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All About Berklee College of Music

Berklee College of music is many things to many people-- with alumni like Steve Vai, John Scofield, John Mayer (the list goes on and on), Berklee is definitely a place for seriously dedicated musicians. But Berklee is very different from other schools like Juilliard, Oberlin, and many other more "traditional" music schools.

What makes Berklee different?

Focus on contemporary styles of music- anything including pop, jazz, R&B, bluegrass, and much more.
A wider choice of classes, including songwriting, music business, music therapy (see the list of majors here).
Concentrates on helping students develop a music career as well as on music education.

Berklee certainly does things its own way, which is why it is one of the most talked about music schools in the world. But there are also quite a few misconceptions about Berklee...

Common Misconceptions:

"Isn't it B-e-r-k-e-l-e-y?"

Many people often get Berklee College of Music confused with UC Berkeley, which is understandable, givent that UC Berkeley has about 10 times the students. However, they are very different, and very far apart- Berklee College of Music is in Boston, Massachusetts whereas Berkeley is in California.

You have to play jazz to get into Berklee.

When Berklee first started, several decades ago, the focus was on jazz because that was the music of the time. While Berklee still teaches jazz and has a huge community of "jazzers", it has progressed forward to match the music of today.

"So you just get to rock out all day? Sounds so easy and awesome!"

Berklee has become infamous for attracting the flocks of aspiring rock legends that work on their licks for hours a day, jam all the time, only to realize that they know nothing about theory, harmony, and then proceed to quit school. Berklee is about a lot more than just playing an instrument-- in the words of Roger H. Brown (the current president of Berklee), "Berklee is intense and demanding. Perhaps the most common mismatch is with students who only want to play their instruments and are not prepared for the rigor of our harmony and ear training curriculum requirements."

Summing it up:
For me, Berklee is a place where I can be serious about the music I love. As someone who has been a music student of other schools as well, I can really appreciate the difference that Berklee makes-- it is the perfect fit for me. But as I said, Berklee is many different things to many people, and if you just scan some of the many student reviews, you will see that it is not for everyone. This was only a brief intro to Berklee College of Music, and there is a lot more to be learned. Of course, a great place to learn more would be their website, but you should also expose yourself to some of those bad reviews as well just to get a more well-rounded view of the school.