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Songwriting

Expand your songwriting and lyric writing skills, and express yourself more effectively though words and music.
 
songwriting

Faculty Comments Down arrow

"The best way to learn about writing is to write. There is a little writing every day in these courses--5 days a week for 12 weeks. Never too much, but, by the end, you'll be amazed at how much your writing has improved. With a lot of help from the students who went through the courses, as well as from the marvelous team at Berkleemusic.com, the courses have been polished and refined into real gems. I'm thrilled with the results." -Pat Pattison, Online Instructor of Lyric Writing: Tools and Strategies, Lyric Writing: Writing from the Title, and Lyric Writing: Writing Lyrics to Music

Student Comments Down arrow

"Since I expanded my writing skills in Pat Pattison's course, I have regularly received phone calls from people around Britain saying that they need to have my music. The reactions to my songs have been amazing" -L Flowers
Lyric Writing: Tools and Strategies
Pat Pattison (12 weeks) 3 Credits
For-credit: $1,095
Non-credit: $895
Generate more and better ideas. Express them in compelling and original ways.
Lyric Writing: Writing From the Title
Pat Pattison (12 weeks) 3 Credits
For-credit: $1,095
Non-credit: $895
Make your writing process more efficient and your lyrics more effective. Learn how to find a powerful and effective song title, and discover how to build lyrics, develop the rhythms of your song sections, create contrasting sections and ideas to re-color your chorus based on that title.
Lyric Writing: Writing Lyrics to Music
Pat Pattison (12 weeks) 3 Credits
For-credit: $1,095
Non-credit: $895
Get the most out of your lyrics by learning how to combine them accurately and effectively with melody.
Songwriting Workshop: Writing Hit Songs
Jimmy Kachulis (12 weeks) 3 Credits
For-credit: $1,095
Non-credit: $895
Move your listeners and express yourself more effectively by crafting your songs the way hit writers do.
Songwriting Workshop: Melody
Jimmy Kachulis (12 weeks) 3 Credits
For-credit: $1,095
Non-credit: $895
Learn to construct strong, expressive melodies that your audiences will remember.
Songwriting Workshop: Harmony
Jimmy Kachulis (12 weeks) 3 Credits
For-credit: $1,095
Non-credit: $895
Learn how harmony can help you to articulate the essential meaning of a song, and the best ways to adapt chords and progressions to suit your unique songwriting style and ideas.
Commercial Songwriting Techniques
Andrea Stolpe (12 weeks) 3 Credits
For-credit: $1,095
Non-credit: $895
Learn to write for commercial success by reproducing the time-tested characteristics of hit songs while maintaining your own unique voice.
Hip-Hop Writing and Production
Michael Hamilton (12 weeks) 3 Credits
For-credit: $1,195
Non-credit: $995
Learn the techniques that hip-hop producers use to create hit songs. Learn writing and production considerations unique to hip-hop, how to analyze and recreate different styles of hip-hop, and how to use this foundation to produce your own songs using Propellerhead’s Reason software.
Film Scoring 101
Donald Wilkins (12 Weeks) 3 Credits
For-credit: $1,195
Non-credit: $995
Create original music to accompany a visual medium by learning fundamental to more advanced film scoring techniques.
Arranging 1: Rhythm Section
Suzanne Dean (12 weeks) 3 Credits
For-credit: $1,095
Non-credit: $895
Essential learning for anyone interested in arranging music for a band, Arranging 1: Rhythm Section explores all aspects of writing and arranging for the rhythm section.
Arranging: Small Ensemble and Horns
Jerry Gates (12 weeks) 3 Credits
For-credit: $1,095
Non-credit: $895
Develop your writing and arranging skills for smaller bands and larger ensembles and learn techniques that can be applied to both live instrumentation or sequenced/sampled sounds.
Arranging: Advanced Horn Writing
Jerry Gates (12 weeks) 3 Credits
For-credit: $1,095
Non-credit: $895
Take your arranging abilities to the next level of development by studying more advanced techniques for voicing chords, orchestration, articulations, and background lines.
Music Notation Using Finale
Jonathan Feist (12 weeks) 3 Credits
For-credit: $1,095
Non-credit: $895
Create great-looking music quickly and easily with the powerful Finale music notation software, and learn techniques to maximize speed, control, and accuracy.
Music Notation Using Sibelius
Tom Rudolph (12 weeks) 3 Credits
For-credit: $1,095
Non-credit: $895
Learn to create lead sheets, choral and instrumental scores, drum maps and guitar notation, and explore many other ways to use Sibelius for your own personal and professional needs.
Music Theory 101
Paul Schmeling (12 weeks) 3 Credits
For-credit: $1,095
Non-credit: $895
Get the musical foundation you need to take your skills to a higher level. Learn to read, write, really listen…and put theory into practice every day!
Music Theory 201
Paul Schmeling (12 weeks) 3 Credits
For-credit: $1,095
Non-credit: $895
Become a more effective player and writer by furthering your music theory background. Learn more complex chords, progressions, and rhythms to open up your understanding of the elements that help put the groove in jazz, pop, blues, and rock.
Music Theory 301
Paul Schmeling (12 weeks) 3 Credits
For-credit: $1,095
Non-credit: $895
Prepare yourself for any future musical endeavor and gain a professional command of the mechanics of contemporary music in this advanced music theory course.
Getting Inside Harmony 1
Michael Rendish (12 weeks) 3 Credits
For-credit: $1,095
Non-credit: $895
Use harmony creatively in your playing and writing. Learn to hear and modify chord progressions, improvise effectively from chord to chord and deepen your understanding of music's inner workings.
Getting Inside Harmony 2
Michael Rendish (12 weeks) 3 Credits
For-credit: $1,095
Non-credit: $895
Take your harmonic development to the next level by gaining a solid footing in more advanced principles including melodic and harmonic tension, chord substitution, and chromatically altered chords.
Basic Ear Training 1
Matt Marvuglio and Roberta Radley (12 weeks) 3 Credits
For-credit: $1,095
Non-credit: $895
This practical approach to ear training will help you build your confidence as a performer by teaching you how to notate basic rhythms and better identify the different parts of a song.
Harmonic Ear Training
Roberta Radley (12 weeks) 3 Credits
For-credit: $1,095
Non-credit: $895
Put your harmonic theory into practice. Learn techniques that will improve your performance, arranging, and compositional skills by refining your ability to really hear and recognize what is going on within the chord progressions.
Arranging: Contemporary Styles
Daniel Moretti (12 weeks) 3 Credits
For-credit: $1,095
Non-credit: $895
Learn to create your own original grooves by analyzing, writing, sequencing and recording the rhythms and styles that have influenced western contemporary music.
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