year ago. Half the students are from outside the US. I was impressed. It is spread out in various buildings around a neighborhood in Boston.

A good friend of mine's son graduated from there a couple a years ago (see my recent thread on a REAL guitar hero). He get a great education. The list of who went there is like a who's who of music.

bassdrop · Post by **bassdrop** » Tue Jan 13, 2009 9:48 pm

I went to Berklee back in 97-98. It was a blast and I learned tons, because until that point I was almost completely self-taught. Someone else had a similar thread a year or two ago. Basically, a school like Berklee is a huge opportunity and it depends on your choices and experiences how it works out for you. There are almost a dozen cutting edge recording studios, music synthesis labs, a music library of over 30,000 CDs, DVDs, and laserdiscs that will blow your freaking mind and a huge array of incredibly talented musicians.

Beware of some pitfalls. Drugs- Boston has more students per capita than any other in the US and there's a lot of substances that go around. There's borderline too many guitar players- over 2/3 of the student body. A lot of competition to go around too, especially if you're thinking of getting a scholarship. There's also very few girls at Berklee, but the Boston Conservatory's across the street if you don't mind stuck-up ballerinas.

If you can manage it, try to get into one of the summer programs- either the 5 week summer school or the 2 week guitar camp. I did the former before going and it was great and is a great way to figure out if you'd really want to go at a much lower cost than a full semester.

chrismathewsjr · Post by **chrismathewsjr** » Tue Jan 13, 2009 10:33 pm

Or you can go the autodidact route and move to a normal city with musicians and just play with them.

Autodidact FTW. Saves money.

Pacemaker · Post by **Pacemaker** » Wed Jan 14, 2009 7:44 am

I went to Northeastern which is just around the corner (literally) from Berklee and got to know a handful of Berklee kids. Mostly due to my ex-girlfriend. This is not a blanket statement, although I have met many people (a lot who go to Berklee themselves) that agree. There a lot (possibly/ likely the majority) of Berklee students who are so far up their own ass, it's tough to have a conversation with them. I could write a really vindictive, tasteless article or book on the group I most frequently hung out with. Out of about 12 or so of them, there were about 2.5 who were really good guys (with talent to back it up). The rest (and the revolving cast of characters that would come through their apartments) were all great musicians, sure, but were so socially inept and lacking tact, and let their talent pretty much define them in the worst ways possible.

I sound bitter, I know. And I'm not trying to dissuade anyone from wanting to go there. But I feel like it needs to be said that when you mix the already bizarre situation of college with the even more bizarre attitudes and psyches that result from being talented and being taught to be more talented, it gets really really weird. So, that's my warning. I didn't go there, and didn't study music performance anyway, but make sure that you're ready to - as others have said - wade through far too many aspiring guitar prodigies to get an education. And if you do end up going, I would recommend avoiding hanging out at the "Berklee Beach". It's pretty much a citywide joke.

polishdog90 · Post by **polishdog90** » Wed Jan 14, 2009 8:44 am

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Pacemaker
 I went to Northeastern which is just around the corner (literally) from Berklee and got to know a handful of Berklee kids. Mostly due to my ex-girlfriend. This is not a blanket statement, although I have met many people (a lot who go to Berklee themselves) that agree. There a lot (possibly/ likely the majority) of Berklee students who are so far up their own ass, it's tough to have a conversation with them. I could write a really vindictive, tasteless article or book on the group I most frequently hung out with. Out of about 12 or so of them, there were about 2.5 who were really good guys (with talent to back it up). The rest (and the revolving cast of characters that would come through their apartments) were all great musicians, sure, but were so socially inept and lacking tact, and let their talent pretty much define them in the worst ways possible.

I sound bitter, I know. And I'm not trying to dissuade anyone from wanting to go there. But I feel like it needs to be said that when you mix the already bizarre situation of college with the even more bizarre attitudes and psyches that result from being talented and being taught to be more talented, it gets really really weird. So, that's my warning. I didn't go there, and didn't study music performance anyway, but make sure that you're ready to - as others have said - wade through far too many aspiring guitar prodigies to get an education. And if you do end up going, I would recommend avoiding hanging out at the "Berklee Beach". It's pretty much a citywide joke.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Haha what is the "Berklee Beach"?

Pacemaker · Post by **Pacemaker** » Wed Jan 14, 2009 7:38 pm

The Berklee Beach is the strip of Mass Ave. right outside of the main Berklee dorms/classrooms/ cafeteria where far too many Berklee kids loiter. It probably wouldn't be such a nuisance if it wasn't such a high traffic area.

I think it's referred to as a "beach" because all of the students are pale.

asteroid m · Post by **asteroid m** » Wed Jan 14, 2009 9:25 pm

I currently go to Berklee. Think about why exactly you want to come here. If you play guitar and arent someone who can improvise like Pat Metheny, then you probabaly wont get any money. In fact, I've heard they've capped the amount of guitar players allowed to enter the school since there are way too many. Think about what major you want to do here. If you just want to be a better guitar player, don't waste your time. If you want to work in audio or become a teacher, then its a good school because for some reason it has a good reputation as far as a music school goes.

Drdos · Post by **Drdos** » Wed Jan 14, 2009 10:08 pm

I studied guitar from the VP of the sound engineering dept. at Berklee, but I studied classical from him at a different university at the time. If you are looking to study Jazz guitar Pedagogy The University of Texas/Austin is one of the better jazz programs around. They have a great classical program there as well.

OT: Berklee school of music

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