Hey everyone. I was just wondering if there was anyone who has attended Berklee. My question is what books and things should I pick up before I go to Berklee so I can get very prepared. I have another 2 years before I want to go, but I figure it is best to plan ahead ya know? So any help and suggestions would be VERY VERY much appreciated :)

THanks everyone
Jared

At one point Wrong Robot attended Berklee. If he doesn't respond to this thread you might want to shoot him a PM.

My friend goes there now.

Basically, what genre do you want to study?
You'll want to have some decent theory knowledge under your belt.
You'll want to know how to sight read either sheet music or tab - I don't know about any other teachers, but the ones that teach rock stuff ask you from the beginning if you are better at reading tab or "real" notes, and which you prefer. And they'll use that to teach you.
If you go for jazz, it might be a different story, since I can vouch for my jazz teacher in high school HATING tab!

I want to study Rock, maybe some jazz. I'm not sure yet though. I am learning to ready sheet music right now from my teacher, its hard getting out of the habit of reading tab then sheet music. But I'm getting there. I'm in the process of learning theory right now, and as I said, I have like 2 more years before I plan on going and with taking lessons that whole time I hope to learn a considerable amount of theory.

My friend goes there now.

Basically, what genre do you want to study?
You'll want to have some decent theory knowledge under your belt.
You'll want to know how to sight read either sheet music or tab - I don't know about any other teachers, but the ones that teach rock stuff ask you from the beginning if you are better at reading tab or "real" notes, and which you prefer. And they'll use that to teach you.
If you go for jazz, it might be a different story, since I can vouch for my jazz teacher in high school HATING tab!
If any teacher at Berklee used tab as their primary way of notating, I'd definitely not drop my $35K per year there. That's outrageous!

I wqould definetely leard to read sheet music. The ensemble teachers aren't going to hand you lead sheets in TAB and the sight reading part of the placement tests aren't going to come in TAB.

I went to Berklee for a semester and I would say the most important things are to become as proficient technically and mentally on your instrument as you can. Learn how to play it down...that's the most omportant thing and what the ensemble teachers will want to hear. Learn as much theory as you can and get as much ensemble playing experience as you can. There's a very wide range of skill level there (some are mindblowing and some seriously suck) and you want to make sure that you get good enough placement scores so you're not stuck with people that can't play.

If any teacher at Berklee used tab as their primary way of notating, I'd definitely not drop my $35K per year there. That's outrageous!

AMEN.

If any teacher at Berklee used tab as their primary way of notating, I'd definitely not drop my $35K per year there. That's outrageous!

Was for guitar, and wasn't a theory or reading class, it was basically for demonstrating riffs and scales and whatnot.

In my opinion, Music is music. How you write it down is all preference.

Snarf goes there. I think he is on this board. Or he is known as I. Underwood mabye?

I am part of the class of '99 have been working and gigging ever since.

My advice (to add to the great advice already given in this post) is to get some of the books written by the berklee bass profs (Danny Mo, Jim Stinnett, Bruce Gertz, Rich Appleman) and become familiar with them. Most of the profs use their own books, that wa y you can become familiar before hand and level up when you study there...

take care...


CS

You say that you are learning theory. Learn it, frontways, backwards, and sideways. My brother and my cousin both dropped music school because they couldn't hack the theory. And that's a shame, because my brother was one HELL of a trumpet player and after his music school experience, he lost interest.

Also, take some snare drum lessons and learn more about rythms and counting. So many musicians out there that just cannot count.

If you want to go somewhere like Berklee, your gonna have to put in the hard yards. You're very wise to begin preparation now.

Above all....ENJOY the struggle...