Berklee advice

[GoAndPractice]

Sent it to him in message.... feel weird having that floating out in the world...

[CPS]

EDIT - understood, bro. I appreciate your realness!

[deseipel]

There are probably a ton of iPhone or Android ear training apps, but I'll tell you one thing that opened my eyes: buying a bass guitar, learning to tune it up and then trying to learn a song by ear. Nothing crazy, but a simple pop rock song. Getting your 'pitch ears' is a good thing. There's a ton of ways to learn intervals by ear also, such as syllables in songs. 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' has an octave jump in the first two syllables, for example. first two notes in the Star Trek theme is a major 7th I think.... stuff like that. Really work on vocalizing intervals with a piano if you have access to one. Ear training and sight singing is a very humbling experience if you've never done it.

[Pocketplayer]

Definitely get familiar with theory, chords, ear training, piano before you go. These things can be very difficult and stressful starting out. They can possibly make your life miserable at school. Find a piano teacher who teaches theory and do it on the piano. Prepare yourself for Berkelee, right now, without having theory, your are behind the curve. If money is not an option, then do it and have your parents shell out the dough.

First off, what do you expect to learn at Berklee, and why are you going?

+1

The things that are constant remain the same, what has changed over my generation is technology. That has its pros & cons.
I think I would drain the brains of anyone in here that can help as a guide...there is a tremendous amount of collective experience
in this forum.

I would read, Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People...make it your practical bible if you will...it will help you
learn how to confront distractions and focus on what really matters.

[littlegrooves]

For 4 years at Berklee you are probably looking at nearly $150,000.

Without scholarships that turns out to be $207,144.59 for a 10 year repayment loan at 6.8%, in US dollars. That's a minimum of $1,726.20 per month in loan payments. You might wanna escape back to the UK if things get tough, being that you can't declare bankruptcy to get rid of those loans...

Or, you could play 70 jazz gigs per month to cover the minimum costs...

[littlegrooves]

I would read, Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People...make it your practical bible if you will...it will help you
learn how to confront distractions and focus on what really matters.

+1

[DSOP]

[deseipel]

For 4 years at Berklee you are probably looking at nearly $150,000.

Without scholarships that turns out to be $207,144.59 for a 10 year repayment loan at 6.8%, in US dollars. That's a minimum of $1,726.20 per month in loan payments. You might wanna escape back to the UK if things get tough, being that you can't declare bankruptcy to get rid of those loans...

Or, you could play 70 jazz gigs per month to cover the minimum costs...

I go back & forth: I think they are overpriced, but you're never gonna have any other time in your life to do this sort of thing. I know one thing: it just seems wrong that they charge this much. wrong. No one can afford it, so everyone gets a student loan, drops out after a year and then 25% of those people default. I wonder how many kids say 'fuck this' and go the bankruptcy route. It'd be off your record by the time your 30, right:

[Josiah]

For 4 years at Berklee you are probably looking at nearly $150,000.

Without scholarships that turns out to be $207,144.59 for a 10 year repayment loan at 6.8%, in US dollars. That's a minimum of $1,726.20 per month in loan payments. You might wanna escape back to the UK if things get tough, being that you can't declare bankruptcy to get rid of those loans...

Or, you could play 70 jazz gigs per month to cover the minimum costs...

I go back & forth: I think they are overpriced, but you're never gonna have any other time in your life to do this sort of thing.

I paid roughly $38k for 18 months at MI all said and done. I have a student that is going there (next fall) and his cost is about 30K/year. In comparison Berklee is very expensive when you break it down by dollars per classroom hour.

I would deffintely see if the UK has any kind of study abroad type grants, you would not qualify for US Grants. Couldn't comment on the scholarships situation at Berklee, however given it is a entirely private school, even partial scholarships are most likely rare (perhaps 1 or 2 students per year?) and you have to be GOOD.

The biggest issue I see in younger players who want to go, is the dedication level, not so much the finance issue. If you love to shed and are spending hours a day now at it, awesome! If you find it difficult to find and/or spend even an hour a day practicing, it may not be the right path for you. There is definitely an OCD element to dedicating your life to hitting things.

[LP drums]

I read a few of the things you said, CPS, and thought I should chime in.

Don't go there for Dicenso. Firstly, you can put down a couple of names of people you'd like to study with, but it's not your decision. They will assign you a teacher after the small audition you do when you get there. They use this audition to place you in the correct drum lab and to assign the private instructor. You may not get Dicenso...everyone will ask to study with him.

Then you only get 30 mins per week with that instructor. I had Mangini. I had many questions to ask him. However, he had to go through the same stuff with each student. So I was in a room with Mike Mangini learning a Mambo pattern I learned when I was 7 years old. This was not his fault...he had to make sure each student passed the end of semester test on certain styles/grooves. Ticking boxes. 30 minutes is pathetic so I asked for extra lessons outside of the school....he was too busy in the end, but my point being I'd have to spend extra cash just to get decent private lessons.

I was put in the top drum lab and had a great teacher, John Ramsay. We were learning, and playing along to, a medium tempo big band track and the other 4 students were playing swing on 1 and 3. This was the top drum lab.

You only get put in one ensemble. Again, I had a good ensemble teacher, but my ensemble got cancelled for 6 weeks in a row. I went to the 'board' where they advertise for musicians needed for ensembles and wanted to respond to some of them....however, in your first year all your 'credits' are maxed-out so joining any extra ensembles costs an extra credit, which is $600. :-/

I found it impossible to practice. The main practice rooms on Boylston St consists of 20 rooms. There are just under 4,000 students there, over half of which are drummers and guitarists, so let's say there are 1500 drummers. 1500 drummers and 20 practice rooms. There was another new practice facility that was about 30 mins away on the train....same deal, very busy and at both places I was not allowed to take any of my own gear in....no pedals, no cymbals, nothing. So if you do get a room and then find something is broken or f***ed up then you're screwed. There were also some empty rooms in which you can set-up your own drums. But being a first year student, my drum locker was MILES away from the rooms and then you could only book the rooms for 2-3 hrs so by the time you'd f***ed about with the drums, it wasn't enough time. And what a ball ache, just to do daily practice.

I lived in an apartment building and met a guitarist and bass player who lived together a few doors down from me. Berklee sell the whole 'spontaneous jamming with your friends' thing in their brochures, however it took us 2 weeks to book an ensemble room. Again, there were only 20 ensemble rooms for thousands of musicians so you had to be a the desk at 7am to try to get a room.

Having said all that, it's not a bad school. I just went there to play drums all day which is not the best idea. If you want to go there to study a 'major' such as film composition, jazz theory, production etc, then it would be great. Vinnie went for a year or something, but that was to study composition. You could go there and come out with some new skills and play some drums along the way and meet some people. (btw you only start your major area of study in your second year. First year is totally made for you with no changes allowed. Harmony, ear training (singing), writing skills etc etc).

I also went to Berklee because it was going to be part of a wider plan to live permanently in the States. So, if you spend time out there and network and get some gigs....you will eventually have to come back and the longer you've been away from the UK the worse it will be coming back....everyone will have forgotton about you. You have to figure out what you would come back with. What will you have gained from spending all that dosh?

And it really is a shit load of money to spend. International students can only get max scholarship of $10,000 (which is what I received) so you'll still have another $20,000 per semester to find. You have to be certain about what you want from it.

You could get some private lessons from mega drummers when their on the road here in the UK, practice a lot, and gig loads....Berklee is not 'the answer'. You'll probably go back a few steps if you go there as you'll be sharing everything with thousands of drummers....most of which, I must say, were terrible. There are some fantastic musicians there of course....but walking the drum halls...all I heard was beginners.

Some things to think about. This was only my experience. I was also pretty young, just 18. If I went now, I could deal with a lot of the bullshit a bit better.